Medical Technology News From Around The World
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Stephen Myers, a Ph. D student in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida, has invented a nifty RFID based system to help the elderly and people with bad hands dial the telephone without having to punch any keys. By swiping flashcards with pictures of contacts at the RFID receiver, the system downloads the proper phone number and dials it automatically.
Watch it here for yourself:
CogniFit, a company out of Yoqneam Ilit, Israel, has created an online training system to improve the cognitive abilities of the elderly and others suffering from mental decline. By first assessing person’s abilities through a number of mental tasks, the system personalizes an exercise routine to help improve areas that most need it.
Here’s a video explaining the CogniFit Personal Coach:
Vaica Medical out of Tel Aviv, Israel has come up with a programmable pill box for elderly folks and those taking a complicated regiments. The unit, with a grid of boxes for a week and four times a day, plugs into the phone line and is programmed by a provider to call the patient and notify which compartment to take the pills from. The only trick is to get a pharmacist or family member to load up the the pills into the boxes.
From the product page:
Yanko Design blog features an attractive new concept for a pill dispenser. With his device, the designer Steven Grech wants to improve patient compliance, by making medication taking a more regular and precise occurrence. Having multiple containers within each pill bottle, the system helps to take meds at proper times during the day. If not, the system would send an SMS message to the patient with a reminder.
From Yanko Design:
Amy Tenderich over at Diabetes Mine just reviewed an unusual personal scale, called Insight Foot Care Scale, that serves also as a tool to check the bottoms of feet for erythema and signs of inflammation. Especially for older folks with diabetes, the bathroom scale with built-in mirrors sounds like a good idea, since it eliminates the need to twist one’s feet to see what’s going on the plantar surface.
Read Amy’s review at Diabetes Mine…
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LoJack, the company known for devices that help police find stolen cars, is extending its technology to finding wandering humans. With the release of SafetyNet, caretakers of people with Alzheimer’s, Down syndrome, and other diseases, can be sure that no one will walk off into the sunset never to be seen again. LoJack says that it provides government agencies with specialized receivers and antennas that can be activated to locate a missing person wearing the company’s ankle or wrist bracelet.
From LoJack’s press release:
One of potential signs of dementia is unusual walking patterns , yet it often goes unnoticed since no one is typically monitoring the person. Now University of South Florida researchers are using RFID (radio frequency identification) wristbands within nursing homes to keep an active eye on a bunch of geriatrics.
MIT Tech Review reports:
PTC (The Product Development Company® of Needham, Massachusetts) is reporting that one of its software products has been selected by Waseda University’s Sugano Laboratory as “the main engineering tool for the development of a human-symbiotic robot.” We did a little search on Twendy-One, as the lab’s project and its offspring is called. The robot is not new: Gizmodo has run a post about it more than a year ago. According to the PTC press release, Sugano Lab is continuing to improve the robot’s features and safety, and hopes to mass release the Twendy-One into the real world, such as hospitals or other care facilities.
More about the robot, taken from its product page and the press release:
A study led by Dr. Sonia Ancoli-Israel of UC San Diego School of Medicine has shown that CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines can help some people suffering from Alzheimer’s to retain more mental ability.
A few details from UC San Diego:
The Medical Revolution Will Be Blogged.
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