The focus of the trial will be to verify that the physiological data acquired by the digital plaster system within a clinical setting is equivalent to that acquired using current gold-standard monitors in use in hospitals – equipment that is often bulky, expensive and fixed, such that patient mobility is impaired. The Sensium digital plaster is wireless and unobtrusive, meaning that patients can remain ambulatory in hospital while still being monitored. This flexibility allows continuous vital sign monitoring to be extended to patients who would not normally be monitored, thereby offering the potential to increase patient safety. The Sensium digital plaster is a disposable device with a working lifetime of several days, after which the plaster is disposed of in the appropriate waste receptacle.

The trial is being conducted in three phases, an initial phase with non-patient volunteers followed by two patient study groups: patients recovering from surgery, and patients with specific medical conditions in the general wards.

The Sensium digital plaster is targeted for use in clinical monitoring applications such as acute care, general ward environments, tele-care, chronic disease monitoring, and in care home settings. For all these applications, disposability provides convenience, simplicity and patient comfort while ensuring infection control is maintained to the highest standards. Powered by thin batteries, body-worn Sensium-enabled monitors deliver clinical-quality data and intelligently integrate it into an electronic medical record via a network built on Toumaz’s power-optimised wireless operating and networking system, Nano Sensor Protocol (NSP).

Press release: Toumaz Technology and Imperial College London In Landmark Clinical Trial Of Sensium

Product page: Toumaz Sensium ...

Flashbacks: Sensium Life Pebble Wireless Vitals Monitor for Sport Training, Cardiac Health Auditing ; EU Aims to Develop Blood Glucose Prediction Device ; Sensium Chip: An Ultra Low Power Sensor Interface

Device features:

Wireless monitoring of heart rate and activity optimised for ambulatory conditions

Accurate electrically-derived heart rate from R to R peak measurements

3-axis accelerometer to detect and measure physical activity

Skin temperature sensor

Robust data communication, even in noisy channels

Up to 5 days' operational use on a single hearing aid battery

Light weight and ultra-small size (20gm with LR44 battery, excluding EKG leads)

Press release: Toumaz Technology Announces Availability of Sensium Life Pebble Wireless Vital Signs Monitor...

Product page: The Sensium Life Pebble...

Flashback: Sensium™ Chip: An Ultra Low Power Sensor Interface

Project page: Project ECHO...

By managing their individual online profile, each patient can establish high and low thresholds based on personal goals and health condition. The menu allows the patient to designate phone numbers for mobile phone text messages, as well as email addresses for recipients of alerts. In addition, there is a 'reminders' messaging feature on the MyGlucoHealth portal that allows the patient to set up a series of notifications to help them maintain a consistent level of testing, posting or a supply of strips. Reminders can be set up at 15-minute intervals throughout the day to alert the patient to test, upload their stored testing results or to order additional test strips when their supply is low. The website keeps count of strip usage and integrates with MyGlucoStore.com to notify the patient when it's time to order additional strips.

MyGlucoHealth is the first FDA cleared and CE certified Bluetooth blood glucose meter. The meter, along with the MyGlucoHealth Network, form an integrated telehealth platform supporting patients and healthcare professionals in the control and treatment of diabetes. MyGlucoHealth gives patients more direct control over their care and provides clear lines of communication with clinicians and caregivers.

The MyGlucoHealth meter works in combination with a real-time online data collection network to upload and manage blood glucose readings using a mobile phone or PC. This eliminates the need for patients to maintain personal logbooks, improving data accuracy and removing the opportunity for incomplete or 'manufactured' readings. Using the MyGlucoHealth Portal at www.myglucohealth.net, or regional sites throughout the world, patients securely transmit and evaluate their daily readings while communicating those same results to their families, caregiver or diabetic care specialist.

Press release: MyGlucoHealth Adds Patient Messaging and Alerts System to Integrated Diabetes Monitoring Platform...

Product pages: MyGlucoHealth; MyGlucoMeter...

The engineers attached compact microscope lenses to a holder fitted to a cell phone. Using samples of infected blood and sputum, the researchers were able to use the camera phone to capture bright field images of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria in humans, and sickle-shaped red blood cells. They were also able to take fluorescent images of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterial culprit that causes TB in humans. Moreover, the researchers showed that the TB bacteria could be automatically counted using image analysis software.

The engineers had previously shown that a portable microscope mounted on a mobile phone could be used for bright field microscopy, which uses simple white light — such as from a bulb or sunlight — to illuminate samples. The latest development adds to the repertoire fluorescent microscopy, in which a special dye emits a specific fluorescent wavelength to tag a target - such as a parasite, bacteria or cell - in the sample.

The researchers used filters to block out background light and to restrict the light source, a simple light-emitting diode (LED), to the 460 nanometer wavelength necessary to excite the green fluorescent dye in the TB-infected blood. Using an off-the-shelf phone with a 3.2 megapixel camera, they were able to achieve a spatial resolution of 1.2 micrometers. In comparison, a human red blood cell is about 7 micrometers in diameter.

The researchers pointed out that while fluorescent microscopes include additional parts, less training is needed to interpret fluorescent images. Instead of sorting out pathogens from normal cells in the images from standard light microscopes, health workers simply need to look for something the right size and shape to light up on the screen.

Article in PLoS ONE: Mobile Phone Based Clinical Microscopy for Global Health Applications...

Press release with video of the microscope in action: UC Berkeley researchers bring fluorescent imaging to mobile phones for low-cost screening in the field...

Side image: Fluorescent image of TB bacteria taken by the CellScope.

