Medical Technology

Startup Launches ‘First Wearable Health Record’ for Google Glass

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Google Inc’s futuristic eyeglasses are finding their way into hospitals and clinics throughout the United States.

To meet the growing demand for Google Glass from physicians, Drchrono, a Mountain View, Calif., based electronic medical record company has developed a new application for the device it claims is the first “wearable health record.”

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Doctors who register for the Drchrono app for Glass can use it to record a consultation or surgery with the patient’s permission. Videos, photos and notes are stored in the patient’s electronic medical record or in Box, a cloud-based storage and collaboration service and can be shared with the patient on request.

Dr. Bill J. Metaxas, a podiatrist based in San Francisco, warned fellow physicians to take precautions before using Glass, such as obtaining patient consent and “locking down security settings.” He also said Glass is no more or less secure than tablet devices such as the iPad, which are routinely used in clinical practices.

Metaxas, who uses Glass in the operating room and in patient consultations, said 99 percent of his patients agree to the gadget, but it is still early days and most of his fellow physicians have yet to adopt the technology. It is primarily used by the “bleeding edge” minority, he added.

Still, Box spokeswoman and former Google Health employee Missy Krasner said she is aware of at least 20 venture-backed startups catering to this niche of physicians. The majority of these Glass apps, including Augmedix and Pristine, are complying with federal regulation that protects privacy, known as HIPAA.

To develop the service, Drchrono worked closely with Box, one of its early investors, and the Google Glass team.

Google Glass was intended for the consumer mass market, but it has been criticized by some for its geeky appearance.But many industry professionals immediately saw value in the hands-free gadget.
Source: nbc news

Now, a ‘smart cap’ to map brain functions

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The functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), most commonly used in brain mapping method, may not be ideal for children and patients with implanted electrical devices such as pacemakers, cochlear implants and deep brain stimulators. The magnetic fields used in the method may disrupt either the function or safety of these devices.

Researchers have now developed a “smart cap”, a new brain scanning system that shines tiny lights onto the head and works just as well as magnetic brain scanner.

The instrument uses a technology called diffuse optical tomography (DOT) and works by detecting light transmitted through the head and capturing the dynamic changes in the colours of the brain tissue.

The new DOT instrument covers two-thirds of the head and for the first time can image brain processes taking place in multiple regions and brain networks.

“When the neuronal activity of a region in the brain increases, highly oxygenated blood flows to the parts of the brain doing more work and we can detect that,” Joseph Culver from Washington University was quoted as saying.

The researchers validated the performance of DOT by comparing its results to fMRI scans, Daily Mail reported.

The study appeared in the journal Nature Photonics.

Source: chennai online

Brain implant allows baby girl, born deaf, to hear for the first time

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Sitting on her mother’s lap, a 1-year-old baby girl suddenly turns her head to hear the clicking in a black box next to her — the first sounds she’s ever heard. The child’s serious expression reflects a remarkable moment of discovery.

The parents of Elise Bradshaw, who was born profoundly deaf, shared the moments of discovery after Elise received an innovative procedure called an auditory brain stem implant

Elise was diagnosed with Charge syndrome, a rare birth defect that left her profoundly deaf due to missing auditory nerves. “Her world was smaller, things that were happening left and right weren’t necessarily something she was aware of,” her mother Jill Bradshaw of Texas told TODAY.

Without auditory nerves, Elise wasn’t a candidate for a cochlear implant. But doctors at Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston, which had recently become part of an FDA-approved trial, thought the new procedure might help the little girl.

A cochlear implant bypasses nonfunctioning “hair cells” of the cochlea and stimulates the auditory nerve. But an ABI bypasses an absent or damaged cochlea and auditory nerve to directly stimulate a portion of the brain involved in hearing called the cochlear nucleus, Dr. Daniel Lee, director of Massachusetts Eye and Ear’s Pediatric Ear, Hearing and Balance Center, told TODAY.

