Medical tools

CareCenter MD takes cables out of hospital rooms

Cardiac Science Corporation, known for its advanced diagnostic and therapeutic cardiology devices and systems, unveiled this week its latest workstation, the wireless CareCenter MD. Featuring a simple, one-button user interface, the station allows physicians to track data for both ECG and stress tests in one place.

"CareCenter MD delivers superior ease-of-use and efficiency," says Rene Mitchell, Cardiac Science director of marketing, in a news release. "It's the first PC-based diagnostic workstation that supports both resting ECG and stress testing with a wireless data acquisition module."

Perhaps most exciting is the wireless data acquisition, achieved via … Read more

Just5: The cell phone that boasts fewer features

They say they're targeting seniors, children, and the vision- and hearing-impaired, but Just5's new mobile phone line is really best explained as a talking device for Luddites.

"We want to open mobile phones to specific populations that may have difficulty using the latest and greatest mobile gadgets, especially the current generation of 'baby boomers' who need a safe, reliable phone," Alex Petrov, vice president of operations at Just5 Americas, said in a news release.

Here's the setup. Just5 phones boast big buttons. They can be turned up louder than the average celly. An emergency SOS … Read more

Robot cuts the neck scar out of thyroid surgery

Guided by surgeons at a console, the da Vinci Surgical System enables access to the thyroid through the armpit, thereby doing away with the neck incision that has led to the hallmark scar of thyroid surgery, a team of surgeons in Georgia and Texas says.

The group adds that the robots first helped revolutionize urologic and gynecologic surgery in recent years, and that the thyroid gland--roughly the size of a kiwi that sits beneath the Adam's apple--can be accessed without too much trouble through the armpit.

The thyroid controls the body's metabolic rate, and diseases both benign … Read more

Test determines whether you'll age like fine wine

If you're one of those people who says you don't want to live a long life because you don't want to go through the aches and pains of aging, allow me to let you in on a little secret: it appears the people who live the longest tend to avoid the aches and pains of aging--at least right until their final days.

The reason, according to a new computer model that predicts whether you are likely to reach 100, is actually pretty simple: those who live past 100 (centenarians) and especially past 110 (supercentenarians) almost all carry … Read more

Eye exams using a mobile phone

Researchers at the school for really smart people, MIT, have come up with a novel way to conduct eye exams--looking into your mobile phone screen. With some custom software and a small plastic device, this can be done very inexpensively, making it possible for people in poverty-stricken countries to get prescriptions quickly.

According to MIT News, the system could be implemented like this:

In its simplest form, the test can be carried out using a small, plastic device clipped onto the front of a cell phone's screen.

The patient looks into a small lens, and presses the phone's … Read more

Online comic strip hopes to improve girls' health

In a preliminary study a few years back, researchers found that an educational, online comic strip geared toward 8- to 10-year-old black girls helped them eat better and exercise more. But there were only 80 girls, and they all self-reported, and it's unclear whether the fact that they were paid skewed the results.

Now, the program's creators are set to really put the comic strips to the test when they launch a larger study, with 400 volunteers and their parents, to test the Web-based program. Called the "Food, Fun, and Fitness Internet Program for Girls," the … Read more

'Dose painting': Customizing radiation treatment

A molecular-imaging technique using positron emission tomography (PET) sheds enough light on the biological processes of tumors that researchers hope to one day treat cancers with very targeted, high doses of radiation therapy customized for each individual tumor, according to research presented last week.

The study was presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine's 57th Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. Researchers used PET, X-ray computed tomography, and Philips-developed pharmacokinetic-modeling software to determine a tumor's anatomy and physiology and develop a high-dose intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) plan tailored for that particular tumor. Customizing radiation in … Read more

Introducing the 10-cent dipstick blood-type test

Researchers in Australia say they've successfully engineered the first dipstick-like blood-type test. By placing a drop of blood on a thin piece of paper that has been specially printed with antibodies, the blood's type is revealed based on which parts of the paper it seeps into.

The team, led by chemical engineering professor Gil Garnier at Monash University in Victoria, estimates the cost of the test at 10 cents. (By comparison, simple blood-type tests typically cost at least $15.)

The main grouping of blood types is ABO, and results in type A, type B, type AB, or type O (O indicating zero or absence of antigens). A separate grouping system, Rh, essentially qualifies blood types as positive or negative. The vast majority of people, then, have a blood type that can be characterized as A positive or A negative, B positive or B negative, AB positive or AB negative, and O positive or O negative.

Knowing one's blood type is crucial in the event that a blood transfusion is necessary, as complications such as shock and renal failure can occur between certain incompatible blood types. Someone whose blood type is O negative is considered a universal donor, while someone who is AB positive is a universal recipient.

The engineers and material scientists had actually been experimenting with different substances when they noticed something strange. "When you put a drop of blood on a Kleenex, it goes everywhere," Garnier told MIT's Technology Review. "But if it agglutinates [thickens], it stays in one place."

So they built a piece of paper with three arms, each printed (using enzymes or antibodies instead of ink in a modified ink-jet printer) with a different antibody to match the antigens on red blood cells--one for A, one for B, one for Rh.… Read more

Baby Bubbler could help ailing infants breathe

A prototype breathing-assist device for babies is on its way from Texas to Malawi, the first step in clinical trials that could lead to adoption of the device in the developing world.

Dubbed the Baby Bubbler, the portable, 3-pound gadget is aimed at helping children with acute respiratory infections breathe naturally as they recover.

The product, a type of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) device created by seniors at Houston's Rice University, is not a ventilator, as it requires patients to breathe on their own. The idea is that it could help babies--particularly in areas of the world where … Read more

Forget needles. 'Please' delivers drugs via lasers

I've always envied people who can get injections without flinching, as somehow, seeing a needle enter the skin gives me the jitters. This is probably the reason intravenous drug abuse has never appealed to me (next to the addiction and death issues, of course).

But thanks to Pantec Biosolutions and its Please (Painless Laser Epidermal System) device, getting a jab may no longer require the doctor to chase after a 33-year-old man shrieking down the hospital halls.

Using a laser system, the device creates micropores on the skin through which a stick-on patch delivers drugs into the body. This … Read more