Monday, November 10, 2008
Intel Health Guide Undergoing Trials
According to Planetary Gear, a blog at CNET, Intel has announced a number of pilot programs to test the company's recently approved Health Guide PHS6000 device (see our previous post: At-Home Monitoring Solution from Intel ). The unit, coupled with enterprise software, allows patients to communicate via video and voice with their health care providers, manage data from at-home diagnostic devices, and receive relevant information about their conditions. The company is partnering with Aetna, Scan Health Plan, Erickson Retirement Communities, and the Providence Medical Group in Oregon to enroll patients and physicians to assess the benefits and challenges of the telehealth system.
Some basics about the device from Intel:
The Intel Health Guide is a comprehensive solution, combining an in-home patient device, as well as an online interface allowing clinicians to monitor patients and remotely manage care. The solution offers interactive tools for personalized care management and integrates vital sign collection, patient reminders, multimedia educational content and feedback and communications tools such as video conferencing and e-mail. The Health Guide can connect to specific models of wired and wireless medical devices, including blood pressure monitors, glucose meters, pulse oximeters, peak flow meters and weight scales. The Health Guide stores and displays the collected information on a touch screen and sends to a secure host server, where health care professionals can review the information. Patients using the Health Guide can monitor their health status, communicate with care teams and learn about their medical conditions.
More about the trials from CNET's Planetary Gear...
Report from Wall Street Journal: Intel Takes Step Into Home Health Care...
Intel Health Guide PHS6000 product brochure (.pdf)...
Intel Personal Telehealth Overview ...
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Monday, October 20, 2008
Dyna-Vision Monitoring from RS TechMedic
Ivor Kovic, our former editor, has interviewed CEO of RS TechMedic, a Dutch medical technology company currently specializing in remote monitoring of patients. He posted the interview over at his new blog. The company recently introduced the Dyna-Vision device that performs cardiac monitoring and transmits the data via the cell phone network to a doctor's office. Moreover, the firm just announced during the interview that they are releasing an application that can receive mobile transmissions and display the data on an iPhone.
From the interview:
Currently one of your major products is Dyna-Vision. Tell me a little bit more about it and the ways it differs from similar products on the market?Dyna-Vision is developed with the latest available technologies. What we often see is that other companies are “upgrading’ existing products to be used for telemedicine. We are convinced that this is not the best solution. We created a wish list of physicians and their patients and developed a new technology based on these requirements. This is a different strategy and makes that we can offer the most recent technology.
We are a bit careful with making comparisons as Dyna-Vision as we really see Dyna-Vision as a new “type” of products and not as one of the existing ones. Our device gives you 3, 5 or 12 lead ECG, Heart Rate, Heart Rate Variability, RR-time, Plethysmogram, Oxygen Saturation and Pulse Transit Time.
Basically, the device creates a data file to be used in different software for analyses. Currently we certified 4 packages: Cardio, Monitoring, Health and Fitness and Research. This makes Dyna-Vision a multi-purpose device. Physicians can use Dyna-Vision for different indications optimizing there return-on-investment.
Dyna-Vision is the first and only device in the world with an integrated mobile phone. With this connection the recordings are transmitted to a remote server for analysis by a physician. This process is fully automated so there is no action required by the patient to transfer the data. A physician can download the recordings for analysis from anywhere at any time. Also, we offer the unique feature of real-time remote monitoring. For example, a patient has symptoms and contacts the physician who can simply login to the server to monitor the actual streaming parameters on a computer !
The rest of the interview at Ivor Kovic's blog.
A somewhat long winded video demonstrating the device:
Press release (PDF)
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Telerays: Auctioning Medical Care
Radiology has long been at the forefront of telemedicine, and now it is paving the way into another area of medicine...auctions! Enter Telerays radiology auction service, where batches of studies are auctioned off to the radiologist with the lowest bid. That doesn't sound very reassuring until you read through the company's reassuring credentialing process.
The radiologists are recruited from across the US in what appears to be a win-win proposition. For physicians, the Telerays system allows for as much or as little work, when and where they want, while simplifying billing arrangements. For hospitals, it adds access to radiologists, including sub-specialists (that may not be available in a smaller center) while potentially allowing for cost savings as well.
