Concussion diagnostics a hot area

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Cerora-Simon.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Diagnosing concussive and sub-concussive head blows both in sports and on the battlefield have been challenging, and your Editors have chronicled several approaches. One of the 2014 graduates of NYCEDC’s ELabNYC was Oculogica; their EyeBox CNS records three key eye movements in a 4 1/2 minute test to determine whether they fit a normal box pattern, with subsequent exams determining rate of brain recovery [TTA 17 Apr]. (We’ll be seeing more of Oculogica at NYC MedTech 13 May, along with MC10 which helped to develop the Checklight impact indicating skullcap with Reebok, seen at last November’s CES preview [TTA 15 Nov 13] and winning CES’ 2014 Design & Engineering award.) Now out of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is Cerora’s MindReader, developed out of Lehigh University, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of NE Pennsylvania and in the first StartUp Health Academy/GE Entrepreneurship class. It is a wireless dry contact EEG reader which combined with other biosensor data and clinical observation aids speedy diagnosis. The reader is worn either on Google Glass or a headset (pictured above left on CEO Adam J. Simon, PhD). It’s in early days and still in testing; the baselines alone will need data from at minimum tens of thousands of subjects beyond the current testing on Lehigh U. athletes. Dr. Simon is also projecting use for sub-concussion injury, Alzheimer’s, PTSD and other neuropsychiatric disorders. Lehigh Valley Live, release on presentation at the American Academy of Neurology Annual meeting 30 April, WFMZ Ch. 69 News (video)

Oxitone Medical developing pulse O2 telehealth at wrist

Israel’s Oxitone Medical is one of the Lucky Thirteen participants in the GE/StartUp Health Academy Entrepreneurship Program [TTA 4 April]. By this profile in MedCityNews, it appears they are getting closer to being in market with their wrist-worn device. Current fingertip devices are uncomfortable and not wearable for long periods of time, a major advantage with a bracelet style (if not too clunky). The device is still in prototype, but the system will send out alerts to family, caregivers and a call center if saturation drops below a pre-set level, who can then attend or call for medical assistance. Their first markets are COPD and CHF patients. Device moves continuous oxygen saturation monitoring from the fingertip to the wrist