Robotic Hand Successfully Connected To Amputee

European scientists said Wednesday that a six month experiment, where an amputee was fitted with a thought controlled prosthetic hand, has been a success. According to a CBC report, "the scientists say it was the first time a patient has been able to make complex movements using his mind to control a biomechanical hand connected to his nervous system."

Twenty six year old Pierpaolo Petruzziello, who lost his hand and forearm in an automobile accident says "It's a matter of mind, of concentration... When you think of it as your hand and forearm, it all becomes easier."

The scientists believe it is an important next step, however, "The important piece that remains is how long beyond a month we can keep the electrodes in." said Dustin Tyler, a professor at Case Western Reserve University and biomedical engineer at the VA Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

GE Brings Ultra Mobile Untrasound To Life

Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, announced at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, a device called the Vscan billed as a low-cost and very portable ultrasound scanner. "It's about the same size as a BlackBerry," Immelt said while holding the device that resembles an oversize flip-phone. No price was apparently provided but Immelt said "This could be the stethoscope of the 21st century."

Source: CNet / Rafe Needleman

RFID In The Operating Room

Radio frequency identification devices (RFID) are becoming a popular means of keeping track of things, including helping to identify patients in a hospital, and revealing the location of equipment. Dutch scientists are now claiming that RFIDs can have a negative effect on life-saving equipment, even in some cases turning off critical medical devices. Research conducted at Vrije University in Amsterdam, tested the effect of holding both "passive" and powered RFIDs close to 41 medical devices. According to this BBC report "A total of 123 tests, three on each machine, were carried out, and 34 produced an "incident" in which the RFID appeared to have an effect - 24 of which were deemed either "significant" or "hazardous". In some tests, RFIDs either switched off or changed the settings on mechanical ventilators, completely stopped the working of syringe pumps, caused external pacemakers to malfunction, and halted dialysis machines." Proponents of the technology say that the type of RFID used in medical situations are much less likely to have occurances than those used in retail situations and that any medical rated tag would have to meet a standard, meaning it is very unlikely that interference with medical devices would occur.

Google Health Goes Live

After a year and a half in development and a 2 month trial at the Cleveland Clinic, which quickly attained it's limit of 1600 patients, Google is taking the wraps off Google Health. Available at http://www.google.com/health the service offers patients the ability to control personal health records on the Web. The patient has the ability to login to their record and make updates that they can send to their care giver of choice (doctor, clinic, pharmacy, etc.) or keep completely private if they so choose.

If you have a gmail account simply navigate to Google Health and login using your gmail address and password. You will be presented with a couple of agreements, that upon acceptance, will grant you access to your Google Health account. The site then allows you to import medical records, complete a comprehensive patient profile including known conditions, medications, allergies, procedures, test results, and immunizations. According to the Cleveland Clinic the trial was oversubscribed and C. Martin Harris, the Cleveland Clinic’s chief information officer said “It positioned our personal health record more into an activity that they use every day,” Time will tell whether or not the public is truly going to embrace the idea of personal medical information in the hands of a corporation, but it looks like Google is on to something.

NY Times article here.

Teddy bear medic being developed by US military

Another robot story... The Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot (BEAR) is a machine being developed by the US military to extract a wounded soldier from the battlefield to a place where it is safer for them to receive treatment. BEAR is designed to travel over rough terrain and it's teddy bear face is meant to put the wounded soldier at ease (I've already weighed in on my belief about human looking robots being creepy, teddy bears...not so much!). The machine is remotely controlled and depending on the terrain it runs on tracks or tires. The six foot saviour can also tackle stairs and is narrow enough to fit through doorways. The BBC has more details here.