From the press announcement by Telerays:
Houston-based Radiologist Daniel Roubein, M.D., founder of Telerays says “Teleradiology was a radical step for the industry, but now serves requests on a routine basis. It provides a safe, easy way to find quality talent at fair prices. And it gives control back to the radiologists to set the fees and accept the cases they want."His first step was to credential radiologists nationwide and he has had great response…500 inquiries after one week. Telerays’ processes are HIPAA compliant and protect all private health information. Credentialing can take from seven to 30 days and there is no membership fee for doctors or clients. Only radiologists pre-approved by the hospital and imaging centers and fully credentialed with Telerays can bid on the contracts.
To start the bidding process, clients post their requests and all radiologists pre-qualified by them receive an email invitation to bid. The lowest bidder wins the contract, downloads the cases and uploads the final radiology reports. There are no possible delays in diagnosis because the bidding process is settled months in advance “The system has advantages for all parties,” said Dr. Roubein. “Hospitals and imaging centers benefit from market competition that gives them the best price for radiology interpretation services at any given time. By having access to a larger qualified network of radiologists, hospitals and imaging centers can negotiate a better price. There are cost-savings before the bidding even starts as we eliminate the preliminary report,” he added. Telerays provides only final reports.
For radiologists, Telerays reduces the middleman cost and gives a larger portion of the interpretation fee back to the doctor. Most services take up to 50%; Telerays takes 15% and also handles billing.
Telerays' News Release (.pdf) ...
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Thursday, October 9, 2008
eCardio eVolution Cardiac Monitor
eCardio Diagnostics, a firm from The Woodlands, Texas, is launching what it calls a "single-component" cardiac monitor called the eVolutionsm. The device is essentially a Holter-type of monitor designed to record rare arrhythmic episodes associated with transient symptoms such as palpitations or syncope. The data is then transmitted to a monitoring center for review via a telephone line or wirelessly.
From the company:
The device provides continuous computerized monitoring by means of a micro-processor running an exclusive auto-detecting algorithm. This technology delivers real-time data analysis, allowing physicians to discover both symptomatic and asymptomatic arrhythmias with speed and precision.In addition, the eVolution(SM) offers:
A Single Component System, eliminating the cumbersome monitor, modem and base station associated with traditional ambulatory cardiac telemetry systems;
Flexibility for physicians to remotely program the device while being worn by the patient;
Customized parameters to more effectively monitor changing patient conditions or specific patient requirements; and
Convenience for patients with minimal interruptions to the patient's daily routine.
Press release: eCardio Launches the eVolution(SM)
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Wednesday, October 1, 2008
EU Green Lights BIOTRONIK's Monitoring System
The European Union has given approval to BIOTRONIK's latest home monitoring system for wireless communication between implantable devices and physicians back at the clinic.
From the press release:
Over seven years ago, BIOTRONIK was first to develop and introduce, an internet-based remote monitoring system using the GSM telephone network and the only cardiac device manufacturer to make this technology available across its entire product portfolio of pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) and cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) devices allowing physicians to remotely monitor their patients’ clinical and device status from anywhere in the world. In fact, BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring is the only system available on the market that enables remote device follow up at any time.
Continuing its leadership in pioneering telecardiology, the newly approved BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring platform leads the industry in technological advancements. BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring has integrated a traffic-light, severity-based display of patients’ status to easily identify the most important information with just one click, allowing physicians to quickly review the clinical status of patients at a glance. The system provides one continuously updated and consolidated online CardioReport which includes physicians’ acknowledgements and review actions to minimize alert notifications to the most clinically relevant. Easy to read clinical information, including heart failure and atrial fibrillation diagnostics, an intracardiac electrogram, IEGM-Online HD®, (a tracing representing the heart’s electrical activity similar to an ECG but taken from inside the heart) as well as information related to device integrity is automatically available on the BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring system. Physicians can also customize alert-parameters on an individual or group patient basis, via the secured website, to ensure consistent patient triage. In addition, using BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring physicians and clinics can establish collaborative care management networks to optimize cardiovascular patient coordination and to enhance workflow efficiencies within one or more clinics.
