Yanko Design blog is profiling the Braille Buddy project that aims to develop a simple to use tool to help people who've lost eyesight to learn Braille. Braille Buddy has little retractable nipples that code for different letters, a keyboard, and a voice synthesizer that guides patients through different lessons. The voice will read out letters that a patient has to type back in Braille, and the tactile screen will display letters to read and identify.

Yanko Design: My Best Buddy Braille...

Yanko Design blog is profiling the Braille Buddy project that aims to develop a simple to use tool to help people who've lost eyesight to learn Braille. Braille Buddy has little retractable nipples that code for different letters, a keyboard, and a voice synthesizer that guides patients through different lessons. The voice will read out letters that a patient has to type back in Braille, and the tactile screen will display letters to read and identify.

Yanko Design: My Best Buddy Braille...

http://bit.ly/b8N8yl

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Israel's business newspaper Globes is reporting that MAZOR Surgical Technologies has received approval from the FDA for the company's combined SpineAssist navigation and C-Insight imaging system. As we have reported before, Mazor's SpineAssist device is a miniature robotic guidance / perioperative planning system designed for treatments of spinal compression fractures and other vertebral surgical issues.

From the product pages:

SpineAssist

The system consists of a miniature device that mounts above the patient’s spine, and a workstation running advanced surgical planning software.

SpineAssist’s software allows surgeons to perform 3D, CT- based preoperative planning on a personal computer at their own convenience prior to surgery.

Using a virtual catalogue of surgical implants, surgeons can view and position implants within each vertebra or disc on three planes: AP, lateral and axial. A special feature in the software is used to review the planning slice by slice in sequence.

The software supports a range of measurements including Cobb angle, lordosis and kyphosis. The surgeon can view a simulation of the correction they are planning, which is especially useful in deformity and scoliosis cases. The software also calculates rod length and curvature.

The SpineAssist workstation connects to a fluoroscopic C-Arm and performs automatic CT-to-fluoroscopy image registration based upon 2 fluoroscopic images. The workstation is used to control the precise motion of the miniature device to the preplanned position.

C-InSight
C-InSight is an add-on to existing C-Arms, converting 2D scans to 3D images intraoperatively.

In line with FDA guidelines for radiation reduction, C-InSight provides 3D images at radiation exposure levels as low as 5%-10% of other intraoperative 3D scans, making is safer for both the OR team and patients. C-InSight can often eliminate the need for a post-operative CT scan.

C-InSight quickly connects to any C-Arm with a video output (via BNC cable) and converts 2D scans to 3D images in 2 minutes.

A short in-service will get the OR technicians / staff ready to operate the C-InSight. The easy step-by-step instructions assure consistent performance.

Here's Ori Hadomi, CEO of Mazor explaining the system on Fox Business News:

Demo video of C-InSight:

SpineAssist promo:

Globes: Mazor wins FDA nod for combined surgical systems...

Product pages: SpineAssist; C-InSight...

Flashback: SpineAssist Gets New FDA Approval

Israel's business newspaper Globes is reporting that MAZOR Surgical Technologies has received approval from the FDA for the company's combined SpineAssist navigation and C-Insight imaging system. As we have reported before, Mazor's SpineAssist device is a miniature robotic guidance / perioperative planning system designed for treatments of spinal compression fractures and other vertebral surgical issues.

From the product pages:

SpineAssist

The system consists of a miniature device that mounts above the patient’s spine, and a workstation running advanced surgical planning software.

SpineAssist’s software allows surgeons to perform 3D, CT- based preoperative planning on a personal computer at their own convenience prior to surgery.

Using a virtual catalogue of surgical implants, surgeons can view and position implants within each vertebra or disc on three planes: AP, lateral and axial. A special feature in the software is used to review the planning slice by slice in sequence.

The software supports a range of measurements including Cobb angle, lordosis and kyphosis. The surgeon can view a simulation of the correction they are planning, which is especially useful in deformity and scoliosis cases. The software also calculates rod length and curvature.

The SpineAssist workstation connects to a fluoroscopic C-Arm and performs automatic CT-to-fluoroscopy image registration based upon 2 fluoroscopic images. The workstation is used to control the precise motion of the miniature device to the preplanned position.

C-InSight
C-InSight is an add-on to existing C-Arms, converting 2D scans to 3D images intraoperatively.

