MRI Technology Detects Diseases In Seconds Rather Than Hours - PSFK A typical MRI body scan is a difficult process which involves lying motionless in a tight space often for hours at a time. Imagine if that time could be shortened not only to minutes, but mere seconds. On your next visit to the doctors office, complex scanning procedures could be accomplished quickly and painlessly. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland say that after a decade of work they’ve developed a new MRI (magnetic resonance imagining) technique that can scan for those diseases very quickly. In just 12 seconds, for instance, it may be possible to differentiate white from gray matter in cerebrospinal fluid in the brain; in a matter of minutes, a full-body scan would provide far more data, making diagnostics considerably easier and less expensive than today’s scans.

MRI Technology Detects Diseases In Seconds Rather Than Hours - PSFK

A typical MRI body scan is a difficult process which involves lying motionless in a tight space often for hours at a time. Imagine if that time could be shortened not only to minutes, but mere seconds. On your next visit to the doctors office, complex scanning procedures could be accomplished quickly and painlessly.

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland say that after a decade of work they’ve developed a new MRI (magnetic resonance imagining) technique that can scan for those diseases very quickly. In just 12 seconds, for instance, it may be possible to differentiate white from gray matter in cerebrospinal fluid in the brain; in a matter of minutes, a full-body scan would provide far more data, making diagnostics considerably easier and less expensive than today’s scans.

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How drones could build real-world networks to transform delivery of food, medicine, mail, and more | Trends in the Living Networks

The rise of drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) has been at the forefront of the news over the last months, with issues emerging that range from the remote use of military force to domestic privacy.

However there are many very positive applications of drones. Matternet, spawned from a Singularity University program, envisages creating a network of drones to address developing world problems. Over a billion people are geographically isolated and are often not able to access regular transport and the goods that can travel to them. Rather than building physical infrastructure, drones can cheaply and easily allow drugs, food, and other essentials to get to where they are needed. The video below shows the Matternet Vision.

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Visualize Global Health | Humanosphere It’s a new dawn for global health data borne of necessity, mind-numbing numbers, Netflix and a desire to avoid insanity. “For our own sanity, we needed to create a new way to look at this stuff,” said Peter Speyer. Speyer, head of data development at Seattle’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, explained why he and his colleagues are transforming a massive collection of health data known as the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) into a stunning collection of powerful online and interactive visual tools. Go to the link; below is just a screen grab. Seriously, go there and try these out. You’ll have fun even if you don’t know yet what you’re doing.

Visualize Global Health | Humanosphere

It’s a new dawn for global health data borne of necessity, mind-numbing numbers, Netflix and a desire to avoid insanity.

“For our own sanity, we needed to create a new way to look at this stuff,” said Peter Speyer.

Speyer, head of data development at Seattle’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, explained why he and his colleagues are transforming a massive collection of health data known as the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) into a stunning collection of powerful online and interactive visual tools. Go to the link; below is just a screen grab. Seriously, go there and try these out. You’ll have fun even if you don’t know yet what you’re doing.

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Breezing: Portable Metabolism Tracker | Indiegogo

Meet Breezing.

For the first time ever, a metabolism tracker that syncs with your smartphone. Brought to you by a team of dedicated researchers and engineers, Breezing combines innovative design with proven science.

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The Digitalization of Healthcare: A Status Report for American Health Information Technology

Speaker/Performer: Michael Minear, CIO, UC Davis Health System

Sponsor: CITRIS (Ctr for Info Technology Research in the Interest of Society)

Michael Minear, Chief Information Officer at the UC Davis Medical Center, is a national leader in health-care information technology. He has an extensive record of leading transformations of large, complex organizations in the use of modern information technology.

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Injection-free vaccinations developed with the help of the Gates Foundation | The Verge 10inShare Researchers have proved that “injection-free” vaccines are an effective tool in the fight against diseases. The team, based in King’s College London and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, used dried sugar to create a microneedle array — a tiny disc that only lightly perforates the skin. The dried sugar, which was laced with a proposed HIV vaccine, dissolves when inserted in to the skin, effectively delivering the vaccine and kick-starting an immune response. The method is far less invasive than conventional vaccines that are delivered via a hypodermic needle.

Injection-free vaccinations developed with the help of the Gates Foundation | The Verge

Researchers have proved that “injection-free” vaccines are an effective tool in the fight against diseases. The team, based in King’s College London and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, used dried sugar to create a microneedle array — a tiny disc that only lightly perforates the skin. The dried sugar, which was laced with a proposed HIV vaccine, dissolves when inserted in to the skin, effectively delivering the vaccine and kick-starting an immune response. The method is far less invasive than conventional vaccines that are delivered via a hypodermic needle.

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There Are Now Six IBM Watsons, Here’s What They’re Doing | Mashable

IBM’s cognitive supercomputer, called Watson, famously won Jeopardy two years ago. That was just the beginning. IBM has built six Watsons in the last year, deploying them to do what the system was designed for: Give healthcare professionals fast answers to complex medical questions.

