Wireless/mobile health tech in and out of the hospital is profiled in this special report from iHealthBeat (California Health Care Foundation): Sotera Wireless’ ViSi Mobile Systems (a wristlet which uses chest and thumb sensors to track multiple vitals including heart rate, respiration rate and skin temperature, and sends the data to Palomar Medical Center’s EHR); startup MedSensation’s robotic Glove Tricorder with temperature sensors and ultrasound pads for diagnosing breast cancer; and the Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize to push reliable health diagnostics into the home for 15 diseases. Another reason is the Deloitte estimate of all wireless health devices generating $22 billion in the US by 2015 (not cited by iHealthBeat but we do here–Neil Versel’s January roundup of inexact forecasts). When It Comes to the Future of Wireless Sensors in Health Care: The Sky’s the Limit: article/audio, transcript PDF.
Wearable tech that probably won’t wear well
Wearable tech’s own blog, FashioningTech takes the measure of four new arrivals and puts them into the ‘Fail’ bucket. Some are obvious: Hi-Call Bluetooth Talking Glove is ridiculous. Others are clonky bracelets which don’t do much (Embrace+ got kicked to the curb on Kickstarter) or are good only for bar conversation starters (LinkMe–and who wants people to see your messages?). One’s an ‘almost’–charging/smartphone storage purse Everpurse. This Editor thinks they should target energy-hogging tablets, not smartphones which have a longer life. (And $250 would not seem quite as bad for a larger case.) Wearable Tech Fails
Sproxil wins USPTO ‘Patents for Humanity’ award
Sproxil, the anti-counterfeiting mobile drug authentication system in use in India, Kenya (for East Africa), Nigeria and Ghana (West Africa), was one of ten recipients of the ‘Patents for Humanity’ award given annually by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Most of the nine other recipients were pharmaceutical (medicines and vaccines), food and nutrition, clean tech (water and solar bulbs) and information tech (Sproxil and Microsoft). Congratulations to Sproxil, which is up to 3.8 million products verified. We’ve followed them for the past three years for its fine work in developing countries, combating one particularly evil business; drug counterfeiting is a $200 billion global fraud that sickens and kills the vulnerable. USPTO, Sproxil releases.
Detecting counterfeit electronics
Not only drugs are counterfeited (see article on Sproxil) but increasingly there is a world trade in counterfeit electronics–old, substandard components are remanufactured to appear new and brand-name. For mission-critical functions–or in health tech–this can mean bad readings, hazard or failure. Initial research from the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Army Research Office (ARO) on a DNA tag was developed with a private company, ChromoLogic LLC, which first developed a tag with a biomimetic barcode that can be aligned in the proper order and decoded by an optical reader–and the technology was extended to optical mapping of electronic components’ intrinsic surface or ‘fingerprinting’ by their DTEK system. The rather circuitous story is here in this strangely titled Armed With Science article, Sneaky Discovery Can Identify Counterfeits, Track Materiel
The diabetic experience: help on the way?
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/IV-AA370_DIABET_G_201304051645212.jpg” thumb_width=”175″ /]Last week’s article on the limitations of QSing outlined the precursor ‘fly in ointment’: how diabetics have been living long-term with monitoring and self-management. Type 1 diabetes is the ‘Battle of Stalingrad’ for life. The ideal is to create a device that replaces the non-functioning pancreas, which releases insulin in the amount and time as needed to closely balance blood glucose and avoid devastating seizures and blackouts. Technology available for the past few years in Europe is just now (to this Editor’s amazement) in FDA approval in the US (Medtronic’s insulin pump.) Closer to the ideal is an insulin pump that connects to a continuous glucose monitor, which is being developed by Johnson & Johnson’s Animas division. The market, according to the JDRF, is 3 million people in the US. For Diabetics, a Longtime Goal Is Within Reach (Wall Street Journal)
Healthcare moving towards the ‘Wal-Mart Moment’: IBM
Perhaps this is more a wish than reality right now, but IBM’s Barry Mason, their VP in charge of global healthcare payers, sees the ‘Wal-Mart moment’ of transparency between insurance companies, hospitals, medical devices and pharma coming up shortly. The four are actually considering sharing data, restructuring their organizations to work more closely together and even going ‘joint’. This sentiment seems to be on display in this week’s World Health Care Congress. The aforementioned ‘Wal-Mart moment’ is when Wal-Mart opened its books on sales data and inventory levels to vendors, creating a superior level of transparency. The ambitious list he proposes includes supply chain data (claims data), complete sharing of clinical data from providers and all consumer data. Amazing potential here…but many rivers to cross, filled with rocks. Again. Healthcare convergence moves beyond the buzzword. But here’s what still needs to happen (MedCityNews)
FNIH spearheads Alzheimer’s Disease neuroimaging initiative
This news could not be more timely, as Alzheimer’s Disease has become the sixth leading cause of death in the US, and one which has increased by 68 percent between 2000-2010 [TTA 25 March]. The National Institutes on Health (NIH) with the National Institute on Aging and 27 private sector companies and non-profits has started the second phase of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI II). It will continue to track the ADNI subjects from the study that ended in 2010, and enroll additional normal, mildly cognitively impaired, and Alzheimer’s disease patients. Additional plans for ADNI II include PET imaging scans on every new patient enrolled. Foundation for the National Institutes on Health.