In line with FDA guidelines for radiation reduction, C-InSight provides 3D images at radiation exposure levels as low as 5%-10% of other intraoperative 3D scans, making is safer for both the OR team and patients. C-InSight can often eliminate the need for a post-operative CT scan.

C-InSight quickly connects to any C-Arm with a video output (via BNC cable) and converts 2D scans to 3D images in 2 minutes.

A short in-service will get the OR technicians / staff ready to operate the C-InSight. The easy step-by-step instructions assure consistent performance.

Here's Ori Hadomi, CEO of Mazor explaining the system on Fox Business News:

Demo video of C-InSight:

SpineAssist promo:

Globes: Mazor wins FDA nod for combined surgical systems...

Product pages: SpineAssist; C-InSight...

Flashback: SpineAssist Gets New FDA Approval

Pyng Medical out of Richmond, British Columbia has received US regulatory approval to market the FASTx Sternal Intraosseous Device that provides quick vascular access via bone marrow.

Features of the device from the product page:

Vascular access within 10 seconds; fluids and medications to the heart in 30 seconds

Automatic depth control prevents over-penetration

Delivers fluids and medications as quickly as a central line, with shorter access time

Can be inserted during other resuscitation procedures

Can deliver any fluids or medications that can be delivered via IV

For use in adolescents from 12 years of age and older

Designed for single, sterile use—no cross-contamination

Flexible tubing with subcutaneous portal; strain-relief target foot ensures line does not dislodge

Can be inserted in moving ambulances, aboard helicopters, and on stretchers

Skill mastery within minutes; skill retention not dependent upon frequent practice or use

Press release: Pyng Medical Corp Receives US FDA 510(k) clearance for FASTx...

Product page: FASTx Sternal Intraosseous Device...

Flashback: The Fastest Way To a Man's Heart is Through FAST1 Intraosseous Infusion System;

Pyng Medical out of Richmond, British Columbia has received US regulatory approval to market the FASTx Sternal Intraosseous Device that provides quick vascular access via bone marrow.

Features of the device from the product page:

Vascular access within 10 seconds; fluids and medications to the heart in 30 seconds

Automatic depth control prevents over-penetration

Delivers fluids and medications as quickly as a central line, with shorter access time

Can be inserted during other resuscitation procedures

Can deliver any fluids or medications that can be delivered via IV

For use in adolescents from 12 years of age and older

Designed for single, sterile use—no cross-contamination

Flexible tubing with subcutaneous portal; strain-relief target foot ensures line does not dislodge

Can be inserted in moving ambulances, aboard helicopters, and on stretchers

Skill mastery within minutes; skill retention not dependent upon frequent practice or use

Press release: Pyng Medical Corp Receives US FDA 510(k) clearance for FASTx...

Product page: FASTx Sternal Intraosseous Device...

Flashback: The Fastest Way To a Man's Heart is Through FAST1 Intraosseous Infusion System;

A team of researchers at the University of Chicago Hospitals' Pediatric Epilepsy Center are working on a system which can monitor epileptic sufferers around the clock. Patients will be able to use their smartphones to record and send data to their doctor for review. The system, being developed in collaboration with Chicago based Wave Technology Group, can provide text message alerts to the patient or caregivers about potential upcoming seizures. Additionally, the system will be cheaper and more portable than current EEG monitoring solutions. Wave hopes to attain FDA approval for the system by the end of next year.

From BusinessWeek's coverage:

The prototype now in development includes a small 16-channel amplifier - smaller than a credit card -- that would be attached by wires to sensors on a patient's head. In the current design, a hat with a pocket sewn inside would be used to carry the amplifier.

The software would control the gathering of brain wave data by the amplifier and the ability to send it via Bluetooth to a smartphone carried by the patient, and from there to a typical cellular network for transfer to a monitoring center.

BusinessWeek: Smartphone app would constantly monitor epilepsy patients....

Product page: Wave EEG Monitor...

(hat tip: iMedicalApps)

A team of researchers at the University of Chicago Hospitals' Pediatric Epilepsy Center are working on a system which can monitor epileptic sufferers around the clock. Patients will be able to use their smartphones to record and send data to their doctor for review. The system, being developed in collaboration with Chicago based Wave Technology Group, can provide text message alerts to the patient or caregivers about potential upcoming seizures. Additionally, the system will be cheaper and more portable than current EEG monitoring solutions. Wave hopes to attain FDA approval for the system by the end of next year.