Both the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and WellPoint have gotten themselves a Watson, and have been training them in the last year to apply its learning algorithms and vast computing power to helping patients. Similar to Siri, Watson was designed to give useful answers to natural-language questions. Rather than spitting back a series of links like a traditional search engine, Watson tries to find the single, correct answer to whatever it’s asked.

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MIT Builds An Open-Source Platform For Your Body | Fast Company MIT Media Lab’s 11-day health care hackathon pulled students and big companies together with a common goal: Healing a broken industry. Siberian temperatures. Eleven grueling days, navigating rough terrain. Six teams, matched for talent, competing for glory at the end. The Iditarod? Nah, just the annual MIT Health and Wellness Hackathon. This isn’t your average social app-fest. The goal is to jump-start an open source platform where apps that track all different aspects of your bodily health can exchange information. It’s a Sisyphean task, since most digital health solutions today are trapped in silos, but the organizers believe they can change that by enfranchising big companies instead of trying to disrupt them.

MIT Builds An Open-Source Platform For Your Body | Fast Company

MIT Media Lab’s 11-day health care hackathon pulled students and big companies together with a common goal: Healing a broken industry.

Siberian temperatures. Eleven grueling days, navigating rough terrain. Six teams, matched for talent, competing for glory at the end. The Iditarod? Nah, just the annual MIT Health and Wellness Hackathon.

This isn’t your average social app-fest. The goal is to jump-start an open source platform where apps that track all different aspects of your bodily health can exchange information. It’s a Sisyphean task, since most digital health solutions today are trapped in silos, but the organizers believe they can change that by enfranchising big companies instead of trying to disrupt them.

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Walk-in kiosks for retail settings will deliver healthcare via telemedicine Soon after we came across the LifeBot 5 portable emergency room a closely related effort was brought to our attention. Focusing this time on traditional doctor’s visits, HealthSpot is a small, walk-in telemedicine kiosk designed to deliver access to high-quality healthcare in retail stores and other non-traditional settings. READ MORE…

Walk-in kiosks for retail settings will deliver healthcare via telemedicine

Soon after we came across the LifeBot 5 portable emergency room a closely related effort was brought to our attention. Focusing this time on traditional doctor’s visits, HealthSpot is a small, walk-in telemedicine kiosk designed to deliver access to high-quality healthcare in retail stores and other non-traditional settings. READ MORE…

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Amiigo, the Smart Wearable Sensor That Knows What You’re Doing

Wearable sensors or fitness-tracking bracelets, such as the Nike+ FuelBand or Fitbit Flex, are starting to go mainstream. But now, there’s a new competitor in town — the Amiigo.

The team of entrepreneurs behind this new wristband claims their product is better than the others because it can automatically tell what kind of exercise you’re performing. Amiigo will also be able to differentiate more than 100 exercises, track your movements and collect a number of physiological metrics like heart rate and blood oxygen levels.

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Australian firefighters test data-transmitting pills to monitor biometrics during work A new swallowable pill has been trialled with 50 firefighters in Australia, aimed at monitoring body temperatures and other vital readings when working under extreme conditions. Using Equivital’s VitalSense Core Temperature capsules, they transmit readings to the companion EQ02 LifeMonitor, housed on the chest. This then sends data on skin temperature, heart rate and respiration rate to an external computer. If a firefighter’s core body temperature is increasing too quickly, they can then be moved from the frontline to a recovery area, hopefully reducing accidents and deaths caused by heat exhaustion.

Australian firefighters test data-transmitting pills to monitor biometrics during work

A new swallowable pill has been trialled with 50 firefighters in Australia, aimed at monitoring body temperatures and other vital readings when working under extreme conditions. Using Equivital’s VitalSense Core Temperature capsules, they transmit readings to the companion EQ02 LifeMonitor, housed on the chest. This then sends data on skin temperature, heart rate and respiration rate to an external computer. If a firefighter’s core body temperature is increasing too quickly, they can then be moved from the frontline to a recovery area, hopefully reducing accidents and deaths caused by heat exhaustion.

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This App Turns Your Phone Into a Virtual Urgent Care Center GreatCall, makers of the Jitterbug phone, has introduced the Urgent Care app. It lets you search symptoms, peruse a medical dictionary and basically be your own doctor. Unless, of course, you feel you need one. In that case you simply press a button and you’ll be connected to a live registered nurse who, after asking a few questions, can help diagnose your issues. If more care is needed, the nurse can connect you to a board-certified doctor in your area who will call you within 30 minutes.

This App Turns Your Phone Into a Virtual Urgent Care Center

GreatCall, makers of the Jitterbug phone, has introduced the Urgent Care app. It lets you search symptoms, peruse a medical dictionary and basically be your own doctor. Unless, of course, you feel you need one.

In that case you simply press a button and you’ll be connected to a live registered nurse who, after asking a few questions, can help diagnose your issues. If more care is needed, the nurse can connect you to a board-certified doctor in your area who will call you within 30 minutes.

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