Thick as BRICS?
The developing nations dubbed BRICS–Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa–have prosperity, uneven as it may be, but their public health is not keeping up. In addition to communicable diseases, obesity and diabetes are exploding. This Atlantic article is insistent on ‘infrastructure’–which is needed–but here are five countries which are wide open for mobile health. High rates of cell phone ownership and the huge job to be done in helping people towards awareness and self-management — means opportunity, as long as it is kept simple and inexpensive. Which health tech systems now at BluePrint Health or StartUp Health will help these people manage food consumption, tracking weight, exercise, blood glucose in a non-QS way? Brazil, China, and India Are Fat, And Getting Fatter
Telehealth tiptoeing into skilled nursing facilities (US)
Shattering a few stereotypes on older adults and technology use is this profile of Las Colinas of Westover Rehabilitation, a short and long-term-care (LTC) residence near San Antonio, Texas Technology. Their short and long-term residents–largely in their 70s and 80s–use CogniFit brain training games, videos and Skype-ing on a Kindle Fire and Apple TV for brain stimulation, games, socialization and connectedness with families.The facility is also up to date with the specialized long-term-care EHR PointClickCare. Perhaps not typical in LTC now, but a pointer to where the near future should be. Senior care goes high-tech (San Antonio Express-News)
Growing Army-Navy ‘jointness’ in telehealth (US)
Our readers will note that most advances in telehealth, in smartphone-based support and TBI research have originated out of the US Army’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), the Army Research Laboratory, Medical Research & Materiel Command and the Research, Development and Engineering Command. The US Navy has jumped in with Kinect for rehab with the West Health Institute. Now the US Army Medical Information Technology Center at Fort Sam Houston (Texas), part of the Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA), is the point of contact for the Navy for a pilot program using instant messaging hardware and software–Jabber–to be tested at Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and planned to be rolled out through worldwide naval medical facilities. JBSA is the locus for medical training in the Army and much of the armed forces; the Army’s medical school AMEDDC&S is located there. Fort Sam Houston’s Video Network Center also handles telemedicine consults for the Army, Navy and VA. USAMITC helps telehealth become a reality for Navy medicine (JBSA release).
The diabetic experience: the fly in the Quantified Selfing ointment
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gimlet-eye.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Quantified Selfers (QSers) maintain that their obsessive practice not only is the be-all and end-all of leading a Healthy Life, but if only more of the hoi polloi would do it, we’d avoid doctors and healthcare costs, the seas would part and we’d bounce to the Gates of the New Jerusalem with a gleam in our eye, driving our Fords with Allergy Alert SYNC. Well, this Eye has gazed Gimlety on this entire Movement for quite a while, to the raised noses of the Healthcare Digerati, and now has found a fellow nay-sayer and nose lower-er in the unexpected pages of The Atlantic. The Eye now slaps the Head for not thinking of the following.
Who were the early adopters of QS? Diabetics. From the late 1970s on, patients were handed glucose meters in the doctor’s office, stacks of reading material and told to go forth and self-manage. Are they happy? Empowered? In control? Au contraire, mon frere!
The fact that diabetics have been doing this for years, and that they largely loathe the experience (author’s emphasis), not only serves as a caution to the vogue of self-tracking. It also offers an opportunity, serving as an object lesson in what works, and what doesn’t work, when people track their health.
Loathing Can Be Quantified as in the 2012 BMC Health-published survey where diabetics told researchers that self-monitoring was the enemy, a Sisypheian task, a perpetual Battle of Stalingrad. No wonder why they are DEPRESSED. The sheer tedium of every day, several times a day, pricking fingers with crude monitors, making the decision on to eat, what, to inject or take pills, meds that get you sick, and never, ever being ‘in balance’, feeling wrong, guilty and scared, would depress The Eye more than sitting through a Jim Carrey movie. Fine to take away a few steps with LifeScan’s VerioSync and iBGStar to send the metering to the smartphone, or to Telcare’s system, and know that hovering in the future may be the non-invasive glucose meter and fully automated insulin pumps that work with your smartphone, but… Thomas Goetz’s point: don’t expect QSing to be a panacea as hyped, do expect that emotional baggage is in the trunk of the car, and that tracking for people is WORK that is really to be avoided. And as Editor Donna continually reminds The Eye, only undertaken when it is a solution to an unavoidable job to be done. And if they don’t see the job… The Diabetic’s Paradox
Your Friday robot fix: senior housing helpers, getting more humanoid
Care Innovations, which has no stakes (thus far) in robotics, highlights what robots can do and change in the senior housing area in this (sponsored) article in Senior Housing News. Featured: the ‘Hector’ assistance robot, developed by the EU’s CompanionAble Project [TTA 23 August]; ‘Monitoring Platform 3.0’ iPad and iPhone mobilizers such as Helios [TTA 2 Oct]; as ‘little armies of telepresence’ for non-emergencies (a small mention of telecare here); solving the worker shortage [TTA 19 May 11 on Robosoft and the Kompaï care robot, which Editor Steve has been following ever since, recently updated] and enabling independence [Robot & Frank, anyone?]