From BusinessWeek's coverage:

The prototype now in development includes a small 16-channel amplifier - smaller than a credit card -- that would be attached by wires to sensors on a patient's head. In the current design, a hat with a pocket sewn inside would be used to carry the amplifier.

The software would control the gathering of brain wave data by the amplifier and the ability to send it via Bluetooth to a smartphone carried by the patient, and from there to a typical cellular network for transfer to a monitoring center.

BusinessWeek: Smartphone app would constantly monitor epilepsy patients....

Product page: Wave EEG Monitor...

(hat tip: iMedicalApps)

We always focus on New Orleans but there were other areas hard hit 5 years ago too and this is one of them.  The reasons slated here for the layoffs is back to the same old story, money.  Reductions in Medicare and Medicaid are at the top of the list.  You can also visit the website and see they are also using some state of the art technology with robotic surgeries too with the daVinci device.

In addition to the layoffs, the hospice program will also end and employees will see an increase in their premiums and a wage freeze is in place for administrators.  This is not too far from where our Surgeon General practiced in Alabama and I’m sure she knows this area well too.  BD 

Forty-seven employees have been laid off at Memorial Hospital in Gulfport.

Gary Marchand, the hospitals president and CEO, says the layoffs came Friday and included 35 full-time employees. He says 10 nurses were laid off.

Marchand said Tuesday that Memorial Hospital is trying to offset an anticipated $11 million shortfall related to reimbursement reductions from Medicare and Medicaid.

Gulfport, Miss., hospital lays off 47 workers - BusinessWeek

InfraReDx of Burlington, Mass just announced FDA clearance of their LipiScan IVUS Coronary Imaging System. Coronary angioplasty used to be based on the premise that areas of arterial narrowing seen on angiography were the most critical zones to stent, believing them to be the cause of heart attacks. Thinking has changed, however, and there is some research showing that plaques that may not cause much narrowing of the arteries may be the ones prone to rupture and thrombosis. This has led to a plethora of innovation in coronary imaging systems and technologies.

We reported in 2008 about InfraReDx's near-infrared sprectroscopy coronary imaging system. The Lipiscan IVUS adds intravascular ultrasound to their device and is reportedly the first to combine intravascular ultrasound as well as near-infrared sprectroscopy to characterize intravascular plaques. The catheter-based system can be used during angioplasty to identify plaques that are likely to rupture and lead to a heart attack. It can also be used to predict stenting complications such as restenosis. Once stenting has been performed, IVUS can be used to analyze how effective a lesion has been stented.

Here is more from the press release:

The NIR spectroscopy identifies the chemical content of the plaques; the IVUS provides an image of plaque structure and stent features. The Company expects to conduct a broad commercial launch of the system within the U.S. by year-end 2010, and anticipates regulatory approval and launch in Europe during 2011.

David Rizik, M.D., medical director of Invasive Cardiology at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Medical Center, commented, "Patients are increasingly presenting to the cath lab with complex lesions, such as left main disease, multi-vessel disease and bifurcation lesions. In these patients, angioplasty guided by angiography alone is inadequate to prevent potential complications such as restenosis, stent thrombosis, and peri-procedural myocardial infarction." He continued, "To address these challenging cases, we have already incorporated the use of the original LipiScan system to help us identify lipid core plaques that complicate stenting. We are excited to acquire the next-generation LipiScan IVUS, as the addition of IVUS technology to the LipiScan platform will transform this novel diagnostic tool into a truly indispensible component of our lab."

Press release: InfraReDx Receives FDA Clearance for LipiScan IVUS Coronary Imaging System...

InfraReDx homepage...

InfraReDx of Burlington, Mass just announced FDA clearance of their LipiScan IVUS Coronary Imaging System. Coronary angioplasty used to be based on the premise that areas of arterial narrowing seen on angiography were the most critical zones to stent, believing them to be the cause of heart attacks. Thinking has changed, however, and there is some research showing that plaques that may not cause much narrowing of the arteries may be the ones prone to rupture and thrombosis. This has led to a plethora of innovation in coronary imaging systems and technologies.

We reported in 2008 about InfraReDx's near-infrared sprectroscopy coronary imaging system. The Lipiscan IVUS adds intravascular ultrasound to their device and is reportedly the first to combine intravascular ultrasound as well as near-infrared sprectroscopy to characterize intravascular plaques. The catheter-based system can be used during angioplasty to identify plaques that are likely to rupture and lead to a heart attack. It can also be used to predict stenting complications such as restenosis. Once stenting has been performed, IVUS can be used to analyze how effective a lesion has been stented.

