Monday 7 January 2013

Update Medical Science & Techonology

  • Not only are real life versions of the Star Trek device under development, but some new medical devices are making it look a bit old fashioned. Take, for example, the ViSi Mobile vital signs monitor built by Sotera Wireless of San Diego, California. This wearable sensor pack uses Wi-Fi technology and is claimed to allow doctors using a tablet or smartphone to remotely monitor patient vital signs with the accuracy of an intensive care unit. 

  • Traditionally, in order to view tiny biological structures such as viruses, they must first be removed from their natural habitats and frozen.

While this certainly keeps them still for the microscope, it greatly limits what we can learn about them – it’s comparable to an ichthyologist only being able to study dead fish in a lab, instead of observing live ones in the ocean.

Now, however, researchers at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute have devised a technique for observing live viruses in a liquid environment. It could have huge implications for the development of treatments for viral infections. 

Space Display Simulates Motion Parallax For More Immersive 3D

  • A new interactive 3-D display developed by Californian startup Infinite Z can track hand and eye movements in real time to let users manipulate virtual objects in three dimensions in a highly intuitive way.

  • The zSpace display could bring a new level of realism to computer-aided design, virtual reality simulations, and even gaming. 

New collagen scaffolding technique to benefit tissue engineering


  • Collagen is the main component of connective tissues and the most abundant protein in the human body. Biocompatible and biodegradable, it is an excellent material for making scaffolding for tissue engineering.

  • The trouble is, conventional techniques disrupt the fibrous structure of collagen and weaken the end product. Tufts University researchers are aiming to change this with a new technique for fabricating collagen structures that avoids disruption and retains collagen’s strength.  

Microscopic Blood in Urine Unreliable Indicator of Urinary Tract Cancer


  • Microscopic amounts of blood in urine have been considered a risk factor for urinary tract malignant tumors. However, only a small proportion of patients referred for investigation are subsequently found to have cancer.

  •  A new Kaiser Permanente Southern California study published in the February Mayo Clinic Proceedings reports on the development and testing of a Hematuria Risk Index to predict cancer risk. This could potentially lead to significant reductions in the number of unnecessary evaluations.Jan. 9, 2013.

  • Microscopic amounts of blood in urine have been considered a risk factor for urinary tract malignant tumors. However, only a small proportion of patients referred for investigation are subsequently found to have cancer. A new Kaiser Permanente Southern California study published in the February Mayo Clinic Proceedings reports on the development and testing of a Hematuria Risk Index to predict cancer risk. This could potentially lead to significant reductions in the number of unnecessary evaluations.

                                                           Biomedical Engineering

  • First truly cross-disciplinary journal for the professional groups involved into health technologies.

  • Medical and scientific research professionals write articles not only for their colleagues, but directed to all other groups of readers as well, and vice versa.


  • Official Journal of the IUPSEM (International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine)

      • Health and Technology is the first truly cross-disciplinary journal on issues related to health technologies addressing all professions relating to health, care and health technology.

      • The journal constitutes an information platform connecting medical technology and informatics with the needs of care, health care professionals and patients. Thus, medical physicists and biomedical/clinical engineers are encouraged to write articles not only for their colleagues, but directed to all other groups of readers as well, and vice versa.

      By its nature, the journal presents and discusses hot subjects including but not limited to patient safety, patient empowerment, disease surveillance and management, e-health and issues concerning data security, privacy, reliability and management, data mining and knowledge exchange as well as health prevention.


      • The journal also addresses the medical, financial, social, educational and safety aspects of health technologies as well as health technology assessment and management, including issues such security, efficacy, cost in comparison to the benefit, as well as social, legal and ethical implications.
      • This journal is a communicative source for the health work force (physicians, nurses, medical physicists, clinical engineers, biomedical engineers, hospital engineers, etc.).


      • the ministries of health, hospital management, self-employed doctors, health care providers and regulatory agencies, the medical technology industry, patients' associations, universities (biomedical and clinical engineering, medical physics, medical informatics, biology, medicine and public health as well as health economics programs), research institutes and professional, scientific and technical organizations.


      • Health and Technology is jointly published by Springer and the IUPESM (International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine) in cooperation with the World Health Organization.

                                    Medical Simulation And Its Impact



      • Blood loss is one of the leading causes of death on the battlefield, but war-zone medics often find it difficult to receive the training to prevent those deaths.

      • Today they can “save” a life-sized arm developed by the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Simulation and Training that simulates “bleeding.”

      • Researchers there have developed the arm in conjunction with the U.S. Army’s Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) and Chi Systems. On Tuesday, they demonstrated how it works during the nation’s largest exhibition of modeling, simulation and related technologies at Orange County Convention Center.

                              Using Spam Blockers To Target HIV, Too


      • A Microsoft researcher and his team make a surprising new assault on the AIDS epidemic
      Cut-rate painkillers! Unclaimed riches in Nigeria!! Most of us quickly identify such e-mail messages as spam. But how would you teach that skill to a machine? David Heckerman needed to know.

      • Early this decade, Heckerman was leading a spam-blocking team at Microsoft Research. To build their tool, team members meticulously mapped out thousands of signals that a message might be junk. An e-mail featuring “Viagra,” for example, was a good bet to be spam–but things got complicated in a hurry.
                                               Laser Pinters And Your Health


      Laser printer description



















      • Do Laser printers cause harm to your health?
      According to the  recent study published in the online issue of American Chemical Society’s Environmental Science & Technology Journal,some of the Laser printers could release tiny particles of toner-like material into the air and could pose a long term health hazard to people when these are inhaled.


