Masimo is releasing a new version of the firm's popular SafetyNet™ remote monitoring system. According to the company, the system can provide continuous pulse oximetry readings from up to eighty patients on four separate hospital floors. The technology aims to decrease respiratory-related adverse events in a high risk population, such as post-surgical patients on the general care floor, patients with obstructive sleep apnea, and those who are on narcotic analgesics. Using internal pagers or interfacing with other messaging systems, the central server can notify clinicians if a patient requires prompt attention.

The new Patient SafetyNet system is already having a big impact on both nurses and post-surgical patients for two hospitals involved in limited market release testing. Marilyn Nemerever, R.N., director of Acute Care at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, where the new system is being used to monitor patients in three separate post-surgical units at three different hospitals from a single central monitoring station, stated "We love it. ICU beds are in high demand these days and Patient SafetyNet allows us to more closely monitor post-surgical patients in our med-surg units, so we can use our ICU resources more appropriately. Our nurses now have the piece of mind that comes with knowing that Patient SafetyNet is helping watch over their patients if and when they cannot. And our patients are having better outcomes because we can see, as well as respond to changes earlier."

Clinicians at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, who found that Patient SafetyNet reduced rescue activations by 65% and ICU transfers by 48%—while in some patients where ICU transfer was avoided, length of stay was also reduced from 5.8 to 3.6 days with an associated cost of care reduction of 30%, have also embraced the capabilities of the new Patient SafetyNet system. George T. Blike, M.D., Medical Director of Patient Safety at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, stated; "The new system enhancements allow us to see real-time numerics for each patient at a glance, while the ability to monitor more patients on a single server will enable us to deploy the system across more care areas than before to reduce overall costs of implementation."

Via: medgadget.com

Autistic children often show specific behavior patterns in the way they speak with others. These patterns, if detected, could be used as an early sign of autism, but enough data needs to be collected in order to help with making a diagnosis. LENA, a device from the LENA Foundation that became available earlier this month, is a portable recorder that can make available a day's worth of a child's interaction to professionals for close review.

What is LENA? LENA is the only technology that automatically collects and analyzes information about a child’s natural language environment and development. The LENA feedback reports help parents improve a child’s cumulative language experience and accelerate that child’s language and cognitive development, and preparedness for school.

Who is LENA for? Parents and caregivers of children ages 0 to 4.

Why is it important? Several hundred research studies over the last 50 years document the importance of talking to and interacting with your baby, especially during the first three years. Groundbreaking research by two renowned university researchers, Drs. Betty Hart, Ph.D., and Todd Risley, Ph.D., revealed that the quantity of talk a child experienced between birth and age 3 directly correlated with the child’s IQ and vocabulary size. The LENA Foundation was founded based on the key elements of this study and our own normative study shows that saying 17,000 words per day, which is equal to the 85th percentile, will greatly enhance your child’s potential.

Who developed it? A team of world-class scientists, including experts in linguistics, speech recognition technology, computer engineering, speech analysis, statistics, speech language pathology, language research and developmental pediatrics. Recognizing that achievement gaps already exist at kindergarten entry, LENA was developed to give parents useful information to help ensure they are providing the richest language environment possible to their children during the critical years between birth and age 4, before they enter school.

How does it work? Parents follow a simple three-step process, 2-3 times a month:

1. In the morning, slip the LENA Digital Language Processor (DLP) into the pocket of specially designed LENA clothing.
2. At the end of the day, plug the DLP into your PC. The audio data will transfer and software analysis begins.
3. View your reports to analyze your conversations, identify patterns of talk throughout the day and receive percentile rank information.

The rapidly aging population of Japan already has more than 40,000 people older than one hundred years. So the Japanese turned themselves into a frantic mode to develop all kinds of robots to help the elderly as the age issue only intensifies. An example is Taizo, a robot built by AIST, General Robotix and Ibaraki Prefectural Health Plaza, that leads in and demonstrates to grandmas how to do exercise routines. The units are going to be priced at around $8,000, but perhaps a cheaper and sufficient solution would be to watch YouTube videos of the Taizo. Even a real prerecorded human being may suffice in demonstrating exercises. But that wouldn't utilize robotic technology, would it now?

Via: medgadget.com

MeDaVinci, a company based out of Liverpool, England, is tell Amy Tenderich at DiabetesMine that the company is developing a foot scanner to help diabetics watch for dangerous signs of infection and inflammation. The Vincent 50 is very much reminiscent of the  FootSafe, a submission to this years's DiabetesMine Design Challenge.

Company spokesman Ger Biesbrouck writes to me from Amsterdam that his team was “quite surprised” to discover the video entry in this year’s DiabetesMine Design Challenge on the FootSafe foot scanner, because his team believed they had no competition with this type of foot scanner.

What’s different about the Vincent 50, I’m told, is that it makes “non weight-bearing” images of the foot, so professionals can get a better view of possible damages. “See what is happening if you press your hand against a glass,” Ger writes. “It turns white, but you would like to see the red aspect.“ When the patient has to stand on the scanner, the pressure itself alters the image. Without pressure, the image shows every aspect of the foot and skin, pure and simple.

Cochlear, Ltd (Lane Cove, NSW, Australia) has won FDA approval to market the Nucleus 5 device for people with severe-to-profound hearing loss. The titanium device is the smallest of its kind. Nucleus 5 sports a two way remote control, telephone connectivity, and proprietary sound processing technology.