Press release: The new BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring® Approved in Europe...
Product page: BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring...
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Thursday, September 11, 2008
Heart Guard Promises Early Warning System for Cardiac Patients
United Press International is reporting that an "inexpensive, real-time heart activity monitor may soon be available for patients to monitor their own condition, researchers in Latvia said." So we went ahead, and checked out what the fuss is all about. Predictably, just like many other projects from Europe, the Heart Guard is a European project, code named EUREKA project E! 3489. Truth be told, EUREKA is an intergovernmental European initiative, that's big on promises, but short on real output. The pages of Medgadget rarely see anything concrete from EUREKA in terms of medical technology.
Integris Ltd. from Riga, Latvia, the company behind the Heart Guard, explains the device's workings:
The basic idea of the project was to develop a user-friendly miniature wireless ECG recording and transmitting device (WERTD), and real-time ECG analysis and warning system (AWS), based on ordinary PCs or Pocket PCs for a patient's individual use.Disturbances of heart function can be monitored and analysed with special software.
This new device is user friendly, it works at least 24 hours without the need to recharge batteries and allows patient to roam up to 30m from AWS (for example at home or hospital).
In the proposed system, the monitoring of three orthogonal Frank ECG leads is possible, as the conversion of these to conventional 12 ECG leads. It provides an opportunity for carrying out a more detailed analysis of ischemic changes in the heart as well as rhythm analysis.
Intelligent monitoring software contains ECG signal pre-processing, and events on ECG recognition and measurement parts. The recognised cardiac cycles will be analysed with two programmes. The first programme carries out the detection of conduction disturbances and ischemic ECG changes, which take place during various syndromes of coronary heart disease, such as stable angina pectoris, unstable angina pectoris and myocardial infarction. The second programme will be used for detection and analysis of rhythm disorders and unstable conduction disturbances.
Project page: Heart Guard...
Project brochure (.pdf) at EUREKA...
Eureka: Early warning system for cardiac patients...
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Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Dräger Rolls Out New Portable Wireless Monitor
Dräger Medical is introducing a new mobile telemetry device for adult and pediatric patients. The device, designed for on the floor monitoring, is touted to support hospitals "in their initiatives to mobilize patients as early as possible in order to accelerate the healing process."
In addition to monitoring ECG and SpO2, the device has built-in algorithms to enhance ECG processing and reduce false alarms – such as pacer detection software and ACE® (Arrhythmia Classification Expert), an arrhythmia analysis tool.Infinity M300 can run on a hospital’s existing 802.11 b/g network – saving the expense of requiring a separate wireless network for the telemetry system.
Infinity M300 addresses the three major challenges of telemetry monitoring. The first is viewing patient information at the patient’s side. Unlike traditional telemetry devices which have no screen, Infinity M300 has a color display that shows the patient’s ECG for all monitored leads, heart rate, SpO2, and electrode status – enabling the clinical staff to access monitored data and react promptly without having to go to the central monitoring station. The display also shows patient demographics to help confirm the patient’s identification before giving medication, taking blood samples, or performing treatments.
The second telemetry challenge is hearing and responding to alarms. InfinityM300 has built-in alarming and alarm controls, which provide alarm alerts both at the patient’s side and the Infinity CentralStation, Dräger’s central monitoring workstation. The built-in display helps the clinician assess alarms and respond accordingly.
The third challenge of telemetry monitoring is the cost and effort associated with disposable batteries. Infinity M300 has a built-in battery, which can be recharged via a bedside charger while the patient is wearing the device, or at a multi-device charger at the central monitoring station.
Press release: Dräger announces first implementation of new wireless Infinity® M300 patient-worn monitor (.pdf)...
Product page: Infinity® M300
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Monday, August 11, 2008
Decision Making Using Telemedicine in Acute Situations
Lancet Neurology just published a study examining the benefit of using a two-way telemedicine platform, rather than a telephone, for hospital staff to consult with a physician regarding a patient's condition after a suspected stroke.
Here's a video example of one of these consultations:
Abstract in Lancet Neurology...
(hat tip: Wired Science)
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Cisco on Telemedicine
Cisco Systems is trying to get healthcare to embrace telemedicine in all its forms, and they posted a podcast discussing how far the technology has come and where it is going (all thanks to network routers of course).