Flashback: CellScope for Rural Microscopy On The Go

OhMyGov blog reports:

Prior to the pilot phase, the VA tested the technology internally. Of 600 EKGs read on a Blackberry mobile device, 599 were correct diagnoses. The correct diagnosis rate signals an exciting new reality for telehealth. Clear digital imaging offers new modes of diagnosis and treatment for remote patient populations that may lack access to specialists, as well as more timely care in metropolitan and congested areas. The smartphone EKG project exemplifies the potential for telehealth technologies.

In order to take advantage of the technology, the VA uses a GE Muse server and digital EKG. The mVisum software knows when an EKG is taken and grabs a copy (as does its internal EHR). If a call is placed regarding a patient, the cardiologist can scroll through the EKGs, locating the patient of interest and view the image off-site. Everything is server-based, so the EKG does not reside on the phone-when the physician logs out, there is no accessible data left on the phone.

Company page: mVisum...

More from OhMyGov...

All you men out there better get ready to turn your head, cough, and hold a video camera to your groin.

From the Cisco press release:

Cisco HealthPresence will be one of the principal technologies enabling Connected Care, using video, audio and medical information to create an experience remarkably similar to an in-person visit with a doctor.

To mark the announcement, the companies unveiled today on Capitol Hill the UnitedHealth Group Connected Care mobile clinic – an 18-wheel clinic showcasing the technology and connectivity available through the network.

"In developing advanced telemedicine technologies, we're unlocking new possibilities for how patients can interact with doctors and medical staff. The in-person visit with a doctor is no longer the sole 'gold standard' method for delivering high-quality health care services," said Dr. Kaveh Safavi, vice president Global Healthcare Practice, Cisco Systems, Inc. "Instead, we've now introduced a new care at-a-distance health care delivery model that better connects people, information and processes into one continuum of care. This new technology-enabled delivery model will improve productivity and efficiency in health care while at the same time minimizing costs for access to quality care services."

Press Release: UnitedHealthGroup, Cisco Launch Connected Care, First National Telehealth Network to Expand Health Care Access...

Link: Connected Care...

Features from the product page:

* Monitor the patient over the long-term with a substantially decreased impact on quality of life.
* Catch events that only appear irregularly, with the secondary benefit that patients can now feel at ease that they will be able to capture their worrisome cardiac events
* Keep care of the patient in-house, and it allow them perform their own interpretation and analysis of the ECG strips if they so desire, or use an in-house technician if one is available.
* If the physician does not desire to interpret the readings, a third-party service can send the analyzed scans minutes after the reading is taken.
* Monitor the effects of changes in medication
* Access all the patient’s historical ECG readings with the click of a mouse through the RHMS, eliminating the need to search through a library of paper-chart printouts.

* Take ECG readings with far more speed than the 12-lead option
* Through the RHSM, readings can be quickly interpreted either on-site or by a third party scanning service, and returned to the originating facility in minutes.
* Determine the impact and effectiveness of the existing therapy regimen, and adjust regimen.
* Use the analyzed reading in deciding whether the patient requires emergency care.
* This solution offers tremendous saving potential by enabling the decision-maker keep patients out of the hospital when their conditions are non-critical, and to provide prompt medical attention when serious medical conditions are present.

Product page: ecg@home

More from The Medical Quack...

Press release: HealthFrontier Introduces New Innovation in Web-Based Remote Health Monitoring Technology

From the press release:

Corventis' remote monitoring wireless system was approved by the FDA in February 2009, which sets up the potential for a multicenter, randomized clinical trial. The trial will be spearheaded by the West Wireless Health Institute and led by Dr. Eric J. Topol, the Institute's chief medical officer. Dr. Topol is also chief academic officer at Scripps Health and holder of the Gary and Mary West Chair of Innovative Medicine.

Participation in the pivotal randomized trial with WWHI and Corventis will be offered to the sites supported by the National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) National Consortium, which consists of 38 of the most prestigious academic medical centers in the United States. The trial is designed to clinically validate remote wireless monitoring technology in proactively managing heart failure patients and reducing hospital readmissions.

Press release: West Wireless Health Institute Teams with Corventis for its First Multicenter, Randomized Clinical Trial...

Links: West Wireless Health Institute; Corventis technology...

Flashback: PiiX Monitors for Signs of Decompensated Heart Failure...

The University of Rochester explains:

Patients are brought to a room in the nursing home with a flat screen television so they can see the physicians.All the doctors in Rochester require on their end is a computer equipped with a web camera.Telemedicine “visits” are just like regular office visits and consist of an update on the patient’s health, a review of medications, any potential complications, and a standardized motor skills evaluation (balance, gait, coordination, and stiffness) conducted by the physician with the assistance of a trained nurse at the Presbyterian Home.At the end of the visit, recommendations are discussed with the patient and faxed to the nursing home.

An initial pilot project, funded by the Presbyterian Home, followed 14 patients for 6 months and then evaluated the outcomes of those who received telemedicine care with those who did not.The study found that telemedicine patients had significant improvements in quality of life and motor function.In addition, those receiving telemedicine had trends toward higher satisfaction with their care.

The project with the Presbyterian Home was so successful that Joseph decided to continue funding the effort for another year with the help of a grant from New York State. Dorsey and Biglan also hope to expand the project to other nursing homes in upstate New York.One of the key obstacles to the wider adaption of telemedicine for Parkinson’s and other diseases is payment for services.While studies of other projects have shown that telemedicine can reduce the overall cost of care, current reimbursement is limited to specific regions (for example, it excludes New Hartford as not sufficiently rural) and generally does not cover the cost of care provided.

Press release: Telemedicine Expands Reach of Care for Parkinson's Patients...