1. Interactive Anatomy

The NOVA Series Collection
Pocket Body
Skeletal System
Visible Body

2. EMH Records

DrChrono
iChart EMR
Nimble EMR

3. Radiology

Mobile MIM

4. Educational

Epocrates

5. Assistive Technology

Proloquo2Go

Related Posts

• November 10, 2008 -- Intel’s Health Guide PHS6000 Launches
• May 17, 2011 -- Time’s Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2010
• December 17, 2009 -- Time’s Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2009
• May 6, 2009 -- Med Students: Amazon has announced new Kindle DX. Interested?
• February 5, 2009 -- Air Medical Safety Measures

Design of Image-guided, Photo-thermal Controlled Drug Releasing Multifunctional Nanosystem for the Treatment of Cancer Stem Cells – Biochemistry

MENTOR: Dr. Zhen Cheng, Stanford University

“I was surprised by the survival rate of patients who had undergone current cancer therapy.”

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are responsible for initiating and driving tumor growth yet are often resistant to current cancer therapies. In her research, Angela Zhang aimed to design a CSC-targeted, gold and iron oxide-based nanoparticle with a potential to eradicate these cells through a controlled delivery of the drug salinomycin to the site of the tumor. The multifunctional nanoparticle combines therapy and imaging into a single platform, with the gold and iron-oxide components allowing for both MRI and Photoacoustic imaging. This nanosystem could potentially help overcome cancer resistance, minimize undesirable side effects, and allow for real-time monitoring of treatment efficacy.

Angela, a senior, is interested in nanomedicine and molecular imaging because they allow her “to transform my interests in physics, chemistry, and biology into solutions for current health problems.” She won the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2011 Grand Award and the ISEF 2010 Grand Award (both for medicine and health science), and a trip to attend the Taiwan International Science Fair awarded by the National Taiwan Science Education Center. Angela planned and executed a fundraiser that raised over $5,000 a year for the Monta Vista Interact International Night and has participated in the Jade Ribbon Youth Council to raise awareness about Hepatitis B. She plays golf and the piano and would like to major in chemical or biomedical engineering or physics. She is a 2010 Siemens Competition Regional Finalist who put in 1,000 hours on her current project. Angela hopes to become a research professor.

-via Siemens and George Washington University

Related Posts

• May 19, 2009 -- Wii game Real Heroes: Firefighters to Donate to Firefighter Cancer Support Network
• April 8, 2009 -- Tanning makes Skin Cancer the Most Common Form in Young Women
• November 24, 2008 -- iRescueRadio Episode 2 Now Online
• November 6, 2008 -- Cancer Genes Decoded by Scientists
• August 21, 2008 -- Researchers Question If HPV Vaccine Is Worth the Risk

On the other hand, when a person does CPR, they may not properly compress to the appropriate depth and waste a lot of time by not doing proper compressions.

The device is called LUCAS 2, and according to Dr. Kenneth Deloge, it is more effective than human professionals.  The rate of survival among patients who receive chest compressions from the machine is 20% higher than when professionals gave the chest compressions.

The LUCAS 2, however, is cost prohibitive like many medical devices.  It costs approximately $13,000.

There are other advantages to the machine that remind me of the High Performance CPR techniques that I learned about a few weeks ago.  It can continue to do chest compressions in situations where humans can not, providing uninterrupted compressions.  The device is, in part, based on hands-only CPR.  New research has shown that the body stores enough oxygen to stay alive for seven minutes, but the body also needs constant blood flow, which is provided by chest compressions, when the heart stops pumping blood for itself.

-via Concord Monitor | LUCAS 2 website with more information

Related Posts

• January 24, 2012 -- Bill would require students to perform hands-on CPR
• November 2, 2011 -- What’s the Best Beat to do CPR by?
• October 14, 2011 -- Canadian ER Docs call CPR a Moral Obligation for Bystanders ‘whether trained or not’
• September 28, 2011 -- Behavioral Health Providers Seeking Online Provider Solutions for Certification and Workplace Trainings
• September 28, 2011 -- CPR Every Year or Every Two Years

Last year, Patrick, a 24-year-old Austrian, decided to have his dysfunctional hand amputated and replaced with a bionic hand. He lost the use of his left hand after being electrocuted at work.

Here he demonstrates the extra movement his new bionic hand has given him, opening a bottle and tying his shoelaces, and tests a prototype hand which will give him additional wrist movement.

Watch the Video of Patrick demonstrating use of the Bionic Hand

See also this earlier story on the i-Limb, another great progression in medical technology.