Download Podcast - Video in Healthcare Then and Now (MP3 - 12:05 min)
More from Cisco on healthcare...
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Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wireless Health Monitoring Comes to Life
Tele-monitoring health devices are becoming quite the rage these days, seeing how wireless technologies and standards have matured. A&D Medical is taking advantage of the trend and will begin offering under their LifeSource brand a blood pressure monitor, a body weight scale, and an "activity monitor" (probably a standard pedometer), all of which send their data to a computer through a USB stick.
From the press release:
A family of three products are being unveiled, including the Wireless Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor, Wireless Precision Scale, and Wireless Activity Monitor. Utilizing FitLinxx, Inc.'s proprietary wireless technology all of the Wellness Connected products will be linked to provide users a comprehensive picture of their wellness. A complete record of blood pressure, weight, and activity transmits to a user's computer automatically, where custom software saves and charts daily progress. Consumers can also conveniently send data to Actihealth(TM) internet service for enhanced functionality, to access their personal wellness information from anywhere, and to share their progress with family, friends, support groups, and medical professionals
Press release: LifeSource(R) to Unveil New Telehealth Technology at 2008 NACDS Conference
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Wednesday, July 30, 2008
World's First Robotised Tele-Ultrasound Exam via Satellite
Robosoft, a French firm that stands behind ESTELE, a remotely operated robotic echo system profiled by us back in April 2007, has just announced the world's first robotised tele-ultrasound examination via satellite. According to the press release, the company has partnered with the European MARTE project (MOBILE And ROBOTISED TELEECHOGRAPHY) and Microsoft Robotics, which provided its Microsoft® Robotics Developer Studio software.
More from the announcement:
This demonstration was accomplished with an ESTELE robot entirely controlled by the robuBOX®.For the demonstration, ROBOSOFT made the ESTELE robot available to the project partners. Within a month after familiarization with the software development tools for the robot, researchers at PRISME developed and implemented the software for internet communication via satellite between a control station in France and a remote robot carrying an ultrasound probe used to examine a patient onboard a ship sailing the Mediterranean.
"These kinds of projects show the soundness of the generic approach used in the robuBOX", says Vincent Dupourqué, CEO of ROBOSOFT. "The standard tele-ultrasound robot was originally delivered for use in a classic video-conferencing system over the phone lines. Thanks to the robuBOX development toolkit, included with the standard robot, a customer can add his own functionalities, and can also integrate the robot into a larger system". For this project, the PRISME Institute handled adapting the robot software using Microsoft® Robotics Developer Studio.
The ESTELE robot is an example of cooperation between research and industry: designed, developed, and patented by a public-sector research laboratory, it was industrialized and marketed under licence by ROBOSOFT. It is controlled by the robuBOX, a "universal robotics engine" adapted for the expanding market for service robots. Several robots equipped with preliminary versions of the robuBOX have already been deployed: Estele, the tele-ultrasound robot used in this project; robuCAB, an autonomous GPS guided vehicle; as well as general-purpose mobile platforms such as the robuLAB10 for domestic help or the robuROC for security and military applications. The robuBOX, which allows customers to build numerous advanced robotics applications, was developed and can be modified using Microsoft® Robotics Developer Studio (see http://www.microsoft.com/robotics).
Press release: World's first robotised tele-ultrasound examination via satellite...
YouTube video (in French): ESTELE tele echography robot...
Flashback: ESTELE: Expert System for Tele Echography
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Monday, July 14, 2008
Telehealth at Home with Genesis DM
Genesis™ DM telehealth device from Honeywell HomMed (Brookfield, WI), one of the winners of 2008 Medical Design Excellence Awards, aims to help people living with long term health conditions, such as COPD or chronic heart failure, to maintain and monitor their health. In addition, the device was designed to help patients keep track of medical appointments and other important events.
Web-based and content-rich, the new Genesis™ DM is the latest generation of the industry’s best-selling monitor. With over 40,000 monitors in service worldwide, we provide the most complete remote biometric and symptom evaluation available.Genesis DM is seamlessly integrated into the innovative new Honeywell HomMed LifeStream™ telehealth platform, providing web-enabled, on-demand access to disease-specific symptom management (DSSM), customizable by diagnosis and symptoms.
