For most people blood tests are synonymous with needle-sticks. However, researchers from the biomedical engineering department at the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) may have found a way to take the pain out of some of our blood tests in the future. The researchers have developed a new microscope that can non-invasively image individual blood cells.

The microscope uses spectrally encoded confocal microscopy (SECM), a technique which allows for 2D spatial imaging of the blood cells. In order to image the moving blood cells, a probe is pressed against the skin which generates a line spectrum of light from red to violet. As blood cells near the surface of the skin cross the projected spectrum they scatter the light, which is collected by the probe and analyzed to generate 2D images of the blood cells.

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Among all the semi-finalists for Sanofi’s Data Design Diabetes Demo Day, we think N4A Diabetes Care Center was the most unexpected and confusing. N4A dates back to 1960′s legislation on aging, and is a loose affiliation of state agencies around aging. N4A literally stands for Advocacy, Actions, and Answers on Aging.

As Sandra Mark Woods explained in her presentation, they’re not an app, not software, nor offering live streaming, but they are a data-driven organization and “high-touch” in diabetes management. N4A is a Title VI organization that has been providing services in communities for decades. They are involved in Meals-on-Wheels, depression counseling, transport of patients to providers, and chronic disease management services. Millions use it, they have 800 million patient records and a diabetes index with 30 million maps.

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Next up in our coverage of semi-finalists for Sanofi’s Data Design Diabetes Demo Day is LiveHealth.

LiveHealth CEO Chris Gay started off by showing data that demonstrates that diabetes self-management can really help compliance and health outcomes — but education necessary for proper self-management requires 15 visits in the first year alone, which is too much for many patients, especially those without reliable transport or means.

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We think the most ambitious idea among semi-finalists for Sanofi’s Data Design Diabetes Demo Day came from EnduringFX, which used to be called Activity-based Integrated Data Model (seriously? another good idea on the name change, guys!)

EnduringFX’s president and founder, Jim Stritzinger, looks a bit like a young Tim cook. He’s from South Carolina, and a lot of EnduringFX’s activity is focused so far in that state. He began his pitch noting that American obesity is driving the terrible numbers we’re seeing in diabetes, as well as CHF and arthritis … 42% of the population is projected to be obese by 2030. He showed a heat map for how much of the US South is at risk for diabetes.

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Next up in our coverage of semi-finalists for Sanofi’s Data Design Diabetes Demo Day is GreenDot, which used to be called Diabetes 3.0 (good idea on the name change, guys!)

GreenDot was started by two UCSF endocrinologists – Jenise Wong and Aaron Neinstein. We believe they’re the only doctor-originated company in this bunch. They were frustrated, and their patients were frustrated, with the overwhelming amount of data generated by pumps and glucometers. Data in its own format, and in nonstandard layouts, is challenging for patients to interpret and difficult for doctors to compare.

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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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First up in our coverage of semi-finalists for Sanofi‘s Data Design Diabetes Demo Day is iRetainRx. Previous coverage here and here.

iRetainRx’s founder and CEO, David Parpart, began the pitch boldly, by saying, “We are going to save 500,000 lives this decade.” He then went on to describe how their interactive mobile system will allow caregivers, patients and pharmacists to collaborate on care plans. See, for every 100 prescriptions, only a fraction are filled, and only a fraction of those are even taken correctly. This attrition is particularly difficult with diabetes, where the regimens are complicated, the effect of the drugs can be hard to notice, and yet: noncompliance leads to huge extra social costs.

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An experimental new device called Diabetes Insulin Guidance System (DIGS) from Hygieia, Inc. (Ann Arbor, MI) is being developed to automate insulin dosage titration in patients with type I and type II diabetes, based on measurements of blood glucose and analysis of patterns in the obtained data. The company hopes one day to provide patients with an automatically calculated insulin dosage adjustments between doctor visits, in hopes of improving their glycemic control.

The company’s clinical advisory board is packed with diabetes experts such as Martin Abrahamson, MD from Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, so they obviously know what they are doing. And the latest data seems to confirm that. A recent publication in Diabetes Technology and Therapeutics is quite positive for the technology, as it demonstrated DIGS’ potential to improve blood glucose control for insulin-using patients with type 2 or type 1 diabetes. Over the 12-week intervention period of the study, investigators observed:

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BiO2 Medical has received CE Mark approval for the Angel Catheter, a nitinol inferior vena cava (IVC) filter permanently attached to a central venous catheter, for the use of preventing pulmonary embolism in critically ill patients. The multi-lumen catheter can be used like a normal central venous system for administering medications, fluids or blood products, blood sampling and monitoring of central venous pressure. At the same time it provides pulmonary embolism prophylaxis by means of the attached IVC filter.

The primary patient population is critical care patients in whom anticoagulation therapy poses a high risk of complications, including major bleeding and death, and in which patients are at highest risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). The filter can be easily removed when the central line is removed, once the danger of VTE has been resolved.

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It seems that renal denervation systems are popping up like daisies these days. Today at the EuroPCR meeting in Paris, France, St. Jude Medical announced CE Mark Approval and the launch of its EnligHTN renal denervation system. Like other renal ablative systems, this one is approved to reduce blood pressure in patients with hypertension resistant to medical therapy.

Similar to the Vessix Vascular V2 system, the EnligHTN has multiple electrodes which potentially saves time during the ablation procedure, as four ablations can be performed without catheter repositioning.

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