Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Russians Celebrate The Enema
Apparently the mineral water enema is something the Russian Caucuses are known for. And to celebrate the region's favorite medgadget, the city of Zheleznovodsk has unveiled a golden statue in its honor.
More from Gizmodo..
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Friday, June 20, 2008
DaVinci Origami
In the following video Dr. Norihiko Ishikawa from the Department of Telesurgery and Geomedicine at the University of Kanazawa uses the da Vinci robotic surgical system to fold origami cranes. Research like this could only have been performed in a Japanese environment, and we in the Occident can simply watch and learn.
We are anxiously looking forward to a 3D telerobotic bonsai pruning session.
Flashbacks: da Vinci Robot Surgery System ; Robots for Prostate Cancer
(hat tip: Pink Tentacle)
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Wednesday, June 4, 2008
RSStroom, The 21st Century Magazine Rack
Finally a device that intersects blogging with a critical medgadget, the RSStroom could be your personal news ticker for the commode. Only a conceptual device, designed a few years ago, that we haven't noticed before, this seems like something that should be installed at the international space station to allow the astronauts to keep current with the news cycle.
Link...
(hat tip: DVICE)
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Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Don't Forget to Brush Those Knees
Worth1000 hosts daily photoshoping contests, and the regular Medical Anomalies category is a very popular one. On the right you see a Sore Knee. Apparently folks are dissatisfied with the selection of diseases and medical dysfunctions that humans are already subject to.
Contest rules:
Medical anomalies are both disturbing and highly fascinating to see. In this contest you are going to show proof via X-rays, cat scans [sic], sonagrams [sic] and whatever other medical diagnostic tools you can think of to show medical anomalies.The rules of this game are thus: You will take any x-ray, sonagram [sic], model, skeleton or other medical diagnostic tool and use it to create a medical hoax.
Medical Anomalies Contest page ...
(hat tip: Street Anatomy)
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Taser for Your Health?
A strange incident set inside an emergency room, and involving a belligerent patient and an accompanying police officer armed with a Taser, may have led to the treatment of this chap's atrial fibrillation.
From the Wall Street Journal Health Blog:
That’s why the folks in the Hartford Hospital ER, where the true crime drama unfolded, called in Kyle Richards, a cardiology fellow who is the first author of the case report. In an interview this afternoon, Richards told the Health Blog the patient was “remarkably unhappy” to be in the ER, and grew combative. Richards called in security as the man pulled off the electrodes that were monitoring his heart. That was when the officer Tasered the patient. The hospital staff quickly reattached the electrodes and saw that his heart was in a normal rhythm.The whole thing took about two minutes, Richards said. “The time course is so close is that it makes the Taser shock more likely as a cause of his conversion” back to a normal rhythm, Richards said. But he added that the case isn’t clear proof that the Taser was the cause of the change, which might also have been the result of his treatment with a beta blocker or may simply have occurred spontaneously.
More details of the drama at WSJ Health Blog...
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Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Philips Files Patent Application for BP, ECG Underpants
You are not going to get our expert opinion on this one. We plead the fifth. The following is from the patent application:
Preferably the sensors are of a type which do not require special attachment systems, gels or pastes to make proper electrical contact, for example they may be dry electrodes of a type recently developed, made from conductive rubber, which rely only on naturally-produced sweat to make a conductive bridge between the skin and the electrode. Preferably, the undergarment comprises underpants having electrodes arranged internally, at least in the waistband area. Preferably, electrodes are so arranged as to measure the passing of pulses of the central artery, and the left and right femoralis, as well as the ECG. The system may also be arranged to monitor the temperature, the posture and the level of activity of the subject.Preferably, pulse detection is achieved using bio-impedance methodology, by injecting a small AC current using a first pair of electrodes, and detecting voltage changes caused by the injected current, with a second pair of electrodes so as to produce an impedance plethysmogram. The preferred arrangement of the electrodes is such that it is possible to measure the plethysmogram of the central aorta, as well as the left and right femoralis. At the same time, it is also possible to measure the ECG, using the dry electrodes in the waistband.
Patent application: WEARABLE BLOOD PRESSURE MONITORING SYSTEM
(hat tip: NewScientist via Engadget)
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Monday, May 19, 2008
Medical Transcriptionist Week
This week we celebrate the National Medical Transcriptionist Week, a commemoration of keys pressed and errors not made by thousands of dedicated professionals. And what better illustration of the effort some transcriptionists put into their art, than a keyboard that was used for over eight years by one of the industry's best.