This telehealth device measures heart rate, blood pressure, and weight, and provides customizable subjective disease-related queries for a more complete picture of an individual’s health. Automated set up and automatic patient engagement with a friendly voice and easy-to-use interface guide the patient at every step.
Product page: Honeywell HomMed Genesis™ DM remote patient care monitor...
This is a cross-post with Scienceroll....
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Friday, July 11, 2008
At-Home Monitoring Solution from Intel
Intel, a company known primarily as a microchip manufacturer, is aggressively positioning itself in the medical device market. The FDA just gave approval to market the company's new device that assists with monitoring at-home patients.
From the press release:
The Intel Health Guide is a comprehensive solution, combining an in-home patient device, as well as an online interface allowing clinicians to monitor patients and remotely manage care. The solution offers interactive tools for personalized care management and integrates vital sign collection, patient reminders, multimedia educational content and feedback and communications tools such as video conferencing and e-mail. The Health Guide can connect to specific models of wired and wireless medical devices, including blood pressure monitors, glucose meters, pulse oximeters, peak flow meters and weight scales. The Health Guide stores and displays the collected information on a touch screen and sends to a secure host server, where health care professionals can review the information. Patients using the Health Guide can monitor their health status, communicate with care teams and learn about their medical conditions.
Press release: Intel Receives FDA Market Clearance on In-Home Medical Device for Management of Health Conditions
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Monday, March 17, 2008
CellScope for Rural Microscopy On The Go
At the University of California Berkeley, a few handy researchers modified an off-the-shelf camera cellphone to produce a mobile microscope capable of 50x magnification. Coupled with the phone's natural ability to send out images, the device may help to virtually bring dermatologists, pathologists and oncologists to remote areas of the world.
Using Bluetooth, wi-fi and cellular networks, a phone needs no modification itself. Capable of 50x magnification today, the devices could provide twice that. A smaller prototype features its own light source."This could be useful even at home," suggests Fletcher [Associate Professor of Bioengineering at Berkeley --ed.], "where, for example, early warnings of a change in the shape of a mole could be sent to your clinician on a regular basis to monitor."
In addition, cancer patients could conduct their own blood cell counts that today require larger microscopes and particle counters.
Dr. Lam, Pediatric Oncologist at UCSF, is one of the grad students working on CellScope. He adds, "By no means do we think this is going to replace those large particle counters. It's just a good adjunct for the patient to have at home."
More, with video, from ABC...
Project page: Telemicroscopy for Disease Diagnosis...
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Monday, March 10, 2008
Magnetic Levitation Haptic Interface
This magnetic levitation interface from Carnegie Mellon University one day might be employed to provide the sense of touch and feedback in a variety of medical training simulators and robotic-assisted procedures:
Unlike most other haptic interfaces that rely on motors and mechanical linkages to provide some sense of touch or force feedback, the device developed by Ralph Hollis, research professor in Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, uses magnetic levitation and a single moving part to give users a highly realistic experience. Users can perceive textures, feel hard contacts and notice even slight changes in position while using an interface that responds rapidly to movements."We believe this device provides the most realistic sense of touch of any haptic interface in the world today," said Hollis, whose research group built a working version of the device in 1997. With the help of a $300,000 National Science Foundation grant, however, he and his colleagues have improved its performance, enhanced its ergonomics and lowered its cost. The grant also enabled them to build 10 copies, six of which are being distributed to haptic researchers across the U.S. and Canada.
"We have gone from the prototype to a much more advanced system that other researchers can use," Hollis said. Putting the instrument in the hands of other researchers is critical in a young, developing field such as haptic technology, he emphasized. Though haptic interfaces have uses in engineering design, entertainment, assembly, remote operation of robots, and in medical and dental training, their full potential has yet to be explored. That's particularly the case for magnetic levitation haptic interfaces because so few have been available for use by researchers, he added.
"This is an affordable device that's also practical," said Hollis, who has started a spinoff company to build additional devices. "Now other people can have this technology, and this represents technology transfer in the very real sense..."
