MIT Technology Review interviews National Co-ordinator for Health Information Technology, David Blumenthal
“With robust health-information exchange, there can be improved quality of care and improved care co-ordination. Today, the average 65-year-old with five chronic conditions has 14 doctors and is on multiple medications.”
I recently had lunch with Roger Stewart of McGraw-Hill and he pulled out a device and I thought he was reading a text message. Turns out he is diabetic and it was a OneTouch Ping (from Animas, a Johnson and Johnson company) glucose meter transmitting data wirelessly to the insulin pump at belt level. So very discreet - if he had not mentioned it I would not have known he had used it.
The system also works with the ezManager MAX Diabetes management software for logging of pump and meter data for review by healthcare professionals.
"Earbuds can pipe audio directly from a portable player to the ear. But did you ever imagine that eyeglasses or contact lenses could deliver digital images directly from a smartphone to the retina?
The glasses are called heads-up displays because the wearer can always look through them and see the real world — like the sidewalk just ahead — but can also see, on an overlay image, virtual information like an electronic map or an arrow showing the correct way to a destination. The glasses may also help the wearer remember the name of a long-lost friend she sees on the street."
Photo Credit SBG Labs
“Each year, the Medical Design Excellence Awards (MDEA) celebrate new products that improve our health and quality of life. Judges base their decisions on criteria that include the innovative use of materials, the user-related design features of a product, and aspects of a design that improve a company's own bottom line. At a ceremony on June 10 in New York, 32 manufacturers will be presented with either a gold or silver MDEA award to honor their contribution.”
BusinessWeek has a gallery including some shown below
“Proton beams, robotic surgeons and electrophysiology labs may sound like plot elements of the latest sci-fi feature film; but they’re everyday tools for physicians at Jacksonville’s hospitals.”
check out more of its high-tech hospitals via the Visit Jacksonville site
"Both companies have fledgling offerings in the field of telehealth,
as it is known, and home health monitoring. Intel has just introduced a
special-purpose computer with two-way video capability, which is linked
over the Internet to a doctor, nurse or physician assistant, called Intel Health Guide.
Under the partnership, General Electric, whose $17 billion-a-year health care business ranges from medical imaging equipment to electronic health records, agreed to distribute Intel’s computer system through its worldwide sales force."
"The company plans to team its Sam’s Club division with Dell for
computers and eClinicalWorks, a fast-growing private company, for
software. Wal-Mart says its package deal of hardware, software,
installation, maintenance and training will make the technology more
accessible and affordable, undercutting rival health information
technology suppliers by as much as half."
"Custom
insoles have long been ordered and worn by elite athletes hoping to
cure an injury, or avoid one. eSoles now plans to bring that
customization the masses with an impressive piece of in-store
ingenuity. In just seconds, the eSole self-service kiosk will print out
a detailed analysis of your foot, allowing the retailer to offer two
choices of custom orthotic. A Lego-style modular insole is put together
in the store for $69.99, or a more traditional custom one is
manufactured by eSoles to your exact foot pattern and sent to you for
the bargain price of $249."
Photo: eSoles
Presented at the 26th Army Science convention earlier this month
"Regrowing a fingertip cut off in an accident sounds like something from a futuristic movie. But with innovative technology developed by the U.S. Army, such regrowth is possible today."
"The Army's regenerative medicine study combined properties from the intestinal lining and the urinary bladder to create a regenerative substance called Extracellular Matrix. The cream-colored crystallized powder, called "magic dust," boosts the body's natural tendency to repair itself, said U.S. Army Biological Scientist Sgt. Gen Rossman. When the matrix is applied to a missing digit or limb, "the body thinks it's back in the womb,"
"A retired Oxford University physics professor, he came up with the idea in
what he describes as a "glimpse of the obvious".
Working on the principle that thicker lenses are more powerful than thin ones, Prof Silver's spectacles can be adjusted by injecting tiny quantities of fluid.
The tough plastic glasses have thin sacs of liquid in the centre of each lens.
They come with small syringes attached to each arm with a dial for the wearer to add or remove fluid from the lens.
Once the lenses have been adjusted, the syringes are removed and the spectacles worn just like a prescription pair.
The invention will enable millions of people in poorer parts of the world, where opticians are in short supply, to get spectacles for the first time"
Recent Comments