Some of the features from the CombiCarrier product page:

Approved as a full backboard and orthopedic stretcher

Patient can be rotated and slid out onto the CombiCarrier during auto extrication situations. Works like a traditional backboard.

Separates in Half for Application

Can be separated at either end. Eliminates unnecessary movement making it ideal for patients with suspected hip and pelvic injuries.

Continuous Head Support Surface

Improves neutral alignment and minimizes head movement during application and removal. Accommodates most durable and disposable head immobilizers, i.e., #445, HeadHugger™ and HeadBed II™.

Auto-Lock Latch System

Recessed side latch is positioned away from patient. Locks instantly during application, manual release required during removal from patient.

Seamless Plastic Construction

No rivets, drive screws or roll pins. High density polyethylene is easily cleaned and disinfected. Helps comply with OSHA regulations. Foam filling makes it ideal for water rescue situations.

X-ray Compatible

Clear center section provides unobstructed A/P view of patient's spine. Split-design allows for simple, easy removal and reapplication for detailed X-ray examination if necessary.

Product page: CombiCarrier...

More from Morphix Design...

2008 IDEA award details for CombiCarrier II...

A bit from the companies:

ESO Solutions provides medic-friendly, cost-effective electronic patient care reporting (ePCR) software and billing services for EMS and Fire organizations nationwide. The ESO Pro ePCR Suite is an intuitive, NEMSIS Gold application that helps emergency medical responders capture necessary patient data during emergency visits via pen-based notebook computers. The application also includes a robust quality management module, extensive ad hoc reporting functionality, interface capabilities, validation and tracking tools, and more.

Using ESO Pro Mobile on rugged pen-based notebooks in the field allows emergency responders to quickly capture patient vitals, medications, cardiac arrest treatments, electronic signatures, and other critical call data. ritePen 3.0 further enhances their ability to perform mission critical work, delivering easy text entry and medical terminology recognition as well as workflow control via handwritten shortcuts.

Check out this video overview of the handwritten character recognition capabilities and features of ritePen:

Press release: ESO Solutions Chooses ritePen for ESO PRO™ ePCR Suite...

ritePen 3.0 software overview...

More at emrupdate.com...

The biosensor device works to painlessly remove this outer-dermis, or dead-skin layer, by using a “micro-hotplate” (or micro-heater), which measures about 50 microns square and is carefully controlled to apply a small amount of power. (To imagine how small this area is, note that the period at the end of this sentence is about 10 times larger than the hotplate). For 30 milliseconds (that’s 30 one-thousandths of a second) the “hotplate” is turned on to a temperature of 130 C. Sounds hot, but in such a small spot, and for such a short time, a person cannot even detect the heat, or feel any pain, as it is applied to the outer layers of skin.

This hotplate causes a tiny micro-pore to form through which a little bubble of fluid passively emerges. The bio-sensor then reads the glucose levels in the sample fluid through tiny electrodes coated with a substance that reacts specifically to the glucose.

The bio-sensor project initially began through funding from the military, with the intention of developing a miniature device to remotely monitor the health status of soldiers in a battlefield. This tiny prototype chip, which acts as a patch on the skin and is called the B-FIT (Bio-Flips Integrable Transdermal MicroSystem), can obtain samples of fluid from under the skin one time every hour for a 24-hour period.

To support the design and development of the device, Currie and Paranjape received a Department of Defense contract for $3 million over 3 years from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).

Full story at Georgetown: Monitoring Diabetes Without Pain and Blood: Biosensors Offer New Alternatives ...

From DARPA:

DARPA wants to develop a dynamic, putty-like material which, when packed in/around a compound bone fracture, provides full load-bearing capabilities within days, creates an osteoconductive bone-like internal structure, and degrades over time to harmless resorbable by-products as normal bone regenerates. The agency believes that a successful "Fracture Putty" could rapidly restore a patient to ambulatory function while normal healing ensues, with dramatically reduced rehabilitation time and the elimination of infection and secondary fractures.

Potential solutions for Fracture Putty could involve novel bioresorbable adhesives that bond preferentially to bone rather than to soft tissues, that have bone-like mechanical properties, and work in the wet biological environment; load-bearing biomaterials with high mechanical strength and high porosity that match the mechanical properties of bone; biomaterials that create hierarchical bone-like internal structure; and biomaterials that adapt to biochemical cues. Mathematical models for dynamically remodeling systems with complex stimuli will also be necessary to achieve Fracture Putty's development.

