The Robot Report from CES 2012: Medical Implications January 28, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Invention, Medicine, Robotics, Web 2.0, Medicine 2.0, Video.add a comment
I got access to the Robot Report written by Frank Tobe from the recent Consumer Electronics Show 2012. He featured many innovative and futuristic consumer robots out of which a few, I think, had real medical or health-related implications. You can download the document here. An excerpt:
Consumer robotics represented a very small part of CES but had the same combination of glitz, glamour, marvelous stuff, misrepresentation, uninspiring products and hidden gems, just like the rest of CES. Robotics Trends hosted a Robotics Tech Zone but the action was well beyond their purview because many of the companies wanted to emphasize their consumer orientation instead of highlighting the robotic.
Some examples:
- PerMMA, a personal mobility and manipulation appliance for power wheelchair users.
- Myomo, rehabilitation robotics and interactive gaming systems for stroke victim rehab.
- Mantaro telepresence robot, a mobile Skype platform using your own iPhone or iPad.
- Paro, the therapeutic furry seal-like bot for hospitals and eldercare.
From Information Therapy to Facebook for Pharma: News October 24, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Photography, Robotics, science, Video, Web 2.0, What's on the web?.add a comment
Scientists, artists, writers, and philosophers once flooded the cafés of Vienna and Paris. These days, you’ll likely still find these same types in the cafés, but instead of getting into heated political arguments or passionately espousing their artistic beliefs, they’re absorbed by their laptop screens. Don’t let the silence fool you, though. They may very well be engaging in comparable lively discussions and exchanges of ideas. They could just be doing that in a Google+ Hangout.
In an effort to address information inequality around the world, the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) will now be offering free subscriptions through the HINARI initiative to developing countries in South America, Asia and Africa.
FutureMed Coverage May 26, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Conference, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Robotics, Video.add a comment
My good friends at Medgadget.com attended Future Med and covered the whole event through a great series of posts. It’s really worth reading the whole bunch of entries.
Origami and Manicure with the Da Vinci Robot April 6, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Fun, Robotics, Surgery, Video.add a comment
Medgadget featured a video in which Dr. James Porter of Swedish Medical Center in Seattle folds a paper airplane with the da Vinci medical robot and attempts to make it fly.
Here is another video in which Dr. James Porter again gives his daughter a manicure with the da Vinci surgical robot to demonstrate how this device gives surgeons greater surgical precision and dexterity over existing approaches.
Robotic pharmacy automatically distributes medication March 10, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Healthcare, Invention, Medicine, Robotics, Video.4 comments
It’s just getting more and more amazing how robotics can be implemented into healthcare. One of the latest examples belongs to the UCSF Medical Center where they now use robotic pharmacy in order to remove medication errors from the system. The most impressive thing, we think, is that our robot pals have not had a single error since preparing 350,000 doses of meds.
Robots are slowly taking over the world, right? Well, their latest conquest is the pharmacy. The UCSF Medical Center has implemented three robotic pill-dispensing machines that handle and prepare medication that’s dangerous to the common human. The process works as follows: doctor writes a prescription, hospital clerk sends it over to pharmacist, pharmacist enters slip into the computer, robot picks up it and does the dirty work. The automated machine will grab the proper dosage, package it and slap a label indicating instructions and patient info. Rather than fearing for their jobs (or lives), the folks at the UCSF at are excited about this robot-takeover ’cause it increases the time care-givers spend with patients while allowing pharmacists to work more efficiently with physicians in determining what medication to supply.
(Hat tip: Engadget)
Da Vinci Robot: Bloopers and Kinect February 15, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine, Robotics, Video, Web 2.0.1 comment so far
Medgadget shared a nice video about the da Vinci robot and the outtakes remained from filming a commercial by the Florida’s Health First hospitals.
And if we mentioned the da Vinci robot, engineers from Johns Hopkins University managed to connect it to the $150 Microsoft’s Kinect 3D controller.
Health 2.0 News: From Medting to Break Dancing October 27, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Electronic Medical Records, Robotics, Video, Web 2.0.add a comment
For a moment, let’s throw out the talk of any government incentives for implementing electronic health records (EHR). Everyone tends to focus on the incentives much more than the other very real benefits of having an EHR system. A number of providers have implemented EMR systems even before the incentives were announced. Most of those providers would never want to return to paper systems again. Here are a few non-incentive related reasons for implementing an EMR system.
Muscle-Computer Interfaces January 6, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Innovation, Invention, Medgadget, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Robotics, Technology, Video.4 comments
Medgadget just featured a video describing how EMG (electromyography) could be used in tools created for people with disabilities. Here is an excerpt from the Microsoft announcement:
Many human-computer interaction technologies are currently mediated by physical transducers such as mice, keyboards, pens, dials, and touch-sensitive surfaces. While these transducers have enabled powerful interaction paradigms and leverage our human expertise in interacting with physical objects, they tether computation to a physical artifact that has to be within reach of the user.
As computing and displays begin to integrate more seamlessly into our environment and are used in situations where the user is not always focused on the computing task, it is important to consider mechanisms for acquiring human input that may not necessarily require direct manipulation of a physical implement. We explore the feasibility of muscle-computer input: an interaction methodology that directly senses and decodes human muscular activity rather than relying on physical device actuation or user actions that are externally visible or audible.
Walking Humanoids November 5, 2009
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine, Robotics, Technology, Video.2 comments
Medgadget reported about the walking humanoid, PETMAN, developed by Boston Dynamics. I have never seen such a realistic movement from a robot.
I tried to find other similar videos just to highlight the difference:
And a walking robotic dog:
The 21st Century in Medicine: What will it look like? May 10, 2008
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Computer, Health, Medicine, Personalized medicine, Robotics, science, Video.5 comments
Jeffrey Dach used one of my recent posts (Personalized Medicine: Real Clinical Examples!) as a reference in his article describing the future of medicine. It’s a quite detailed and comprehensive essay about several fields of medicine and he doesn’t forget to mention personalized medicine and its impact on the future of healthcare:
Personalized Medicine is the combination of these two new powerful forces, Orthomolecular Medicine and Genetic Testing. In the future, Personalized Medicine will expand and ultimately play a dominant role in medicine. Example: Warfarin Genetic Testing allows improved calibration of coumadin dosage to avoid bleeding complications. Drug metabolism testing allows for personal modification of drug dosage.
Orthomolecular and personalized medicine together?
We will be able to sequence the entire genome of an individual human in milliseconds. The cost will be minimal and within the means of the average person.
Individuals will have ability to reprogram our own sperm and eggs. One will be able to buy new genes on the internet based on desired traits and features, and use these genes to make one’s own children as easily as buying a copy of Microsoft office.
My comment: If the government gets involved, then this sounds a lot like Aldous Huxley’s, Brave New World.
Example of this new biotechnology: Human genes are inserted into microbes to make insulin. We will see a dramatic increase in gene therapies and treatments.
Well, I think and hope many of these will never come true, but it’s interesting to see how others predict the future. This fantastic video tries to show us some plans and projects that can really shape this century:
If you would like to know more about the future,
- check out some of the presentations at TED
- or follow CNN Future Summit
