medical

U.S. Navy submarine sonar tech targets strokes

Retired U.S. Navy sonar experts have helped create a novel portable device to detect, diagnose, and monitor strokes. The brain-imaging system uses a simple headset and laptop--and decades of submarine technology--to home in on brain activity that signifies trouble.

The headset is equipped with six highly sensitive accelerometers. Instead of peering out through the rounded bow of a submarine, they are oriented inward toward the brain.

The brain's machinations (veins expanding and contracting, aneurysms wobbling) each have their own unique vibrations that cause slight skull pulsations. The headset sensors measure these movements to look for irregular blood flow in much the same way submarines measure motion and generate signals that are processed, analyzed, and matched to objects.

Data on the type and location of brain vascular abnormalities is then rapidly sent to the PC.

"As sonar sorts out whales and other objects from vessels, the device sorts out cerebral abnormalities such as aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations (AVMs, an abnormal connection between veins and arteries), ischemic strokes, and traumatic brain injury from normal variations in physiology," said Dr. Kieran J. Murphy, director of research and deputy chief of radiology at the University of Toronto and University Health Network in Toronto, in a release (PDF).

Murphy is presenting trial data on the device--developed by Mountain View, Calif.-based Jan Medical--at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 36th Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago this week. … Read more

Ancient X-ray machine reawakened, for science

We're still not at the place where we can have real-time X-ray video like in "Total Recall," but that doesn't mean X-ray technology hasn't come a long way in the last 116 years.

To underline that point, researchers in the town of Maastricht in Holland have fired up an X-ray machine from 1895 and compared it with a modern machine.

As you can see in the photos to the right, things have gotten sharper. The original device was built by a local educator and doctor just weeks after the first "how to" on X-ray machines was published. It was found in a warehouse and then dusted off by researchers from Maastricht University Medical Center who wanted to show it off.

The old machine was originally produced and built in the Dutch town, and the team didn't just turn it on, they replicated as closely as possible the conditions that would have been available and used by doctors of that time.

But it's not just the better-looking images that make modern X-ray machines better, according to the BBC, but also the fact that they use 1,500 times less radiation, making them safer and cheaper. The machine wasn't just fired up for fun, but for science, by doctors who chronicle their findings in the journal Radiology.

Still, that doesn't mean that we can look down at the venerable old Dutch machine. If you hadn't been told that the image on the left came from a Victorian-era machine, would you have been able to tell? Probably not.… Read more

Hey, man! Get your medical pot, Groupon-style

With its Super Bowl ads, Groupon attempted to show its heartfelt social consciousness.

Now there's a new site that tries to use Groupon-style principles to help you veer socially toward unconsciousness.

mmjDailyDeals.com tries to give you more bong for your buck. It promises discounts of between 50 percent to 80 percent. And there is one sweet deal a day on an array of products that the company describes as "medical marijuana, hydroponics, edibles, and apparel."

Some of you will, no doubt, already be slightly excited by this prospect. So when I tell you that, according to the Huffington Post, … Read more

FDA approves first radiology diagnostics app

There is no shortage of health-related apps. Some 1,500 cater to professional caregivers and laypersons alike for a range of purposes, from counting calories to learning anatomy or pulling up drug dosage recommendations.

But Mobile MIM is the first mobile app to be cleared (just last week) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that allows physicians to make medical diagnoses using images transmitted to their iPhones or iPads.

The app transmits several image types, including those from computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and nuclear medicine technology such as positron emission tomography (PET). Using software developed by Cleveland-based MIM Software, Mobile MIM allows for not just viewing of medical images, but also displaying measurement lines, annotations, and areas of interest.

While the app is indicated for use only in the absence of a workstation, it's pretty clear that the ability to view radiology images on the go could result in, shall we say, dusty workstations.… Read more

Microsoft's HealthVault gets encrypted e-mailing

Microsoft is trying to tighten up security on medical information that is sent by e-mail, while at the same time making it easier to share.

At a U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services event earlier today in Washington, D.C., the company unveiled an updated component to its HealthVault online personal health platform that can send encrypted copies of a patient's medical records via a secured e-mail address.

Microsoft says the new feature should make it easier for health care records and other information updates to be sent to its system, while at the same time meeting … Read more

With medical leave, more questions about Jobs' successor

Though Steve Jobs' presence at Apple is almost universally regarded as essential to the company's long run of amazing success, we've seen that--in small doses, at least--it can do pretty well without him.

Back-to-back blowout quarters in early 2009, a successful iPhone 3GS launch, and the finishing touches on a new iPhone OS, Mac OS, and new lineup of iPods all took place while Jobs stepped away from the company for six months beginning in January 2009 to get a liver transplant.

The man credited for making Jobs' absence minimally felt was Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook.

In … Read more

Breath sensor could offer on-the-spot cancer report

Researchers are using nanoparticles to create a material sensitive enough to analyze a person's breath in real time and detect indicators of cancer, diabetes, and other illnesses.

Scientists at Purdue University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology said today that even though diagnostic breath-analysis tools have been around for several decades, this is the first time a material has been developed that's sensitive enough to deliver on-the-spot results.

"We are talking about creating an inexpensive, rapid way of collecting diagnostic information about a patient," Carlos Martinez, an assistant professor of materials engineering at Purdue, … Read more

Study: EMRs not always linked to better health care

The adoption of electronic medical records, or EMRs, in U.S. hospitals has improved the quality of care in only one of three areas studied, and even in that area, the gains are limited, according to new research by the nonprofit Rand published this week in the American Journal of Managed Care.

Researchers analyzed the quality of care at 2,021 hospitals between 2003 and 2007 across three conditions: pneumonia, heart attack, and heart failure. The number of hospitals using either basic or advanced EMRs grew from 24 percent in 2003 to 38 percent in 2006.

Not only did the … Read more

IBM takes health care analytics to the cloud

Last week, I wrote about IBM's continued march to the cloud and the company's focus on using advanced analytical software to make better decisions faster.

This week both of these efforts are coming to light in the health care arena as Big Blue is set to announce that the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) will use advanced analytics software to cut the time required to match bone marrow donors with patients by up to 50 percent.

The NMDP estimates that as many as 10,000 patients may benefit from a transplant each year in the U.S. alone, … Read more

Meet Cody, the robot that gives sponge baths

One thing we can probably all agree on is that in the future, robots will be everywhere. But will they play the role of master or servant?

With luck, the latter will come to pass, and Cody, a concept robot from Georgia Tech, is an example of what we should hope for (or fear). Simply put, it's a sponge bath robot, three words I never thought I'd type in the same sentence.

The best part is it appears to do the job well, though it certainly takes all the sexiness out of the endeavor. The autonomous robot uses lasers--because, really, robots all have lasers, or at least should--to specify a body part that needs to be scrubbed.

A camera then feeds the information to a microprocessor which, in turn, commands the robot's arm to wipe the selected area, which it swabs first.

In tests conducted by Georgia Tech's Healthcare Robotics Lab, Cody used image processing to determine the hue of the "debris" (which we're guessing includes dead skin cells--and possibly bedbugs and dignity) and thus ascertain how much remained on the arm after the robot completed its task. Cody effectively removed 96 percent of the stuff.

Fortunately, it performs its duties using "relatively low force"--less than three newtons, which is science speak for, "Oh, yeah, right there, baby."

So let's recap: If you're in the hospital of the future, instead of a sexy nurse or orderly giving you your daily sponge bath, you will get a sterile, unthinking robo-doc named Cody. Sometimes progress isn't all it's meant to be. And just so you know what's coming, there's a video of Cody in action below. … Read more