The device is already being used in adults and has been implanted in older children, but Elise is the youngest patient in the United States to participate in the ongoing trial, a collaboration between Mass General and Eye and Ear, a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate.

“She is neurologically normal, is age appropriate for her developmental milestones, and has incredibly supportive and dedicated parents who are committed to seeing her succeed with the ABI,” Lee said of the decision to include the child in the trial.

In late March, the girl underwent a right-ear craniotomy surgery and placement of auditory brainstem implant (ABI) at the Massachusetts General Hospital. And then on April 15, the audiology team of surgeons activated the implant for the first time, with Elise’s family recording her reactions on video.

A similar implant was given last year to 3-year-old Grayson Clamp, whose father captured the moment the boy heard his father’s voice for the first time in a video that went viral.

Now Elise can hear noises, although doctors are not sure if she’ll eventually be able to understand spoken word.

“As she becomes older, and with appropriate audiology and speech therapy support, we hope that she will be able to understand patterns of sounds and ultimately, speech,” Lee said. “Her ultimate hearing outcome is not known, however, but she is showing good progress thus far.”

Elise’s parents are hopeful.

“Now some of those dreams, careers and so forth, might be an option,” says Jill Bradshaw. The little girl’s parents say she’ll learn sign language as she grows up and she’ll be part of the hearing world and the deaf community.

Source: today

World’s first ever kidney dialysis machine treats multiple organ failure in babies

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Scientists have developed a miniaturised kidney dialysis machine capable of treating the smallest babies that has successfully treated a newborn baby with multiple organ failure for the first time.

According to the researchers, this technology has the potential to revolutionise the treatment of infants with acute kidney injury.

The new continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) machine-named CARPEDIEM (Cardio-Renal Pediatric Dialysis Emergency Machine)-was created to overcome the problems of existing dialysis machines that are only designed for adults and have to be adapted for use in newborns and small infants.

Lead author Professor Claudio Ronco from San Bortolo Hospital in Vicenza, Italy, said that such modifications make adult devices inaccurate when used in infants smaller than 15kg and can result in complications with fluid management and treatment delivery.

Ronco added that a major problem is the potential for errors in ultrafiltration volumes, and adult dialysis equipment has a tendency to either withdraw too much fluid from a child, leading to dehydration and loss of blood pressure, or too little fluid, leading to high blood pressure and edema.

The study was published in The Lancet.

Source: zee news

SRL Diagnostics introduces ST2 biomarker to predict heart failure

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SRL Diagnostics on Monday announced the launch of new lab test ST2 to help predict risks of coronary heart disease by finding a specific biomarker in the bloodstream.

SRL claims to be the first diagnostic lab in India to have launched this key medical test, available across India at all Fortis Labs, SRL Diagnostics Labs and its collection centres.

Dr B R Das, president – research & innovation, SRL Diagnostics, said, “Unlike many other cardiac biomarkers, ST2 is faster thus helping physicians make informed decisions on an appropriate course of action to take and, if needed, to quickly adjust treatment. It can reduce 30-day rehospitalisation rates by 17.3 per cent and also reduce 30-day mortality rates by 17.6 per cent.”

Recent evidence has reported the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) to be 40 to 50 per cent higher in Asian Indians than individuals of other ethnic origins. In addition, some 30 to 40 per cent of cardiovascular deaths occur between 35 and 64 years of age. The prevalence of heart failure in India due to coronary heart disease, hypertension, obesity, diabetes and rheumatic heart disease ranges from 1.3 million to 4.6 million, with an annual incidence of 4,91,600–1.8 million, according to a statement by SRL.

“ST2 is ELISA based test which is a US FDA approved technology and was included in 2013 ACC/AHA Guidelines for The Management of Heart Failure. It has been extensively evaluated with more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and scientific posters studying more than 35,000 patients. So far, SRL Diagnostics has collected 100 samples for predicting the heart failure,” Dr Das added.

The American College of Cardiology Foundation / American Heart Association Task Force jointly released its expanded clinical practice guideline for the management of patients with heart failure and has identified ST2 “not only predictive of hospitalization and death in patients with HF [heart failure] but also additive to natriuretic peptide levels in its prognostic value.