      • The report which was based on the research conducted at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane study who studied the printers used in our home and office found that some of these printers released particles from the toner-an ultra thiner powder used instead of ink.

      • This study investigated particle number and PM2.5 emissions from printers using the TSI SMPS, TSI CPC 3022, and 3025A TSI P-Trak and DustTrak.The monitoring of particle characteristics in a large open-plan office showed that particles generated by printers can significantly (p = 0.01) affect the submicrometer particle number concentration levels in the office.These released particles were comparable to emissions released from cigarette smoking.
      • This could mean that you could end up with the same lung as a passive smoker does?
                                                         "THINK ABOUT IT"

      Early-warning software could reduce false alarms of seizures

      Early-warning software could reduce false alarms of seizures


                          Microfluidic chip to quickly diagnose the flu

      Microfluidic chip to quickly diagnose the flu

      • During the H1N1 flu pandemic of 2009, which spread across more than 200 countries and killed more than 18,000 people, it became clear that flu diagnosis was often taking too long and resulting in frequent false negatives.
      • Today, researchers from Boston University, Harvard, and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are reporting in the journal PLoS ONE that they have built a microfluidic chip that rivals in accuracy the gold-standard diagnostic test known as RT-PCR but is faster, cheaper, and disposable.
             Pocket Brain app offers searchable 3D atlas of the brain

      Pocket Brain app offers searchable 3D atlas of the brain
      Of all the subjects best taught in 3D, anatomy has got to be up there. And when it comes to human anatomy, the brain is arguably the most complex organ, if not system, of them all.
      So it's fitting that 3-year-old medical education app publisher eMedia out of Ireland is adding the Pocket Brain app to its suite of 3D Pocket Anatomy offerings. (First came the body and the heart.) .

      New medical technology improves image quality and reduces radiation

      • Particle physicists have developed a new medical technology that combines PET and MRI in one. Benefit: Improved image quality and less radiation.

      • Current cancer examinations involve high levels of radiation. Based on the Big Bang research in CERN, particle physicists at University in Oslo have created a brand new technology that combines the PET and MR medical imaging technologies. This combination involves much less radiation than current technology.

      • PET is an abbreviation of Positron emission tomography and it provides a spatial image of where the cancer cells are located in the body. PET scans are harder to interpret if medical staff cannot situate the location of cancer cells in relation to the skeleton and soft tissue. This can be done by comparing PET images with an anatomical picture such as CT (computerised tomography) or MR (magnetic resonance) scans.

      • CT scans provide a three-dimensional x-ray image of the body. MR scans photograph the body using radio waves and a powerful magnetic field. MR provides far better images of soft tissue than CT does. The drawback of MR scans is that the examination is more expensive and takes much longer. The advantage is that MR does not emit ionising radiation.

      • Currently, most hospitals combine PET and CT, but this combination has a significant weakness.

      • 'The radiation from such an examination is ten times higher than the average background radiation over the course of a year. Many cancer patients must be examined multiple times to test whether the treatment is working. The total radiation during treatment can therefore be very high', says Erlend Bolle, a researcher in particle physics in the Department of Physics at University of Oslo (UiO), Norway.

                               Animal scanner for research


      • Today, there are two types of PET technologies, each adapted to a particular use: One is adapted for clinical examinations of patients. The other technology is optimised to let researchers find new and better cancer treatments by testing new medicines on animals. Siemens and Philips have recently launched a new PET/MR combination for patients. Particle physicists at UiO are the first in the world to develop a specially adapted PET/MR solution for scans of animals.

      • 'The high resolution in our PET scanner provides better images, and the high sensitivity makes it possible to use only half as much radioactivity in the examinations without it affecting the image quality. This opens new possibilities in research, and may also contribute to reducing radiation in clinical scanners, especially within mammography and brain scans. We therefore hope that Philips and Siemens find our technology interesting', says Bolle to the reserach magazine Apollon.

      • Together with his three colleagues, he has constructed a PET machine that is so small that it can be placed inside an MR machine. Both images can therefore be taken at the same time, and medical personnel do not have to correct the errors that occur when two images are combined after they have been taken.
                                     Eats up all the photons

      • In a standard PET examination, radioactive isotopes are attached to sugar molecules and injected into the body. The PET image is taken one hour later, when the sugar has been distributed to the entire body. Cancer cells burn sugar quicker than healthy cells. Radioactive gamma particles therefore accumulate in cancer cells. The gamma particles send out two sets of photons in opposite directions. This is called parallel photons.

      • In order to trace the radioactive source, the PET scanner must find which parallel photons are linked. This is one of the great challenges for current PET scanners.

      • As long as the photons hit the detectors at a right angle, all is well. When they are captured, it is possible to calculate which two photons are linked. The problem arises when the photons hit the detector at an angle. This leads to a great risk of imprecise measurements of the collision points. This diminishes the image quality.

      • Only half of the photons deposit all their energy on first impact. On subsequent impacts, only some of the energy is deposited before the photons change direction and deposit the rest of the energy elsewhere. Current detectors have no depth information and therefore cannot reconstruct the positions of these photons.

      • 'In order to capture all the photons, we measure the position in three dimensions in a five-layer detector', Bolle says.

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