The system eliminates the bulky links, cables and general mechanical complexity of other haptic devices on the market today in favor of a single lightweight moving part that floats on magnetic fields.
At the heart of the maglev haptic interface is a bowl-shaped device called a flotor that is embedded with six coils of wire. Electric current flowing through the coils interacts with powerful permanent magnets underneath, causing the flotor to levitate. A control handle is attached to the flotor.
A user moves the handle much like a computer mouse, but in three dimensions with six degrees of freedom - up/down, side to side, back/forth, yaw, pitch and roll. Optical sensors measure the position and orientation of the flotor, and this information is used to control the position and orientation of a virtual object on the computer display. As this virtual object encounters other virtual surfaces and objects, corresponding signals are transmitted to the flotor's electrical coils, resulting in haptic feedback to the user.
Full story: Magnetic Levitation Gives Computer Users Sense of Touch...
Magnetic Levitation Haptic Consortium...
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Monday, March 3, 2008
DINAMAP to Marry Motion C5 Mobile Tablet
At the recently concluded Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2008 meeting, GE Healthcare announced a collaboration with Intel and Motion Computing® to develop a mobile computing technology to eliminate the manual collection of patient vital signs and other data (presumably, stool guaiac results and such). In simpler terms, GE will try to integrate its Centricity Enterprise in-patient electronic medical record (EMR) software and GE Healthcare's DINAMAP® patient monitoring devices with Motion C5 mobile clinical assistant, a device we have covered many times in the past. The technology is already being tested at the UCSF medical center. Here is a tip for younger folks: the DINAMAP is what any 50+ nurse will call an automatic blood pressure machine.
From the press statement:
Slated for deployment at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center, the goal is to provide nurses with a mobile, clinician-centric workflow that incorporates the Motion C5 mobile clinical assistant from Intel into vital sign collection using Centricity Enterprise in-patient electronic medical record (EMR) software and GE Healthcare’s DINAMAP® patient monitoring devices...The solution replaces the use of Computer on Wheels (COWs) to access Centricity Enterprise electronic medical records (EMR) and is made possible by the creation of a new cable system and Java applet that allows vital sign collection on GE DINAMAP monitors to flow directly into Centricity Enterprise. GE engineers also designed a new user interface optimized for navigation and data input using the Motion C5 pen and stylus capabilities.
Using Mobile Computing’s formal clinician usability study methodology, UCSF piloted the mobile, clinician-centric workflow to fully utilize the potential of Centricity Enterprise EMR to help improve patient care. Initial benefits of the pilot have included enhanced patient interaction, reduced documentation delay and greater portability by the use of required clinical logins.
Product page: DINAMAP...
Flashbacks: Motion C5: Mobile Clinical Assistant ; Hands-on with Motion Computing's C5 medical Tablet PC; Mobile Clinical Assistant Platform from Intel
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Friday, February 22, 2008
GE Healthcare Deploys ApexPro® FH Telemetry
FH is for "frequency hopping", in this spread-spectrum telemetry system from GE that was just installed at the Memorial Hospital North of Colorado Springs, Colorado. The hospital is the first in the world to use it in conjunction with CARESCAPE Enterprise Access, a wireless infrastructure that coordinates various wireless needs of a hospital (cell, wi-fi, telemetry, etc).
The press release explains:
GE Healthcare announced...that Memorial Hospital North is the first healthcare institution to deploy ApexPro® FH, a spread-spectrum frequency hopping telemetry system, on its CARESCAPE™ Enterprise Access™ in-building wireless platform. The solution provides the hospital with a single, integrated, wireless platform that enables critical patient data to be securely coordinated, managed and distributed without the communications failures, interference or interruptions associated with un-integrated systems...CARESCAPE Enterprise Access furthers the hospital’s commitment to innovation by providing a secure, comprehensive platform for wireless voice and data communications. Using CARESCAPE Enterprise Access, clinicians can access critical patient information and communicate more effectively which supports better patient care. Powered by MobileAccess and its Wire-it-Once™ infrastructure, CARESCAPE Enterprise Access enables the hospital to quickly adapt to emerging wireless requirements and expansions without disrupting operations or interrupting services.
