A research team at Florida Atlantic University has tested a robotic cat in its ability to influence the mood and cognition of patients with dementia. The furry device moves and make realistic noises, and can provide a source of companionship and entertainment for patients, without the commitment of caring for a real animal. As patients […]
Tag: Geriatrics
AI Powered Health Assistant for Seniors: Interview with Ryan Howard, CEO of 100Plus
100Plus, a California medtech company, created a suite of remote patient monitoring technologies. These include a digital weight scale, blood pressure cuff, thermometer, and blood glucose monitor. The company recently launched Ava, an AI powered healthcare assistant that is specifically intended for senior patients who may not be tech savvy or as o (Read more...)
Battery-Free Smart Fabrics to Monitor Health
Researchers at Purdue University have developed a technique to create smart garments that can harvest electrical power from nearby Wi-Fi networks and radio waves in a process known as magnetic resonance coupling. This power can then be used to energize on-board electrical systems, including body monitors. The fabrics are water repellent, breathable (Read more...)
Rapid Compression Device to Prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis
Researchers at Penn Medicine have developed a wearable sleeve that provides rapid pulsatile compression, and aims to mimic the compression our calf muscles experience during walking. The technology, being commercialized by Osciflex, a spin out from Penn Medicine, is intended to prevent deep vein thrombosis in patients who are bed-bound for long per (Read more...)
Smart Speaker Monitors Heart Rhythms
Researchers at the University of Washington have developed an AI-powered sound system that can detect irregular heartbeats. The system sends inaudible sounds into its close environment and then analyzes the reflected waves to identify individual heartbeats from someone sitting close to it. The technology may be useful in detecting heart rhythm diso (Read more...)
Monitoring Cognitive Performance Using Smart Devices: Interview with Maha Radhakrishnan, CMO, Biogen
Biogen, a medtech company based in Massachusetts, has announced that is partnering with Apple in a research study to determine if it is possible to identify and develop biomarkers of cognitive decline, using data from smart devices, including the iPhone and Apple Watch. Biogen has a neuroscience focus, and the company hopes that it may […]
Aktiia Optical Blood Pressure Monitor Wins European Green Light
Swiss company Aktiia, whose cuffless blood pressure monitor we’ve been following for several years, announced that their wrist-worn device has received the CE Mark as a Class IIa medical device in Europe, and is now available for pre-order in the UK through the Aktiia website. Aktiia recently completed a pivotal trial whose preliminary result (Read more...)
CES 2020: OMRON VitalSight Remote Patient Monitoring
Remote patient monitoring has gone from novelty to necessity in a matter of months thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. In reality, allowing clinicians to keep an eye on their patients provides a number of important benefits even during “normal” times. At this year’s CES, which is a virtual event this year, Omron presented its VitalSi (Read more...)
Smart Stethoscope Helps Monitor and Diagnose Respiratory Conditions: Interview with Helena Binetskaya, CEO of Healthy Networks
LungPass, an AI-powered Bluetooth stethoscope has been developed by Healthy Networks, a company based in Talinn, Estonia. The device can analyze sounds from the lungs and help to diagnose or monitor a variety of respiratory conditions, with an initial focus on pneumonia and COPD. The aim was to create a low-cost (the device costs as […]
Body Sensors Printed Directly on Skin at Room Temperature
Biomedical sensors typically perform their best when they’re placed in close proximity to the body. While wearables, such as wrist-worn heart rate monitors, are common these days, they are very limited by where they can be placed on the body, have poor signal quality, and are often uncomfortable to wear for extended periods. Now, researchers (Read more...)
FDA Clears Masimo’s Go Anywhere Pulse Oximeter and Respiration Rate Monitor
Masimo won FDA clearance for its Rad-G pulse oximeter, a rugged device developed with the help of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Originally created to spot-check patients for SpO2 (oxygen saturation), respiration rate from the plethysmograph (RRp), pulse rate (PR), perfusion index (Pi), and pleth variability index (PVi®), this latest (Read more...)
$1 Hearing Aid for Age-Related Hearing Loss
Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed an ultra low-cost hearing aid, for which all the components cost in total less than $1. Designed to be worn by people with age-related hearing loss, the technology provides much of the functionality of conventional hearing aids, but at a tiny fraction of the price. The device may represent […]
Vitls Platform Cleared in U.S. for Remote Patient Monitoring
Vitls Inc., a company out of Houston, Texas, won FDA clearance for its Vitls Platform, a combination of a vitals monitoring patch, cloud storage, and an app that lets clinicians monitor multiple patients wearing such a patch at once. The patch, which is called Tégo, keeps track of a patient’s heart and respiration rates, heart [&hellip (Read more...)
Thinklabs One Electronic Stethoscope Helps Physicians Stop Spread of COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the implementation and use of telemedicine and telehealth platforms and devices as part of current day-to-day standards of care in many hospital and healthcare systems. In this era of social distancing, doctors on our frontlines are at the most risk when diagnosing patients, and it’s therefore important to min (Read more...)
WalkWise Walker Attachment Helps Seniors Stay Safe and Mobile
Falls have serious consequences for seniors, especially those who live alone. Medical alert devices can notify emergency services, but they are not always worn. In addition, they do not address fall prevention by encouraging active lifestyles and physical strengthening. WalkWise hopes to fill these gaps. The Fargo, ND-based company offers a smart d (Read more...)
Flexible Throat Sensor Powered by AI to Track COVID-19 Symptoms
As COVID-19 continues to infect more people around the world, there are still few reliable ways to spot the early onset of the disease and to monitor its symptoms in detail, particularly at a distance and while patients are at home. Now, researchers at Northwestern University have partnered with the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (formerly Rehabilitation (Read more...)
Breathable, Stretchable Electronic Fabric for New Medical Wearables
Stretchable electronic technologies offer the potential to monitor the body over extended periods of time in unprecedented ways. The heart’s rhythms, flexion of joints, and other biomedical parameters can be tracked with high fidelity and continuously using devices that can conform to the body. While much of this has already been possible, an (Read more...)
MIT’s Comfortable Shirts Loaded with Body Sensors
MIT engineers have developed a way of creating shirts and other clothing items that are embedded with tiny electronic sensors capable of measuring the heart and respiration rates, temperature, and movement. Other vital signs can be added by utilizing additional sensor types. The technology will allow physicians to monitor their patients closely thr (Read more...)
Stanford’s Smart Toilet Scans Urine and Stool for Diseases
Advancements in wearable sensors have allowed us to quantify and monitor the many bio-signals, and sometimes even bio-fluids, that emanate from our bodies. But when it comes to urine and fecal matter, which can contain a wealth of information, we’ve largely relegated its inspection to the yearly physical or when helping a doctor diagnose a [& (Read more...)
EchoNous Receives EU Approval for Kosmos AI Ultrasound Platform
EchoNous announced that it has received the Eurepean CE Mark of approval for its Kosmos platform, an ultrasound and AI-based software system that helps physicians obtain diagnostic imaging and make clinical decisions at the bedside. The Kosmos platform consists of an eight-ounce ultrasound device, the Kosmos Torso, which also has ECG and digital au (Read more...)