Here at Medgaget we are fanatical about all kinds of hi-tech gadgetry as it applies to healthcare. However, some of the most interesting and thoughtful innovations we see can often be surprisingly low-tech. A  new prototype prescription-medicine pill bottle for blind and visually impaired people is a case in point. Two University of Cincinnati design students, Alex Broerman and Ashley Ma have designed their “Inclusive Bottles for the Blind” in order to make identification and use of pill bottles more straightforward and affordable than existing hi-tech solutions.

The bottles were designed after carrying out a survey of existing products and end-users identified a number of limitations with available pill bottles. According to the press release, the key features of the design comprise:

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At TEDMED we were repeatedly warned about the problems facing our aging population and how the elderly would require tremendous resources and man-hours to care for. We had the opportunity to speak with Kian Saneii, CEO and Founder of Independa, and learn more about how his company is using technology to help the elderly maintain their independence.

Shiv Gaglani, Medgadget: What does Independa do?

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We’re all fairly familiar with “Imagineering”, Disney‘s R&D branch that develops cutting-edge theme park technology and showcases the latest in moviemaking, but it’s a little known fact that the Mouse House also runs Disney Research, a group that develops technology that isn’t necessarily entertainment related.

Their latest bit of Disney magic is Touché, a technology that greatly enhances touch sensing capabilities making iPads and Androids already feel so 2012. Touché works by turning practically anything into a touch-sensitive interface, including the human body and liquids. All that’s required is a special electrode placed on the object, which in turn becomes a touch-sensitive surface, and a single wire connected to a computer. But Touché goes beyond creating touch-sensitive surfaces; multi-touch and gestures can also be used, which opens a lot of potential interactive applications.

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It is estimated that Alzheimer’s disease will affect 100 million people by 2050, but currently doctors rely on family history and intellectual tests to diagnose patients. Using these current methods, about 20% of patients diagnosed with AD are false positives, and the only definitive way to identify AD is post-mortem analysis of beta-amyloid in the patient’s brain tissue.

Now, Siemens Healthcare has announced an imaging solution which can detect beta-amyloid plaques in the brains of living patients. The new technology utilizes Amyvid, Eli Lilly’s recently FDA approved radioactive agent, to make the plaques visible in PET scanning. Images are captured using Siemens’ Biograph mCT PET-CT, and the company’s 510(k)-pending syngo.PET Amyloid Plaque quantification software can help doctors determine actual amyloid levels. Siemens plans to begin providing Amyvid to imaging centers this June.

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The United States Patent and Trademark Office recently granted IBM a patent for a multi-touch floor embedded with numerous sensors to identify the shapes, weights, and locations of objects that are in contact with it. The patent also includes the means by which information on the identified objects is retrieved and certain actions are executed based on the information.

IBM’s “related art” and primary applications in the patent description deal mainly with  intelligent home security systems. For example, the multi-touch floor could sense whether a person who enters a home is a registered and authorized person, like the homeowner, or an unidentified person, such as a burglar. Beyond smart home security, however, IBM also  describes a possible application for determining whether a person is in need of emergency medical attention. For example, the sensors in the multi-touch floor could detect if an elderly person has been lying on the floor in a prone position for an unusual period of time due to a fall or heart attack, and automatically summon for help.

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Researchers from North Carolina State University’s Gains Through Gaming laboratory have found that playing the massive multiplayer online video game World of Warcraft (WoW) appeared to boost cognitive functioning in older adults. The researchers hypothesized that playing a cognitively complex game such as WoW, which requires multitasking and extensive use of a number of cognitive skills such as map reading, planning and tracking of multiple status indicators, could boost the cognitive performance of the elderly.

The study, which is available on-line as a corrected proof at the journal Computers in Human Behaviour, initially examined the spatial ability, memory and focus of adults aged 60 to 77, to set a baseline.  An intervention group  of 20 adults then played WoW for roughly 14 hours over the course of two weeks, while a control group of 19 adults played no WoW over the two weeks. At the end of the 2 weeks both groups were re-tested for cognitive functioning. Ultimately the researchers observed a greater cognitive improvement in intervention group when compared with controls.

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We are only two months into 2012 and it’s clear that the Quantified Self movement is increasingly gaining traction. More devices are emerging to help people quantify everything from anxiety to weight, and blood glucose to sleep patterns. But what about people who cannot use the devices or are not ambulatory themselves?

A team led by Professor Bruce MacDonald at the University of Auckland in New Zealand has been working to create a corp of medical robots – Healthbots – to help these people. Medgadget had the opportunity to interview Professor MacDonald about the Healthbots, what they do, and when we can expect to see them available to help those in need.

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Via an FCC filing we learn of a new device from Shenzhen, China-based Sensixa that can measure and record the movement and orientation of one’s head. The ear-worn device, called e-AR, is actually designed to mimic the human vestibular system that keeps you walking straight and tells you if you’ve ridden too many roller coasters. Besides the three-dimensional accelerometer, the e-AR also contains a microcontroller, battery, flash memory for storing data, and a radio for transmitting the data to a receiving unit.

The e-AR is currently being investigated for use by athletes for such applications as monitoring the effects of painful football hits, but Sensixa is also looking into the device being worn by senior citizens for those times when you’ve fallen and you can’t get up.

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Lloydspharmacy and Proteus Biomedical has announced the upcoming release in the UK of a new kind of medication compliance monitoring system that relies on sensor-enabled tablets and special body worn patches that detect their ingestion.

The product, developed by Proteus that we’ve been following for the last few years, is called Helius and its special patches can record when a pill is ingested as well as to monitor the patient’s physical activity levels. The data is then sent to a mobile device, like a smartphone or tablet, and thereby can inform a patient when to take the next dose of the medication and warn if the regimen is not being followed.

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Panasonic is releasing a new palm sized hearing instrument for mild to severe hearing loss. Looking like a common mp3 player, the JZ Power WH-105JZ has an LCD screen and a microphone built into the headphones. It features noise reduction, wind noise management, feedback management, L/R balance and Automatic Gain Control (AGC).

There’s also something called Scene Selector Function which provides quick changes depending on the audio environment the user is in including standard, music, party and indoors. It’s powered by an internal rechargeable battery which can be extended by popping in standard AAA’s.

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