Medical monitor developer LifeWatch AG (SWX:LIFE) has launched the world’s first medical smartphone, for Android-powered devices. The smartphone has built-in sensors for monitoring heart rate, pulmonary function, blood sugar levels, body temperature and galvanic skin response (which measures psychological pressure), and other physiological variables. The system can also measure blood pressure with an attached sleeve, and can analyze blood samples.
LifeWatch has developed a range of wireless monitoring devices for emergency rooms and medical services, as well as for personal use, but this is the first time that it has combined these capabilities on a smartphone. Chinese branded mobile phone manufacturer TechFaith Wireless Communication Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: CNTF) will manufacture the platform for LifeWatch.
This is a preview of World’s First Medical SmartPhone Launched by LifeWatch.
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It’s hard to find a better example of how technology is revolutionizing patient care than the tiny edible sensor Proteus Biomedical of Redwood City plans to begin selling this fall in the United Kingdom.
When the grain-of-sand-size sensor is integrated into a drug tablet or capsule and activated by stomach fluid, it signals when the medicine was taken to a patch on the patient’s body. Then the patch relays the information along with the person’s heart rate and other medical details to a caregiver’s phone — all without a visit to the doctor.
This is a preview of Wireless Medical Monitors, Transforming Healthcare delivery.
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A noninvasive hemoglobin (Hb) monitor, which measures key blood parameters, reduces the risk of a technician’s contact with donor blood.
The portable noninvasive device operates via a ring-shaped sensor that is fitted on the donor’s finger. The device applies pressure, temporarily gently squeezing the finger to over-systolic pressure, similar to blood pressure measurements, thus occluding local blood flow. During the occlusion, optical elements in the sensor, using an array of calibrated light sources, measure absorption, and scattering of the light transmitted through the finger.
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In the past decade, the use of MRI scanners has skyrocketed. Because the machines are able to provide relatively detailed images of soft tissues, they are extremely valuable in diagnosing cancers, heart problems and even back pain. These machines use a powerful magnetic field, radio frequency pulses and a computer to produce pictures of internal body structures.
But MRIs have been off limits to patients with implanted heart pacemakers. That’s because the MRI’s magnetic field could wreak havoc on a pacemaker’s electronic circuitry. Or worse, some of the pacemaker’s metal components could heat up and literally cook parts of the heart.
This is a preview of Pacing your Heart inside MRI Machine using REVO to be costly.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced steps to help reduce the risk of exposure to improperly reprocessed devices that can lead to the transmission of disease.
Medical devices intended for repeated use are commonplace in health care settings. They are typically made of durable substances that can withstand reprocessing, a multistep process which includes cleaning, disinfecting, or sterilization to remove debris and biologic materials that may transmit infection between patients. While successful reprocessing of reusable devices occurs routinely in health care settings, there are some devices which present particular challenges to reprocessing.