Smallest sound processor — for a comfortable and discreet fit. The Nucleus 5 Sound Processor is smaller than any other and designed to fit comfortably and securely. Yet, it is tough and secure enough for any situation.

Features the most flexible options to anticipate your needs – from an extensive selection of wearable options for every age and lifestyle, to music, phone and entertainment accessories and easy connection options, we’ve anticipated your everyday needs.

Thinnest titanium implant design — Ideal choice for all ages. The Nucleus 5 System features the thinnest titanium implant in the industry. It is 40% thinner than our previous generation and 30% thinner than any other titanium implant available.

Nucleus 5 is the world’s most water resistant allowing you to relax around water or play by the pool. With the industry’s only International Protection Rating of IP44 18 you have the assurance that your sound processor can keep up with your active lifestyle, even around water.

The exclusive two-way remote assistant is an added bonus to your system. Gives you the added flexibility and control of being able to adjust your settings easily from the remote assistant or directly on the sound processor – and gives parents the added peace of mind that their child is hearing their best.

Also allows the easiest bilateral use. With the Nucleus 5 System if you have chosen to go bilateral (with cochlear implants for both ears) your two sound processors can be easily and simultaneously controlled with the exclusive two-way remote assistant.

The Japanese are gearing up for a time when there are more elderly folks needing assistance than there are young whippersnappers available to do the choirs. The RIBA, or Robot for Interactive Body Assistance, is a 400 pound (180 kilos) device designed by engineers at the RIKEN institute and Tokai Rubber Industries to carry people up to 135 pounds (61 kilos) between hospital beds, wheelchairs, and even toilets. The device is full of tactile sensors to make carrying safe and comfortable for patients, and it can even recognize faces and be commanded via voice to perform basic tasks. The only problems, from our point of view, is the inadequacy of this robot of serving the hefty average American and the menacing demeanor of what looks like a space bear without the personality of  Chewbacca.

A student project at Stanford University has led to the development of a low cost incubator powered by boiled water. Intended for premature babies born in the poor areas of the world, the $25 device is essentially a sleeping bag with a phase change material pouch that helps regulate the internal temperature of the child's environment.

The students involved in the development of the Embrace, which they hope can help thousands survive where $20,000 incubators are simply not to be found, have formed an organization called EmbraceGlobal.org to raise the money and distribute these units throughout the developing world.

Via: medgadget.com

Researchers at the University of Tokyo's Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory have developed a robotic arm and sensor system that is capable of performing some amazing sleight of hand tricks. Using a high speed tracking camera and tactile sensors on the fingers, the robot does millisecond bouncing of ping pong balls, pen spinning, and even throwing and re-grabbing a mobile phone.

Now imagine being humbled at table tennis while playing with an amputee equipped with one of these. Or, perhaps, Intuitive Surgical should take a look at this technology for its upcoming da Vinci systems.

3M has partnered with Zargis Medical to develop a Bluetooth-enabled stethoscope with recording capabilities that can help physicians get more out of an exam. By being able to transfer recordings to a computer, one can assemble a historical set for analysis at a later time or share selective sounds with colleagues for a second opinion. Additionally, the package comes with two pieces of software, one that helps visualize and fine tune the audio for better fidelity, and the other helps clinicians identify suspected murmurs.

Proprietary Ambient Noise Reduction Technology (ANR)

Reduces background noise 85% on average without eliminating critical body sounds

13% better ANR than previous models

Acoustic Seal Eartips

Patented 3M™ Littmann® Snap Tight Soft-Sealing Eartips provides [sic] a comfortable fit and excellent seal

Creates a tight acoustic seal from ambient noise entering through eartip connections

State-of-the-Art Sound Sensor

Built to stringent specification

Sound experience equivalent to Littmann® cardiology-grade acoustic stethoscope

The sound received from the sensor is transmitted naturally to ears through the tubing

Frictional Noise Reduction Technology

Helps reduce handling noises compared to previous electronic models

Less distracting than previous models

Lets you focus on critical sounds

Up to 24X Sound Amplification

Extra listening power for when you need it

Helpful when a heart, lung or body sound is especially faint

May be useful for overly obese patients

May be helpful when the patient's clothing restricts your listening experience

Heads-up displays are best known for their use in fighter jets to help pilots target enemy aircraft. But now MAQUET Cardiovascular out of Wayne, New Jersey has released its own version, the VASOVISION Endoscopic Visualization System, to help surgeons aim at saphenous veins during endoscopic vessel harvesting procedures (EVH) for coronary artery bypasses. Because of the precision required, it can be difficult to operate endoscopic tools while looking at a monitor located in a different field of view from where the instruments are. Hence this new VASOVISION display can be worn during the EVH harvest as it is designed to work with all of the company's VASOVIEW systems.

Here are the features of the display:

Easy to use and lightweight

Comfortable fit for any user

Fingertip adjustments for image brightness and contrast

Central viewing pane provides a wide field of view while enabling peripheral vision

Compatible with all MAQUET VASOVIEW systems

Clear visualization of procedure

Improved comfort and ergonomics during harvesting

Enhanced and streamlined harvesting experience

Via: medgadget.com