Related Posts

• March 30, 2010 -- Australia reveals Prototype ‘Bionic’ Eye
• January 19, 2009 -- Student Fitted with Bionic Hand

The digital notation devices communicate wirelessly with hospital records through a BlackBerry smartphone.  This enables the nurses and midwives to store patient information remotely and securely, transferring data almost instantly.

The Portsmouth NHS Trust believes its PaperIQ digi-pens save time and money by cutting the amount of data entry in half.

The pens work by digitally reading and recording the nurses’ handwriting. Their notes are transmitted through Bluetooth to a BlackBerry smartphone and are forwarded automatically to the patient records system.

Richard Sargent, ICT specialist at Portsmouth Hospital Trust said: “The traditional consultation process for the Trust was very paper intensive and required midwives and nurses to record their activities on paper forms when they visited patients’ homes.

“They then had to type up the same details back at the office as the maternity records booklet stays with the mother throughout the term of her pregnancy and post natal care period.”

The clever pens also act as a safety device for lone nurses working in risky situations. By striking a code at the top of their notepads the pens switch to an audio record mode, allowing police to monitor their conversations.

Mr Sargent said the pens have saved the time of five full time midwives and – after a year’s usage – have already paid for themselves.

He added: “We are eliminating the double entry of information as digital notes are taken at the episode of care with the mother and then immediately and securely transferred to the patient record system.”

Currently 130 midwives, across four hospitals, are using the digi-pens. The Trust is looking to roll them out to other departments, starting with a trial at the Queen Alexandra accident and emergency department in Portsmouth.

For more information, check out E-Health Insider

-via Yahoo News

Random Posts

• November 20, 2009 -- New Intra-Arrest Cooling Method May Save More Brains During Cardiac Arrest
• June 30, 2011 -- People More Apt to Perform “Hands-Only” CPR than Traditional Method
• November 24, 2010 -- CPR in Entertainment: What about Bob?
• June 5, 2008 -- National CPR/AED Awareness Week
• May 28, 2009 -- NewU Fitness First Personal Trainer coming to Wii in September

When doctors disassembled the board, they found the accelerometers and strain gauges to be of “excellent” quality. “I was shocked given the price: it was an extremely impressive strain gauge set-up,” said lead researcher Ross Clark, in an interview with New Scientist.

Impaired standing balance has a detrimental effect on a person’s functional ability and increases their risk of falling. There is currently no validated system which can precisely quantify center of pressure (COP), an important component of standing balance, while being inexpensive, portable and widely available. The Wii Balance Board (WBB) fits these criteria, and we examined its validity in comparison with the ‘gold standard’—a laboratory-grade force platform (FP).

Thirty subjects without lower limb pathology performed a combination of single and double leg standing balance tests with eyes open or closed on two separate occasions. Data from the WBB were acquired using a laptop computer.

The test–retest reliability for COP path length for each of the testing devices, including a comparison of the WBB and FP data, was examined using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), Bland–Altman plots (BAP) and minimum detectable change (MDC). Both devices exhibited good to excellent COP path length test–retest reliability within-device (ICC = 0.66–0.94) and between-device (ICC = 0.77–0.89) on all testing protocols.

Examination of the BAP revealed no relationship between the difference and the mean in any test, however the MDC values for the WBB did exceed those of the FP in three of the four tests. These findings suggest that the WBB is a valid tool for assessing standing balance. Given that the WBB is portable, widely available and a fraction of the cost of a FP, it could provide the average clinician with a standing balance assessment tool suitable for the clinical setting.

More information: Science Direct, New Scientist

Related Posts

• June 16, 2008 -- Wii used for Physical Therapy, Fitness Ultimatum 2009 coming this fall
• January 21, 2011 -- Wii Fit helps Woman Diagnose onset of Parkinsons
• March 10, 2010 -- EA Sports Active Adds Heart Rate Monitor, Wireless Motion Sensors
• November 20, 2009 -- Wii: Great for Exercise and Senior Centers
• July 14, 2009 -- Using Nintendo Wii to Teach CPR?

There are car companies that are working on making advances in technology that can drastically decrease the number of accidents each year.  The fact that we’re not all jumping on this advancement seems pretty foolish to me.  “Car Crash Stats: There were nearly 6,420,000 auto accidents in the United States in 2005. The financial cost of these crashes is more than 230 Billion dollars. 2.9 million people were injured and 42,636 people killed. About 115 people die every day in vehicle crashes in the United States — one death every 13 minutes.”

This radar technology is not something that I have used, or even seen in use, but knowing that it exists and is already in at least a couple of cars is enough for me.