A proclamation by President Ronald Reagan designating the National Medical Transcriptionist Week in May 1985:
A century ago, physicians knew many of their patients from birth, knew all their ailments, and provided all their medical care. Today, with medical specialization and greater mobility among people, many skilled physicians may treat the average American during a lifetime. Using transcribed medical reports, each physician can easily and quickly review a patient's medical history even if the physician has never seen that patient before. Because of the work done by trained medical transcriptionists, patients can be assured that the history of their medical care is portrayed accurately and legibly. Medical transcriptionists have therefore become a vital link between the physician and the patient.It is appropriate for our Nation to recognize the contributions of medical transcriptionists. We should encourage hospitals, allied health education programs, and community colleges to provide appropriate courses of instruction recognizing the high standards that must be met by medical transcriptionists and the vital function they perform.
More about the keyboard pictured at Boing Boing...
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Friday, May 16, 2008
CO2 Corset: When Medicine, Environmentalism, and an Art School Education Collide
Kristin O'Friel, a student at the NYU art school, has designed this corset to help you stop breathing as the CO2 levels in the environment go up. It is not clear to us whether this was meant as a medical device, an artistic statement, a pulmonary fibrosis simulator, or a fashionable euthanasia machine for the environmentally conscious.
From the artist's site:
I am interested in making wearables that enable you to feel information your senses are not acutely aware of. The CO2 Corset monitors carbon dioxide levels in the environment and provides physical feedback by tightening the bodice in relation to air quality.Traditionally the corset is a rigid garment comprised of vertical boning that is worn under clothing for aesthetic or medical purposes. The article supports the torso and slims the figure by cinching the waist imposing a shallowness of breathe on the user, making it contextually appropriate as the wearable interface to air quality.
(hat tip: DVICE)
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Thursday, May 15, 2008
SpongeBob Squarepants Musical Rectal Thermometer
The title seems to speak enough for itself. This thing could also be used orally or underarm.
More on the craze at Cartoon Brew...
Product page: Musical SpongeBob™ Digital Thermometer ...
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Friday, April 25, 2008
A Cigarette Pack A Day Keeps The Doctor Away?
A Chinese man, able to afford only part of his surgical treatment, was not able to cover the final costs of the surgery, leaving a 7 by 3 inch open wound in his chest which he's been keeping covered using cigarette packs for a whole decade now.
Part of his ribs and skin were hacked away by surgeons in 1998, hoping to remove part of his infected lungs.But the 51-year-old, from Taining in China's Guangdong province, says he was unable to afford the rest of the treatment after stitches were taken out.
He said: "I had the operation in 1998. I was then laid up for almost five years but gradually got used to the wound, and since 2003 I have been back on my feet.
"But no-one would give me a job and people were scared of me with the big hole in my chest.
"Because of that, I haven't dared to go outside, in case people get frightened."
He says he keeps the plaster coverings sterile, and changes the cigarette boxes several times each day.
And we thought China offered universal healthcare.
More, and with a better image of the wound, at Metro UK...
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Wednesday, April 23, 2008
ONN: Anonymous Philanthropist Donates 200 Human Kidneys
Anonymous Philanthropist Donates 200 Human Kidneys To Hospital
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Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Public Safety Through State Apparatchiks
The European Union's noise-at-work limits seem to have made a whole section of classical music no longer playable across the continent, The New York Times reports:
Tests showed that the average noise level in the orchestra during the piece, “State of Siege,” by the composer Dror Feiler, was 97.4 decibels, just below the level of a pneumatic drill and a violation of new European noise-at-work limits. Playing more softly or wearing noise-muffling headphones were rejected as unworkable.So instead of having its world premiere on April 4, the piece was dropped. “I had no choice,” said Trygve Nordwall, the orchestra’s manager. “The decision was not made artistically; it was made for the protection of the players.”
The cancellation is, so far, probably the most extreme consequence of the new law, which requires employers in Europe to limit workers’ exposure to potentially damaging noise and which took effect for the entertainment industry this month.
But across Europe, musicians are being asked to wear decibel-measuring devices and to sit behind see-through antinoise screens. Companies are altering their repertories. And conductors are reconsidering the definition of “fortissimo.”
More at the The New York Times...