Press release: DARPA SOLICITS PROPOSALS TO DEVELOP "FRACTURE PUTTY" (PDF)

From the project page:

MedUAV is a Hybrid medical re-supply & casualty evacuation (CASEVAC) vertical take off and landing (VTOL) unpiloted aerial vehicle (UAV) for civilian or military urban or sea scenarios and as a recovery capability for incapacitated, wounded or killed personnel suspected of having been exposed to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive (CBRNE) hazards. MedUAV is equipped with an electrical motor capable of providing hover lift at zero airspeed, cruise to speeds of up to 150 knots and a cruise ceiling of about 10,000 feet with a useful payload for 4 patient with full gear for endurance of 3 hours. The unmanned platform will also carry a passive and active self-protection system...

The MedUAV, technology will enable to resupply medical logistic to combat medics and facilitate them to provide the best treatment, stabilization and subsequent evacuation of combat casualties from hostile situations onboard the MedUAV autonomously. The research formulated a concept of design, to enable later in order to demonstrate the feasibility of producing enabling technologies for the MedUAV. These include a proficient system for navigating through urban or wooded terrain to a site of combat injury, to select a safe and suitable site for autonomous landing and take-off with communication capability with the human medical team, and minimal operating and guidance from combat troops. This will enhance the potential for appropriate first responder care and evacuation, performed by combat medics, during the so called “Golden Hour” of combat casualty care, utilizing the benefits and new abilities onboard the MedUAV.

The MedUAV research and development lead to primary two streams of technologies approaches for the flying vehicle design: The first one is a Medical Rotary UAV option – to convert a current operational military MedEvac Helicopter, tested and registered it for dual use. It will maintain the ability for fly by wire with flight crew on board and on the same vehicle an option to fly safely autonomously as a VTOL UAV leaded by the IAI (www.iai.co.il). The second technology option is to design an innovated aerial vehicle concept for a Med VTOL UAV. The proposed design is a turbine powered VTOL vehicle, based on two ducted lift fans, contained inside the vehicle's fuselage leaded by Urban Aeronautics (www.urbanaero.com).

Project page: Med-Evacuation Aerial Vehicle MedUAV...

From the Wall Street Journal Health Blog:

The Pentagon’s answer: A gizmo that could evaluate a soldier in seconds. And the Defense Department is giving the Brain Trauma Foundation $4.6 million over four years to come up with a device that can do just that–and is rugged enough to function in Iraq. It’s part of $300 million Congress set aside for research into traumatic brain injury and psychological health.

The battlefield-ready version isn’t finished. When it is, it’ll probably include goggles or a visor attached to a PDA. But at its heart will be a tiny, high-resolution camera and software to measure how well the soldier can track a red dot traveling in a small circle. How consistently the eye tracks the dot– both initially, and then while the patient concentrates on a simple task, like remembering five words – indicates how much damage was done, said Jamshid Ghajar, the foundation’s president and a clinical neurosurgeon at Weill Cornell Medical College.

More at the WSJ Health Blog...

The US military is looking into modifying a fleet of their transport planes to install systems that would allow any of the planes to be rapidly converted into a transport hospital.

From Defense Industry Daily

For several decades, the USA had a fleet of dedicated aircraft, the last being its DC-9 derived C-9A “Florence Nightningale” fleet. In its place is a new approach devised by USAF Lt. Gen. Paul K. Carlton Jr., the Air Force surgeon general until 2002. The idea is that every USAF Air Mobility Command aircraft can become an aeromedical aircraft, as newly arrived aircraft on the tarmac are loaded with about 800 pounds of gear and supplies per patient and diverted to hospitals like Landstuhl in Germany. Instead of waiting for days to stabilize a patient, outbound flights are sometimes coordinated while a patient is still in surgery. The result? Lower average cargo volume and weight statistics for US transport aircraft missions, and a 90% survival rate for troops injured in current operations. In Operation Desert Storm in 1991, the rate was about 75%...

What if the lighter systems used for helicopters could be adapted for larger fixed-wing aircraft, and used to create a portable litter system that needed no cargo equipment support, and could be kept with aeromedical evacuation crews?