Source: India medical Times

Google Microcamera Contact Lenses May One Day Help The Blind

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Always at the forefront of technological advancement — arguably — Google has just recently applied for patents for a set of smart contact lenses, which would allow anyone wearing them to utilize a built-in micro-camera and control it with the blink of an eye.

Google detailed the systems that would allow these multi-sensor contact lenses to work last month in an application published by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Patent Bolt reported. But a wave of new applications shows that the company is serious about looking into the new invention. “This goes into the theory of Google’s experimental technologies,” Roger Kay, a tech analyst and president of Endpoint Technologies. “A lot of these are just demonstrations that Google is alert and live and creatively thinking of things.”

If the ideas come into fruition, the lenses, which would be no thicker than normal lenses, will process both still and moving image data, as well as light, colors, patters of colors, objects, faces, motion, and much more. They would be controlled by the movement of the user’s eyelids and read by multiple sensors reacting to changes in pressure, conductivity, temperature, and electrical fields. Essentially, a user would be able to control the lenses by blinking, and then perform functions based on the data on the contacts on a mobile device.

Though spy agencies would love to have the contacts in their arsenal of gadgets, Google sees a more useful approach. The contacts would help blind people get around more efficiently. In one image from the applications, Google illustrates how a blind person might use the contacts almost like artificial eyes. As they approach an intersection, the micro-camera would process how close the person is and whether cars are moving through it. If there are cars, the lenses would relay the information to the person’s mobile device, which would generate a warning. In addition to this feature, the lenses would also recognize faces.

The contacts will most likely be used by anyone who can get their hands on them, but the new applications show that Google is also focused on improving public health through technology. Google Glass can already help people eat healthier, keep track of workouts, and take medications correctly. But a more recent development in the Google tech sphere were another set of smart contact lenses capable of reading blood glucose levels in a person’s tears. While that too is still in early stages of development, the prospect that those who are visually impaired or diabetic may one day have a better handle of their condition is still pretty hopeful

Source: medical daily

Now, a kit to test sperm quality at home

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Before you rush to buy the pregnancy kit for your spouse, want to know if you are fertile enough to be a father?

You may soon avoid frequenting a doctor as scientists have now developed a fertility-test kit that allows men to test their sperm quality from the comfort of their home.download

Aptly named TrakFertility, the portable device allows men to learn about their sperm counts within minutes, claimed the scientists.

“It allows men to test and track their fertility from the comfort and privacy of their own homes,” researcher Greg Sommer, who co-developed the device, was quoted as saying.

Sommer worked as a staff scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in the US.

In view of the fact that most fertility solutions today are women focused, TrakFertility is expected to highlight the importance of sperm quality in conception.

The researchers, who founded a start-up Sandstone Diagnostics Inc to develop the device, said the the kit would be available for consumers next year, reported

Source: Zee news

New laser scanner to detect arthritis before symptoms start

A new laser scanner has been developed to detect arthritis even before the symptoms start.

The revolutionary new scanner created by British scientists could help start arthritis treatment by spotting signs of the crippling disease before it has done painful and irreversible damage to cartilage in the joints, the Daily Express reported.

Professor Allen Goodship, of University College London said that the research is at an early stage but the results are promising and possibly in the future, the technique, called Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy, could be effective as a screening tool..

Source: Top news

 

Thanks to Google glass: Houston boy virtually ‘visits’ zoo from his hospital bed

Six-year-old Jayden Neal got a glimpse of the Houston Zoo last week, thanks to Google Glass.

Neal has been a regular patient of Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston since being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes about a year ago. The hospital recently teamed up with the Houston Zoo and the Google Glass Explorer program to give its pediatric patients a unique experience.

“We had a great time working on the project,” Natalie Camarata, social and multimedia manager at Memorial Hermann, said. “[The hospital] is right across from the Houston Zoo, so it was just a natural fit to be able to partner with them through Google Glass to be able to create that firsthand experience for these kids.”