Here is more from the press release:

The NIR spectroscopy identifies the chemical content of the plaques; the IVUS provides an image of plaque structure and stent features. The Company expects to conduct a broad commercial launch of the system within the U.S. by year-end 2010, and anticipates regulatory approval and launch in Europe during 2011.

David Rizik, M.D., medical director of Invasive Cardiology at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Medical Center, commented, "Patients are increasingly presenting to the cath lab with complex lesions, such as left main disease, multi-vessel disease and bifurcation lesions. In these patients, angioplasty guided by angiography alone is inadequate to prevent potential complications such as restenosis, stent thrombosis, and peri-procedural myocardial infarction." He continued, "To address these challenging cases, we have already incorporated the use of the original LipiScan system to help us identify lipid core plaques that complicate stenting. We are excited to acquire the next-generation LipiScan IVUS, as the addition of IVUS technology to the LipiScan platform will transform this novel diagnostic tool into a truly indispensible component of our lab."

Press release: InfraReDx Receives FDA Clearance for LipiScan IVUS Coronary Imaging System...

InfraReDx homepage...

I am currently reading this book – http://amzn.to/baqwa7 Despite the significant benefits of electronic medical records, organizations continue to struggle with successful technology adoption. Beyond Implementation examines the primary reason for poor and failed EMR adoption, explores real-world results from large healthcare organizations, and reveals a new approach for successful adoption and lasting value. The authors, Dr. Heather Haugen and Dr. Jeffrey Woodside, have witnessed the outcomes of poor adoption and are committed to helping organizations successfully adopt an EMR system. Through actual case studies and research, the book investigates the barriers that keep physicians from making EMR part of their routines. The key premise: a myopic focus on go-live implementation impedes the adoption and long-term sustainment of EMR.

As computing power continues to increase, it may ultimately be possible to simulate the functioning of the most complex system of the known universe: the brain. This is the ambitious goal of the Blue Brain Project, the first attempt to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain.

The project is expected to provide answers to a number of fundamental questions, ranging from the emergence of biological intelligence to the evolution of consciousness.

Lead by neuroscientist Henry Markram, Blue Brain was launched in 2005 as a joint research initiative between the Brain Mind Institute at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the information technology giant IBM. Using the impressive processing power of IBM’s Blue Gene/L supercomputer, the project reached its first milestone in December 2006, with the development of the model of a rat’s neocortical column (NCC).

To perform the empirically-based simulation of individual cells, the Blue Gene/L supercomputer uses the NEURON software developed by Michael Hines, John W. Moore, and Ted Carnevale at Yale and Duke. Thanks to this software, processors are converted into neuron simulators and communication cables are converted into axons interconnecting the neurons, which allows to transform the entire Blue Gene into a cortical microcircuit.

In November 2007, the project achieved the completion of its first phase, with the development of a new modelling framework for the construction and validation of neural circuits built from biological data. The project is now striving to simplify the simulation of the column, in order to allow the parallel simulation of multiple connected columns. If this strategy will be successful, the final objective will be to simulate a whole human neocortex, which includes about one million cortical columns.

More to explore:

H. Markram, The Blue Brain Project, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7:153-160, 2006

We’re getting more and more meaningful use details each day. No one should say that there isn’t a lot of information out there about meaningful use. Yet, I’m guessing there are still a LOT of physicians who still know little about meaningful use. McKesson’s even created this YouTube video explaining the Meaningful Use Final Rule. I can think of a few million YouTube videos I’d rather watch, but if you prefer video to reading, this video does give a general overview of many of the meaningful use final rule details:

UPDATE: Check out another meaningful use video that is definitely more exciting than the previous video (albeit with a little less content). However, it’s under 3 minutes and has music to keep it light and interesting. Thanks for sharing it Michelle. Although, I do wish I could embed the video on here.

Related posts:

1. Meaningful Use Final Rule Links
2. Relaxing of Meaningful Use Final Rule
3. Final Meaningful Use Rules Released Tuesday at 10 AM EDT

This recent Frost and Sullivan study (requires registration to access) has been making the healthcare IT and EMR blog rounds lately. The parts of the study that are most interesting to consider is their estimated EHR market size.

