Medical Technology News From Around The World
Medgadget is an independent journal of the latest medical gadgets, technologies and discoveries.
Our website is written and published by a group of medical doctors and biomed engineers.
New Zealand company Multifit Hospital Supplies has developed an\ device that helps the elderly and the disabled get into bed by assisting them to move their legs from sitting to lying position.
The company is demonstrating its LegLifter at the ongoing Medica 2008 conference in Düsseldorf, Germany.
The video below demonstrates the mechanics.
Glowcaps are a simple solution to an old problem of daily medication compliance by patients of any age or size. Designed to remind people to take their daily meds, the standard pharmacy bottle sized caps keep track of when they’re opened and remind patients with a blinking light to take the pills inside. If the patient doesn’t comply, the cap plays a regularly repeating ring tone until it gets its deserved attention. The caps are finally available for purchase through Amazon at $30 a pop.
Product page: Glowcap Solo …
According to Planetary Gear, a blog at CNET, Intel has announced a number of pilot programs to test the company’s recently approved Health Guide PHS6000 device (see our previous post: At-Home Monitoring Solution from Intel ). The unit, coupled with enterprise software, allows patients to communicate via video and voice with their health care providers, manage data from at-home diagnostic devices, and receive relevant information about their conditions. The company is partnering with Aetna, Scan Health Plan, Erickson Retirement Communities, and the Providence Medical Group in Oregon to enroll patients and physicians to assess the benefits and challenges of the telehealth system.
Some basics about the device from Intel:
Honda is clearly committed to robotic assist devices for the elderly and patients with neurological disorders as they announce their second iteration of a walking assist machine that automatically adds strength into patient’s step. Looking back on the last version, Honda went ahead and extended the concept in the new device to help with lifting of the legs, and supporting of body weight, not just adding energy to the step at the hip.
Key features of the yet to be named device from Honda:
Cyberdyne out of Tsukuba, Japan is making its power assist robosuit, dubbed Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL), available as a rental to Japanese patients suffering from neuromuscular disorders, and to those who simply have difficulty walking.
From a press release:
Advertisement
A reader points us to a personal airbag system developed by a Japanese company called PROP, which uses accelerometers and a couple airbags inside a vest to predict and prevent hip and neck injuries during a backward fall.
Watch the video for more details:
At MIT researchers are working on a self-navigating wheelchair that can learn the geography around it through simple voice commands, and then travel around using the map created within its computer brain.
Unlike other attempts to program wheelchairs or other mobile devices, which rely on an intensive process of manually capturing a detailed map of a building, the MIT system can learn about its environment in much the same way as a person would: By being taken around once on a guided tour, with important places identified along the way. For example, as the wheelchair is pushed around a nursing home for the first time, the patient or a caregiver would say: “this is my room” or “here we are in the foyer” or “nurse’s station.”
Hoana Medical has received European clearance to market its LifeBed hospital bed monitoring and notification system. The system comprises of a bed coverlet which monitors breathing and heartbeat, as well as patient movement, and a wall monitor that can interface with communication systems installed in the hospital.
From the product page:
Keruve, a Spanish company out of Seville, has developed a device that helps to locate folks suffering from dementia or childhood insubordination. Using assistance from cell phone towers in addition to standard GPS, the watch-like device can locate itself even inside buildings and send that information to a monitoring unit.
Keruve technology page auto-translated by Google…
The Medical Revolution Will Be Blogged.
Medgadget is an independent journal of the latest medical gadgets, technologies and discoveries.
Our website is written, edited and published by a group of MDs and biomed engineers.
© 2004—2011 Medgadget LLC. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use
All trademarks are properties of their respective holders.