Neal, who usually looks for animals at the zoo through his hospital room window, was able to get a close-up view of jaguars, sea lions and giraffes by talking with zoo workers through Google Glass..

Camarata says Neal took to the technology very quickly.

“When we were working with him, we told him, you know, you can Google whatever you want. And the first thing he did was Google diabetes,” Camarata said. “That there told me that he not only knew how to use the Internet already, he knew how to use it in a personal way and he was able to navigate this device like nothing.”

The hospital has one pair of Glass through the Google Glass Explorer program. Several pediatrics patients were chosen to participate in the zoo experiment. Though there are no formal plans for any more Glass experiments, Camarata said the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.

“We have a new appreciation for the device and we’re excited to share this experience with our patients,” Camarata said.

Source: fox news

IBM’s Watson supercomputer takes aim at brain cancer

IBM’s Watson supercomputer is being re-tasked to help clinicians create personalized treatments for a common form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma. The project, which is a collaboration between IBM and the New York Genome Center (NYGC), hopes to make use of Watson’s artificial intelligence to analyze vast quantities of data in order to suggest a personalized life-saving treatment based on the patient’s individual case.

Over the years, Watson has become faster and more compact. It differs from most ordinary computers in that, rather than simply observing patterns in data, Watson will actively learn and apply information to come to a reasoned hypothesis along with a level of confidence. Thus its cognitive process is more like that of a human being than a conventional computer. Furthermore, with the new Watson Discovery Advisor, the processing power and vast medical knowledge of Watson is accessible to clinicians via the cloud, allowing them to draw on the supercomputer’s analytical prowess from wherever they may be.

This is not the first time that Watson has been tasked with aiding in treatment for individuals suffering from cancer. The supercomputer was recently at work at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center where it aided and received tutelage from the staff, amassing an impressive medical database.

How will it work?
Watson’s general knowledge is about as comprehensive as it gets, having access to the entire volume of Wikipedia as well as a wealth of information from other sources. However, it is Watson’s ability to understand natural language and sift through vast quantities of case studies and articles, learning as it goes, that will be the key to allowing doctors to tailor patient specific treatments. IBM is hoping to utilize the NYGC’s expertise in the field of genomics to further develop and streamline Watson’s cognitive reasoning in the field of oncology.

Watson will interpret genomic data from a set of patients diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer responsible for the deaths of around 13,000 Americans each year. The cloud-based prototype will attempt to expose the underlying genetic characteristics of this malignant cancer, using a combination of modern genomic analytics and its extensive bio-medical literature database.

Dr. Robert Darnell, CEO, President and Scientific Director of the NYGC, stated regarding the difficulties of targeted treatment that “The real challenge has been making sense of massive quantities of genetic data and translating research findings into better treatments and outcomes for patients.”

This is where Watson excels, applying its substantial computing power to observe gene sequence variations between ordinary and cancerous tumors. It consults clinical records and medical literature as it does so, swiftly giving doctors a variety of treatments to choose from, tailored to the patient’s individual instance of cancer.

Watson’s ability to achieve this task at a much higher speed than is otherwise possible, will prove to be greatly beneficial to those suffering from glioblastoma, as the general prognosis (depending on the spread of the cancer) is often less than one year. Ordinarily a significant portion of this time is spent interpreting the data manually to divine the best course of treatment. However, with Watson’s computing power, this can be achieved in a fraction of the time, allowing clinicians to begin life-saving treatment much sooner.

Dr. John E. Kelly, Senior Vice President and Director of IBM Research, believes that application of the cloud-based system will eventually extend beyond the targeted treatment of glioblastoma, stating that “With this knowledge, doctors will be able to attack cancer and other devastating diseases with treatments that are tailored to the patient’s and disease’s own DNA profiles. This is a major transformation that can help improve the lives of millions of patients around the world.”

The following video outlines how Watson will seek to streamline the current treatment process.

source: gizmag