A study by Frost & Sullivan predicts that revenue for the U.S. ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) market will double from $1.3 billion in 2009 to an estimated $2.6 billion in 2012. Further, by 2013, the market will reach its peak, posting revenue of $3 billion. However, by 2016 market saturation will have occurred and revenue is expected to fall to $1.4 billion.

That’s right. They estimate in 2013 the ambulatory EHR market will be $3 billion. Now compare that number with the $36 billion of EHR stimulus money that’s available (or whichever ARRA EMR stimulus projection you prefer). Are hospitals really going to take that much of the EHR stimulus money? Something just doesn’t feel right about these numbers.

Other salient points from the study I wrote about in my posts about Complex Reimbursement as the Real Driver in EHR Adoption and the reshuffling of providers favoring Large EHR vendors.

Related posts:

1. Reshuffling of Ambulatory Physicians Favors Large EHR Vendors She [Nancy Fabozzi, a senior industry analyst at Frost &...
2. $18 Billion Might Be Spent to Stimulate EHR Adoption I love how people are saying that $18 billion will...
3. EMR Market Share I regularly am asked what the market share of the...

http://www.futurity.org/top-stories/neuron-diversitys-no-bug-of-biology/

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http://www.apple.com/itunes/ping/

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I came across an interesting news items about the rising rate of esophageal cancer in the U.K. This initially surprised me because I assumed that smoking/drinking were declining in the U.K. These behaviors have a causal relationship to squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus, but read on (see: Oesophageal Cancer Rates In Men Up 50 Per Cent In A Generation, UK), Below is an excerpt from the article:

Oesophageal cancer rates in men [in the U.K.] have risen by 50 per cent over the last 25 years, according to new figures....In 1983 around 2,600 men were diagnosed with oesophageal cancer ...and according to the latest figures around 5,100 men were diagnosed with the disease. The most dramatic rise was among men in their 50s, as rates increased by 67 per cent over the same period. Rates in women also rose, but only by eight per cent, from 5.1 to 5.5 per 100,000 people...."[W]e think the obesity epidemic may be a big reason behind the increase [said an author of the study]. We know that being overweight significantly increases the risk of adenocarcinoma - the main type of oesophageal cancer that's on the up. Our changing diets are also likely to be influencing the rise with people eating less fruit and vegetables....In 1983, 9.6 in every 100,000 men were diagnosed with oesophageal cancer but now 14.4 in every 100,000 men are diagnosed with the disease - an increase of 50 per cent.

On a hunch and to pursue this topic further, I googled the key words esophageal cancer and obesity. Here's an article on the topic with an excerpt below (see: Esophageal Cancer and the Effects of Obesity):

GERD, or gastroesophageal reflux disease, is one of the more common effects of obesity. GERD causes stomach fluid to leak into the esophagus, damaging the delicate inner lining of the esophagus. GERD can cause a condition known as Barrett's esophagus, which increases the incidence of esophageal cancer. For unknown reasons, the incidence of esophagus cancer has risen dramatically over recent years in the United States and Europe. Researchers at the University of Michigan (2007) documented a 350 percent increase in esophageal adenocarcinoma, a type of esophagus cancer, since the 1990s. Researchers are trying to determine why this increase has occurred at a time when stomach cancers have decreased....[The answer to this question of the rising rate may lie with the relationship between Barrett's Esophagus and cancer of the esophagus]. Barrett's esophagus is a condition in which the inner lining of the esophagus is replaced with tissue resembling the intestinal lining....[P]eople with GERD are up to five times more likely to develop Barrett's esophagus....According to one theory, excess abdominal fat pushes stomach acids back up into the esophagus, starting the cycle of inflammation that can lead to Barrett's esophagus.

So piecing all of this together: obesity > GERD > Barrett's esophagus > adenocarcinoma of the esophagus. However, there is still the need to explain why the incidence of adenocarcinoma of the esophagus is not rapidly rising in the U,K. among women. It's possible that, overall, they do not suffer from the same rate of obesity as men or that, for some reason, they do not have the same incidence of GERD in the face of their obesity. I have blogged before about how various diseases as linked to "lifestyle" issues (see: Seeking the Correct Definition for a "Lifestyle Disease"; Can We Reduce the Number of Preventable Deaths Occurring Yearly in the U.S.?). It looks like we can place adenocarcinoma of the esophagus in this same column.