AMB (Air Mobility Command) teamed with Lifeport, Inc. to demonstrate the concept using the company’s stacking litter system (SLS) which weighs less than 150 pounds. The initiative’s initial approval date was April 2007, and the concept demonstration was completed in June 2007 on a KC-135 Stratotanker. The team demonstrated compatibility with the NATO mesh litter, a litter backrest, and the special medical emergency evacuation device. The SLS encountered some minor compatibility issues due to its helicopter origins, but none were show-stoppers and the system could be loaded by 2 people without equipment, and installed in the plane in under 20 minutes.

More from Defense Industry Daily...

The FDA-approved Universal ECG portable PC-based ECG is the most compact and precise PC-based ECG on the market. It connects directly to most desktop PCs, laptops and Pocket PCs running Microsoft® Windows® XP or 2000 and performs resting ECG anytime, anywhere. EKG results are displayed on the computer screen for rapid assessment.

DRE distributes the Universal ECG at a price that is less expensive than most standalone EKG machines. The Universal ECG provides additional cost savings upon use: It allows physicians to print EKG reports on standard computer paper, reducing thermal paper costs by as much as $700 per year. The Universal ECG also requires no calibration or annual maintenance and it draws all power from the PC, eliminating battery costs.

The Universal ECG provides automatic measurement analysis and narrative interpretation using the sophisticated Louvaine Algorithm. According to a clinical study, the Louvaine Algorithm has the best total accuracy when compared with algorithms used by leading competitors. The study also found that the Louvaine Algorithm diagnoses Myocardial Infarction more accurately than competing algorithms.

DRE sells the Universal ECG with all components necessary for measuring 12-lead EKG data. It includes:

Intuitive software for collecting, storing and analyzing data on a laptop, desktop PC or Pocket PC

Free networking software that lets physicians collect data in more than one location and store results on a single database

Software used to move data from one database to another

The Universal ECG is available from DRE in a 12-lead interpretive version and a six-lead non-interpretive version.

Press release: DRE Medical Equipment Distributes Compact, Cost-Effective PC-Based ECG

Product page: Universal ECG™ Portable PC-Based 12-Lead ECG

iVent201 IC +AB Intensive Care and Non-invasive Ventilation with Adaptive Bi-Level Mode

A fully featured ventilator with Pressure Control mode (A/C or SIMV), Volume Control mode (A/C or SIMV), CPAP/PSV and Adaptive Bi-Level (non-invasive or invasive ventilation).
Software packages included are Pressure, Flow and Volume Waveforms, Trending and Respiratory Diagnostics.
Internal Oxygen Mixer with Sensor, High and Low Pressure Oxygen

iVent201 IC Intensive Care

A ventilator featuring a variety of mode capabilities including Pressure Control (A/C or SIMV), Volume Control (A/C or SIMV) and CPAP/PSV.

Software packages included are Pressure, Flow and Volume Waveforms, Trending and Respiratory Diagnostics.
Internal Oxygen Mixer with Sensor, High and Low Pressure Oxygen

iVent201 AB Non-invasive Ventilation with Adaptive Bi-Level Mode

A ventilator featuring Adaptive Bi-Level (both non-invasive or invasive ventilation) and CPAP/PSV.
Software packages included are Pressure, Flow and Volume Waveforms, Trending, Respiratory Diagnostics.
Internal Oxygen Mixer with Sensor, High and Low Pressure Oxygen

iVent201 HC Home Care

A ventilator designed specifically for care in the home with Volume Control mode (A/C or SIMV) and CPAP/PSV.
This vent uses Low Pressure Oxygen.

Versamed web site...

Dr. Jack Tsao, a Navy neurologist with the Uniform Services University, was looking for ways to help soldiers like Paupore. He remembered reading in graduate school a paper by Dr. V.S. Ramachandran that talked about an unusual treatment for amputees suffering "phantom limb pain," using a simple $20 mirror.

The mirror tricks the brain into "seeing" the amputated leg, overriding mismatched nerve signals.

Here's how it works: The patient sits on a flat surface with his or her remaining leg straight out and then puts a 6-foot mirror lengthwise facing the limb. The patient moves the leg, flexing it, and watches the movement in the mirror. The reflection creates the illusion of two legs moving together.

They say necessity is the mother of invention. While improvements in armor technology have kept more soldiers alive than ever before, many of those saved are coming home as amputees. We've explicitly asked the question before, and the number of posts we've done on the subject serves as evidence: for better or worse, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are driving major advancements in medical research and technology.

More from CNN...

Photo Credit: michiyoemi