Mar 27
Jay Parkinson, MD found a great picture showing that telemedicine was predicted in 1925.
Do you remember the video in which Arthur C. Clarke described how future doctors in Edinburgh could operate patients in New Zealand? Back in 1964? What about our own predictions for the future?
Mar 16
This is an absolutely timely topic and I’ve just recently come across pretty relevant news and articles focusing on whether patients should get access to source codes and data provided by their implantable devices. A few examples:
Hugo Campos has a small computer buried in his chest to help keep him alive. But he has no idea what it says about his faulty heart.
All the raw data it collects, especially any erratic rhythms it controls with shocks, goes directly to the manufacturer. And some of it later gets sent to his doctor.
Lawyer Karen Sandler’s heart condition means she needs a pacemaker-defibrillator to avoid sudden death, so she has one simple question: what software does it run?
Yet it turns out that it’s impossible for her to see and understand the technology that’s being installed into her own body and upon which her life depends. Regulatory authorities don’t see or review the software either.
My two cents here? They DO have access to any kind of data related to their health. But what do you think?
Here is a new video showing the futuristic and innovative glass technologies. Can you imagine how it could be used in hospitals and in the healthcare system?
I’ve recently come across this great video which was published earlier this year but still represents a better future.
It would be fantastic to use 3D printers to produce bone replacements:
Now, Washington State University engineers are unveiling a unique implementation of the tech that could aid in the regrowth of damaged or diseased bones. Utilizing a ceramic compound, the group’s optimized ProMetal 3D printer builds dissolvable scaffolds coated with a plastic binding agent that serve as a blueprint for tissue growth. The team’s already logged four long years fine tuning the process, having already achieved positive results testing on rats and rabbits, but it appears there’s still a ways to go — about 10 -12 years, according to the project’s co-author Susmita Bose — before orthopedic and dental surgeons can begin offering “printed” bone replacements.
Engadget posted an announcement under this title in which they present a technology that could be more than useful in dermatology, forensic medicine or education:
Researchers at MIT have taken the idea one (or two) steps further with “GelSight,” a hunk of synthetic rubber that creates a detailed computer visualized image of whatever surface you press it against. It works as such: push the reflective side of the gummy against an object (they chose a chicken feather and a $20 bill) and the camera on the other end will capture a 3-D image of the microscopic surface structure.
I’ve recently come across this digital cane designed by a Lithuanian designer Egle Ugintaite for the Fujitsu 2011 design award in which he won the grand prize. Great idea!
The cane, which is known as the Aid, has a built-in navigator that provides the user directions to a certain location. So if you get lost, this cane will point the way home.
Additional features include monitors for the user’s pulse, blood pressure, as well as body temperature. These important numbers are displayed on the LCD screen on the cane’s clasp. It even has a button for sending out an SOS in case of emergency.
We won’t even need tablets or smartphones in hospitals any more, as here are flexible paper computers.
The world’s first interactive paper computer is set to revolutionize the world of interactive computing.
“This is the future. Everything is going to look and feel like this within five years,” says creator Roel Vertegaal, the director of Queen’s University Human Media Lab,. “This computer looks, feels and operates like a small sheet of interactive paper. You interact with it by bending it into a cell phone, flipping the corner to turn pages, or writing on it with a pen.”
Jan 17
I wouldn’t buy a mirror for over $1000 only to measure my body temperature from 30 centimeters away, but there must be someone in Japan who will do so because a Japanese electronics firm NEC/Avio just presented at CES 2011 this technology.
All this without sticking a glass mercury stick underneath your tongue! So when you call in sick to work from your cellular phone, you actually have the evidence that you are indeed “under the weather”. In fact, your boss can even hear the confirmation because the Thermo Mirror will sound an alarm if your temperature is above normal.
By the way, when the Thermo Mirror is not displaying your personal body temperature, it is displaying other information such as the date, time, humidity, and weather temperature.
The product probably works with infrared thermography.
Jan 10
I predicted a massive role of tablets in 2011 and also wrote about the pros and cons of using iPad in healthcare when it became a hit last year. So it’s time to talk about Samsung Galaxy Tab which actually has changed totally my online activities in the past 3-4 weeks.
Pros:
Cons:
I use the Galaxy Tab instead of PC or laptop in several tasks:
What is your experience?