But a problem with more humanoid robots like Roboy is not developing arthritis but an inherent stiffness in the joints. COMAN, from the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), mixes in compliant joints to make them less so, and safer (pulling a robot off the floor can be hazardous for your joints!) This Humanoid Robot Gets Pushed Around But Stays on Its Feet (IEEE Spectrum) Another hat tip to Toni Bunting, TANN Ireland.
Device vs. Device: a mobile health faceoff
MedCityNews pits unrelated mobile health devices and apps against each other in this series you may have overlooked last pre-holiday week. Some surprising winners in these eight short ‘n’ sweet matchups:
AliveCor smartphone ECG vs. DrawMD by Visible Health iPad app for general surgery patient ed
Related news: AliveCor names new CEO, experienced medical device and healthcare entrepreneur Dan Sullivan (Mobihealthnews)
Diabetes Manager by WellDoc (FDA cleared) vs iTriage by Healthagen
AirStrip ONE by AirStrip Technologies (FDA cleared) vs Lab Counter by ZappyLab
A ‘shocking’ solution to India’s crime problem?
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/she-antirape-shock-device-camisole-450×476.jpg” thumb_width=”175″ /]Three engineering students at India’s SRM Institute of Science and Technology in Tamil Nadu (Chennai) developed and won the 2013 Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award given by SRISTI (Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions) for a body-worn device designed to help defend women in the case of personal attack. The device is a camisole-type undergarment which is wired with sensors and electric shock circuit board at the bosom, insulated by a polymer, with attached GPS and GSM modules. Pressure in the bosom area, consistent with the usual frontal attack, triggers a 3,800 kilovolt shock [likely a notation error–probably 3.8 kV, see Comments–Ed. Donna] up to 82 times and also activates the GPS. The designers known collectively as SHE (Society Harnessing Equipment)–Manisha Mohan, Niladri Basu Bal, Rimpi Tripathi, the first and third listed are women–are to be commended.
India’s huge problem with male-on-female crime was highlighted at the end of 2012 with the assault of a young couple in central New Delhi, resulting in his severe injury, her rape and death. It also put an international spotlight on India’s wretchedly poor policing and law enforcement resulting in a reported reduction of tourism by at least 25 percent. The official Indian Government response was tepid at best–including ‘working on’ a prototype safety watch that would take photos and send texts in case of attack. It was TTA’s weekend outrage for 2 February for its ‘sheer howling incompetence’, stimulating quite a reader discussion. And no, this device won’t save or prevent the vulnerable (female and old) from attack, but the electrifying element of surprise may give an edge to the victim permitting a quick getaway. Digital Trends (India), Techpedia India (SRISTI), SHE team profile/submission Another hat tip to Toni Bunting, TANN Ireland.
The ‘virtual reality’ workout and a Spidey-Suit
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/spidersense-suit-2.jpg” thumb_width=”200″ /]Adding to the list of VR-driven workout platforms is University of Wisconsin-Madison’s CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment), which tracks muscle movements while you virtually walk (via goggles) through a room and pick up things. The CAVE researchers are using the EMG tracking information to determine what muscle movements are used in each action. (Hat tip to Toni Bunting, TANN Ireland) Not too far away in Illinois, University of Illinois-Chicago researchers have wired up a whole spaghetti-bowl of sensors from head to toe as ‘SpiderSense’ (left) which enhances spatial awareness–detecting that something is nearby for the visually impaired.
Previously in TTA, VR in physical therapy: Microsoft Kinect, West Health Institute, Fraunhofer, 15 January
GE, StartUp Health select their ‘Lucky Thirteen’
GE Ventures’ Healthymagination and accelerator StartUp Health announced, after a two-month screening process, their 13 (up from 10) companies for their joint three-year program. The 13 recipients will be mentored over the next three years in exchange for 2 to 10 percent equity ownership by GE and StartUp Health’s Innovation Fund. They are a diverse mix including hand hygiene in hospitals, connecting patients to mental health professionals, integrating non-clinical home care observations into home health, and a device for gait and balance restoration. Short bios on companies via TechCrunch. GE/StartUp Health release (MarketWatch).
Previously on TTA, why GE is getting ‘imaginative’ with StartUp Health: 10 January, 7 March.
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