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Thursday, April 3, 2008
PTeq - USB Pregnancy Test from ThinkGeek
For this April Fools' Day, ThinkGeek, a purveyor of the goofiest geek toys on the market, unveiled a USB pregnancy test kit that's almost believable in its function. From the "product page":
The process starts off like most pregnancy tests. You pee on a stick, specifically the absorbent test strip at one end. But everything's different after that first step. Remove the cap from the other end of the stick (cleverly provided to keep you from accidentally contaminating the wrong end) to reveal the USB connector. Pop it in your computer. The power from your USB port starts the electrospray ionization process, creating a spectrograph of the various masses for your analysis. Get it? Your analysis? Urinalysis? *rimshot* Moving on.You don't actually get to see the spectrograph yourself. The mass analysis happens inside the device. And p-Teq's device only analyzes for specific chemical makeups, so you don't have to worry about this thing busting you for that "poppy seed bagel" you had yesterday. The mass spectrometry software on the device comes with several sequenced hormones, including hCG (human Chorionic Gonadotropin), hCG-H (hyperglycosylated hCG - for detection before your first missed period), and LH (luteinizing hormone - for detection of your most fertile days). We like the fact that it does all three. After all, if you're not pregnant and you wanna be, you need to know if now's the time to be gettin' it on.
p-Teq Interface
While most home tests can detect a level of 15-50 mIU/mL of hCG, the enhanced methodology of the USB Pregnancy Test Kit can detect 5-50 mIU/mL, and will show you the exact concentration via its friendly onscreen interface. In addition, the LCD display on the device itself will light up and show you the symbol of a baby, no baby, or multiples and your Estimated Delivery Date based on the concentration of hCG, hCG-H, and LH in your urine. So you can clear your calendar in advance.
Product page: PTeq - USB Pregnancy Test
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Ascariasis: 20cm of Fun!
We're all mature medical professionals here, but as the resident engineer, this particular Medgadgeteer never had the unique opportunity to learn of all the horrible things that can go wrong in one's series of tubes (GI tract).
In searching the New England Journal of Medicine for the AED post, we came across the monster you see pictured above. A still colonoscopy picture of a 20cm worm is one thing, but the NEJM and authors Jang and Lee gave us the treat of watching it writhe around on video.
You'll note the medgadget lasso-thing coming to the rescue near the end of the video (if you can stand to watch the whole thing).
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Friday, March 21, 2008
Crucifixion Guidelines Issued
This Easter season some undoubtedly devout Christian Filipinos will be having themselves nailed to the cross, in what is also becoming a popular tourist activity to attend. The central healthcare authorities have issued guidelines on properly hygienic crucifixions.
From the BBC:
The health department has strongly advised penitents to check the condition of the whips they plan to use to lash their backs, the Manila Times newspaper reports.They want people to have what they call "well-maintained" whips.
In the hot and dusty atmosphere, officials warn, using unhygienic whips to make deep cuts in the body could lead to tetanus and other infections.
And they advise that the nails used to fix people to crosses must be properly disinfected first. Often people soak the nails in alcohol throughout the year.
More from BBC News...
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Monday, March 17, 2008
Home Depot for Some, Neuro Depot for Others
Yes, on the right you see a cordless medgadget used by a renowned neurosurgeon during complicated brain operations. Doctor Henry Marsh of St George's Hospital in London performs pro-bono work in Ukraine twice a year, and has to resort to cheaper tools, not exactly CE Mark approved, when performing surgeries.
When working for the National Health Service, Marsh uses a £30,000 compressed-air medical drill, but he said that the Bosch was an effective stand-in. “There's not a huge difference,” he said. “The drill is Igor's solution. It's simply an ordinary drill which he uses with the standard medical drill bits.“I have used the Bosch drill myself when I've been operating with Igor. It's exactly the drill that you could have in your garden shed. He bought it at a do-it-yourself shop.”
There is a shortage of fully trained anaesthetists so Marsh's patients are given only a local anaesthetic. This enables him to talk to them to ensure that he is not doing any permanent damage as he drills.
More from the Sunday Times...
(hat tip: Kevin MD)
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Rodents Remain Dirty
The Environmental Protection Agency has levied a $208,000 fine on IOGEAR Inc. over company's "germ-free" computer mice because of "unsubstantiated public health claims regarding unregistered products, and their ability to control germs and pathogens".
You may now go back to washing your hands.
More from Gizmodo...
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Saturday, March 8, 2008
The Science Fair, Revisited
Remember when you were young, and couldn't properly articulate your love for medgadgets and science? You knew you were different, but there was such pressure to conform... And when it came time for the annual science fair, your enthusiasm and inexperience combined for some cringe-worthy moments.
Or, not. Just sayin', you know, maybe that's what happened here. Forty-one projects are showcased altogether, going back over at least eight years. Some more favorites (HOTDOG EFFECTS !?) after the jump.
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Friday, February 29, 2008
Smarter Computer Interface for Blind Proposed
Current computer interfaces for blind people just don't cut it, as far as designer Jonathan Lucas is concerned. Mr Lucas is proposing a more intuitive interface, called Siafu, that blends a tactile screen, capable of displaying braille as well as images, with an input system, all designed around a conceptual material called Magneclay. The key here is the word "conceptual".
Read more about Siafu at Yanko Design...
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