Memorial Hospital North deployed CARESCAPE Enterprise Access to provide reliable performance for telemetry, cellular phone service, public safety communications, and radio frequency identification (RFID). Recently, Memorial Hospital North added ApexPro FH without disrupting operations or interrupting services. GE’s medical telemetry system provides Memorial North with a large-capacity (up to 640 patients) wireless patient monitoring system with significant protection from signal interference and dropout. The system uses a bi-directional, frequency-hopping, spread-spectrum infrastructure, allowing it to “hop around” the frequency spectrum to help prevent interference. By helping to protect life-critical patient data transmissions from interference, dropout and downtime, the solution supports optimal patient care by helping to support better caregiver communication and productivity.
Product page: ApexPro Telemetry System...
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Thursday, February 14, 2008
DRE Envoy PDM (Patient Data Management) Wireless Monitor System
DRE Inc. just released a new wireless patient telemetry system that lets the doctor or nurse carry this flat screen around, while monitoring the vitals on up to six patients.
Unlike traditional telemetry systems, which typically resemble desktop PCs, all central station components of the Envoy PDM are housed in an all-inclusive device that is similar to the size and appearance of a 15-inch computer monitor. The Envoy PDM also features an easy-to-use touchscreen that eliminates the need for a keyboard and further decreases the size of its footprint.In addition to being a telemetry system, the Envoy PDM is a patient data management system that surgeons can use to compile patient information such as medical history, medications and treatment. The patient database helps telemetry operators compare onscreen vital signs with demographics of a patient.
The Envoy PDM seamlessly integrates with the DRE Waveline Plus, a seven-parameter patient monitor. Vital signs from up to six DRE Waveline Plus monitors can be tracked and stored on the Envoy PDM in real time. Vital sign data is sent to the Envoy PDM via a wireless transmitter that attaches to the back of the Waveline Plus. The transmitter allows surgeons to transport the Waveline Plus from pre-operation to surgery and through recovery while maintaining the wireless link between the monitor and the Envoy PDM.
Press release: DRE Introduces Wireless Telemetry/Patient Data Management System
Product page: DRE Envoy PDM (Patient Data Management) Wireless Monitor System
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Thursday, February 7, 2008
GlucoMon Remote Diabetic Monitoring
A new real-time blood glucose monitoring service called GlucoMON-RT from Diabetech (Dallas, TX) is designed for folks who have diabetic kids and others that need to be regularly monitored for blood glucose levels. For a $30 monthly service fee, Diabetech will relay the numbers off a portable glucometer and deliver them via text message, email, or page to a predetermined list of people. Hence one's parents or relatives, or perhaps the doctor's office, can always be in tune with the latest glucose readings.
The company explains the ease of operation of its technology:
Step 1 Test with the market leading blood glucose meter. The GlucoMON is waiting and always ready to transmit your blood glucose results, automatically. Step 2 Connect your meter to the GlucoMON-PWA. The GlucoMON automatically reads the glucose meter. You're done!
GlucoMON and GlucoDYNAMIX do the rest. Within a few seconds,the GlucoMON, via Diabetech's long-range wireless network, delivers the data to the GlucoDYNAMIX rules engine engaging the social network and the patient for better outcomes with less work.
Press release: Diabetech® Launches GlucoMON®-RT Real-Time Monitoring for Remote Diabetes Caregivers (PDF)
Product page: GlucoMON Real Time Alert Program Monthly Subscription
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» Home HealthPoint Telemetry from 4HomeMedia (January 10, 2008)
» Dr. Halo: XBox Based "Care Consoles" to Invade Hospitals (January 8, 2008)
» The ZOE Fluid Status Monitor Miniaturized (December 20, 2007)
» Telemed Solutions from Neurosynaptic (December 10, 2007)
» The RTX Telehealth Monitor (November 19, 2007)
» Reach Out And Prick Someone (August 14, 2007)
» MedApps D-PAL™ Remote Patient Monitoring System for Diabetes (July 12, 2007)
» A Sign of the Times, Microsoft Demos Online Consultation. (June 25, 2007)
» Yaawwnn...Another Attempt at "Smart Clothing" (June 4, 2007)
» Wearable Brain Scanner (May 24, 2007)