How does it work?  I’ll let someone whose used the technology over 11,000 miles explain, Mr. Robert Scoble:

I pull onto a road, say freeway 280, and I set the cruise control. I set the top speed the car should ever go. Say 80 mph. But it doesn’t go 80 unless there’s no cars in front of me. Usually in Silicon Valley there’s traffic. So, the car in that case follows the car in front of me.

But they just slammed on their brakes to avoid something. What does my car do? It slams on its brakes too. It is so reliable I no longer impulsively reach for my brakes. Let’s say the car in front of me speeds up after slamming on its brakes. My car speeds up too. It’s like there is a rope between my car and theirs. It is like nothing you’ve ever experienced.

This is an expensive technology, but I have a feeling that if enough people buy it, the technology will advance, and the manufacturers will be able to produce more of it for less, increasing use and decreasing costs.  The result: more lives saved.

There are many problems with getting the technology out to the people, and it seems that people are afraid of assisted driving technologies.  Personally, I don’t even like that you can turn the radar technology off.

I hope that, in the future, installation kits become available for current cars, and all new cars come with it, not as an extra but as an integral part.  I’d love to see legislation that makes it illegal for new cars to be produced without this, or similar, technology included.  I have a feeling that it could happen in the next five to ten years, if our flying cars don’t come first.

What do you think?

Here’s Ford’s Chief Safety Engineer, Steve Kozak, explaining the technology in two parts. (Remember, Ford didn’t take any government hand-outs, and didn’t want to.  They wanted to prove they could make it through innovation, and have done so.)

-via Scoblizer

Related Posts

• January 19, 2009 -- Student Fitted with Bionic Hand
• January 5, 2009 -- Father touts CPR for Saving Child’s Life
• December 1, 2008 -- A Life Saved this Morning… maybe Three!
• October 22, 2008 -- Today Show: Child First Aid

Standing 58 centimetres (23 inches) tall and with a plastic shell for a body, a humanoid robot called Nao drew a crowd at the Campus Party in Valencia as it danced to Jackson’s “Billie Jean” with a black hat on its head.

“I am thrilled to be at the Campus Party!” it said in in a mechanical voice in English.

The robot can recognize voices and faces and be instructed to turn on a personal computer, read e-mails or an online newspaper as well as be used to stimulate sufferers of Alzheimer’s disease with memory exercises.

“It is a companion robot; at the same time it is a robot that can help with day to day tasks,” said Romain Daros of French firm Aldebaran Robotics which designed Nao.

The company plans to start selling the robot in 2011 for between 3,000 and 3,500 euros (4,200 and 4,900 dollars).

Another star at the week-long event which wraps up on Sunday is a robot covered in artificial white fur called Paro that resembles a seal pup which can perceive people and its environment.

The cuddly robot has a diurnal rhythm, being active during the day but getting sleepy at night and reacts when it is spoken to or stroked.

It was designed by Japan’s largest public research organization, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, with the aim of helping people with cognitive problems like autism or dementia.

People with severe memory loss can be prone to psychiatric disturbances, including hallucinations and personality changes, and the robot can provide a way to calm them or at least shift their mood.

It is also useful in engaging children in pediatric wards and can help people with autism, who struggle to communicate socially and have trouble understanding facial expressions, learn how to interact better with others.

“A seal was chosen because it does not arouse any emotional memories, like a dog or a cat would,” said Ignacio Villoch, the marketing director of Spanish bank BBVA’s innovation centre which is presenting the robot in Spain.

Paro is already available for sale in Japan and several northern European nations.

Just several metres (yards) away Sylvain Calinon of Switzerland’s Federal Institute of Technology presented his robot, a “chef” that can cook.

Calinon said that unlike other robots, his “learns new gestures by imitation, by observation, without needing an intermediary” like a computer programmer.

The robot has already learned how to beat eggs and cut ham to make an omelet.

“We can imagine for example that it could feed people who can’t feed themselves with their own hands,” said Calinon.

The gathering at the futuristic “City of Arts and Sciences” also provided space for non-professionals to display their creations and many were also designed to aid ill or handicapped people even if they were more rudimentary.

One of them, Jose Alberto Garcia, proudly showed off his three-legged robot called Invigbot which emits a sound when it approaches an obstacle.

“He was conceived to serve as a guide for the blind,” the 22-year-old said.

Around 6,000 people are expected to attend the Campus Party, which unites participants from all over the world to share ideas, experiences and all types of activities related to computers, communications and new technology.

The annual event began in Spain in 1997. Editions of the event have since been held in Brazil and Colombia.

