Medical Technology News From Around The World
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Over at GigaOM health policy analyst John S. Wilson speculates how Siri, the voice command recognition system introduced for the iPhone 4S, will impact health care.
He cites a few examples to illustrate his ideas. Emergency calls to 911 may be made faster with information automatically passed to the operator. Also, scheduling things like drug regimen reminders is much easier by simply saying into Siri “take Obecalp once every other day.”
Shoes with built-in GPS could be useful for two purpose: either tracking down your lost shoes or tracking down the person who is wearing them. GTX Corp figured the latter option might be useful for safety purposes, especially for people who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia. The company has been developing these shoes for two years now, which will feature a built-in GPS in the heels.
The purpose of the GPS is to ensure that family or other caregivers can see where the monitored person is at any given time. A primary feature of the service is an alarm system which will alert the family or caregivers when the person who is wearing the shoes is moving beyond a certain area. In the past there have been other GPS devices, like bracelets or watches, but these can easily get lost or the user forgets to wear them. Shoes, however, are items that are difficult to forget when venturing outside the home.
The University of California San Francisco School of Nursing and Red Hill Studios, an educational games startup, have collaborated to help people with Parkinson’s disease by developing a suite of therapeutic games. After a recently concluded three month pilot study, the researchers showed that playing computer-based physical therapy exercises can help people with Parkinson’s improve their gait and balance.
The collaboration between the two teams led to nine specialized games designed to improve the coordination of the specific patient group. The clinical team focused on specific movements and gestures previously shown to be beneficial in the fight against cognitive deficits of Parkinson’s disease. The game developers designed the exercises in a concept similar to Wii and Kinect games, in which people use their body as the game controller. They also developed a custom sensor suit to better analyze movements than currently possible with the available consumer gaming gear.
A new mobile app has been introduced for physicians who treat patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Designed to help clinicians diagnose and treat the condition at the point of care, the software is known as the Parkinson’s Toolkit. The free mobile device app was created by the National Parkinson Foundation. Available from the iTunes store and the Android Market, the app is also offered with a companion website.
The second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease affects an estimated 1 million individuals in the United States. Internationally, the disease is thought to affect 4–6 million individuals over the age of 50. That number is expected to double by the year 2030, according to research at the University of Rochester. Most clinicians, however, encounter a limited number of Parkinson’s patients per year, making it difficult to keep up with the latest research in the field. Complicating matters is the difficulty of accurately diagnosing and effectively treating the disease.
Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programme in Vietnam and the Oxford University Clinical Research Units in Nepal and Vietnam have put Google Earth to good use once again. By using DNA sequencing technology and GPS, they have created a way to map typhoid outbreaks in Kathmandu, Nepal. They published their research in journal Open Biology.
It is extremely difficult to study how typhoid-causing bacteria, Salmonella typhi and Salmonella paratyphi, evolve and spread at local level. Using the new technologies mentioned above, the scientists have created accurate geographical and genetic maps of the spread of typhoid, enabling them to trace the bacteria sources. To make this possible, health workers visited patients’ homes and mapped the location with GPS. Using blood samples taken from the patients in the hospital, they determined the genotype of the typhoid strain.
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DNAnexus and Google are partnering up to host the Sequence Read Archive (SRA), a large public repository of DNA sequencing data. The SRA stores raw sequencing data from the latest generation DNA sequencing platforms at initiatives such as the 1,000 Genomes Project and institutions like the Broad Institute, Washington University, and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. The result is a massive amount of freely accessible data, already consisting of over 400 terabytes, and still growing every day.
So far the archive was hosted by the NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information), however last February this institution announced that it would phase out hosting support in its current form due to federal funding cuts (nevertheless, after the press release by DNAnexus, NCBI has now announced that it has received additional funding from NIH and will continue to function as the primary host of the SRA). DNAnexus, a company that provides a platform for DNA data management and analysis, and Google have partnered up to host a copy of the repository. DNAnexus will provide a freely accessible web-based search interface, while Google Cloud Storage will support the hosting of the data.
As announced by Google last July, it has shut down Labs, the playground where you could test unfinished prototypes built by Google engineers. One of the victims is Google Body Browser, the impressive Google Earth-like explorer for the human body, which was only launched last December.
However, no time for crying, as it will live on as Zygote Body, which will be a free application available online and as an Android app (Zygote is also the company which originally created the 3D models used in the body browser). The code for the 3D viewer behind Google Body will be open-sourced. Here is the announcement that was previously displayed on the Body Browser page:
In the comments section of our recent post about the Cellnovo diabetes management system, one of our readers notified us about the existence of the VitaDock system. VitaDock, produced by Medisana, is a modular system for measurement and self-management of blood sugar, blood pressure, body weight and body temperature (it may well be the first mobile-connected thermometer). It consists of an iOS app and four separate measuring modules for capturing your vital data.
The VitaDock app keeps track of all data and provides graphs and statistics, with separate accounts for up to four users on one device. Data can be transferred to physicians or family members via e-mail. Although the individual modules come at a reasonable, if not somewhat high price, if you want to get the whole system you better start saving up with module prices ranging from 79.99 to 149.99 euro. The VitaDock devices are available for purchase through the German T-Mobile website.
Epocrates, one of the most popular and useful apps for clinicians, is getting ready to add new features and revamp its iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) interface. Here’s a quick video overview of what’s coming soon:
The Medical Revolution Will Be Blogged.
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