Further Reading

Aldebaran Robotics’ Nao
Paro Mental Commitment Robot
ParoRobots.com

Related Posts

• August 19, 2011 -- Improv for Alzheimer’s brings a ‘Sense of Accomplishment’
• January 14, 2010 -- Cellphones may protect brain from Alzheimer’s Disease
• July 14, 2009 -- ICAD 09: A “Heart Healthy” Diet and Ongoing, Moderate Physical Activity May Protect Against Cognitive Decline As We Age
• July 13, 2009 -- ICAD 09: Adults Show a Poor Understanding of Alzheimer’s Link to Heart Health Risk Factors
• April 7, 2009 -- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Memory Editing soon a Reality

Nathan Jaqua, an EMT Basic and student firefighter had this to say of the device: “This has changed the way we work a cardiac arrest incident. We use the same skills, but it changes the entire atmosphere.”

The same response is true of the fire department in Estacada, Oregon, who recently bought one of their own.

Belus Schonek, a resident of Sandy, was a heart attack victim who was legally dead for 45 minutes.  His heart was not pumping blood and he was not breathing on his own.  He was told that the ZOLL AutoPulse non-invasive cardiac support pump is largely responsible for his full recovery.  ”I am sure the board played a part in my total recovery,” Schonek said. “It’s not like I have problems with my kidneys, pancreas or brain or any other issues that might have resulted from my heart attack. I was able to fully recover, rather than recover with some other ailments.”

The AutoPulse consists of a backboard and a load-distributing LifeBand® that calculates the size, shape and resistance of a patient’s chest, according to information provided by Diane Egan of ZOLL Medical Corp., maker of the device.  It then delivers uninterrupted chest compressions, and is able to move more blood than is possible with human hands – effectively circulating more blood to the heart, brain and other organs.

There are some differences with the CPR when using the device, as you’re able to use an AED while the device is running, something that is impossible while performing manual chest compressions.

“It keeps chest pressure continuous and closer to therapeutic level,” EMT Intermediate and Sandy volunteer David Silvia said, “which in turn helps us administer the drugs. And there are no interruptions in CPR because you can shock, and give the drugs while it is running.”

Nathan Jaqua adds that the AutoPulse “moves more (oxygenated and medicated) blood more effectively throughout the body than we could manually. It also does less damage to the body (rib cage).”

Basically, the device acts as a substitute heart, pumping blood to many parts of the body, especially vital organs.

Have you used an AutoPulse to save a life?

-via SandyPost

Related Posts

• September 24, 2008 -- Paramedic Seeks to Save Lives with Free Training
• January 24, 2012 -- Bill would require students to perform hands-on CPR
• November 2, 2011 -- What’s the Best Beat to do CPR by?
• October 20, 2011 -- Firefighters perform CPR in Dog Rescue
• October 14, 2011 -- Canadian ER Docs call CPR a Moral Obligation for Bystanders ‘whether trained or not’

Unrecognized Myocardial Infarctions, the name given to these silent heart attacks, are not yet fully understood, in terms of both prognosis or how often they occur.

Doctors are usually able to tell whether a patient has had a recent heart attack by looking for changes in a number of places.  They look for signature changes on a test of the heart’s electrical activity called an electrocardiogram.  They also check for particular enzymes in the blood.

Doctors will also look for changes on an electrocardiogram called Q-waves.  The only problem is that not all silent heart attacks will result in Q-waves.  Patients who suffer from the silent heart attacks are then treated for heart disease alone.

But Dr. Kim and his colleagues used a new type of magnetic resonance imaging technology, called delayed enhancement cardiovascular resonance, which is especially adept at finding damaged heart tissue.  The study was conducted on 185 patients with coronary artery disease, and no record of heart attacks.  35 percent of the patients had evidence of a prior heart attack.  Not only that, but non-Q-wave heart attacks were three times more common than silent heart attacks with Q-waves.

After two years of follow-up, people who suffered a silent, non-Q-wave heart attack had 11 times the risk of death from any cause.  Those same patients also had 17 times the risk of death due to heart problems.  This is in comparison to patients without any heart damage.

The study will appear next week in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine

-via cnn, msnbc

Related Posts

• April 1, 2009 -- More Bacteria in Mouth Boosts Heart Attack Risk
• March 31, 2009 -- Defibrillators may Cut Sudden Death Risk
• February 16, 2009 -- Do you know the signs of a Heart Attack?
• January 7, 2009 -- Another Living Reminder to learn CPR
• June 13, 2008 -- Political Analyst Tim Russert Dies of Heart Attack