The integration of multiple modern technologies, such as voice recognition, AI, real-time communications, and robotics can allow for important contributions to how clinical patients and elderly people at home are taken care of. While at CES 2020 in Las Vegas, we had a chance to meet reps from Misty Robotics, a company that has developed […]
Tag: Geriatrics
XStraw Makes Swallowing Oral Meds Easier
Many people experience difficulties swallowing their medications, with kids and elderly people being most commonly affected. Crushing pills and taking apart drug capsules is usually a poor solution, since the effectiveness and rate of release of medications can be significantly altered. DS Technology, a German firm, has developed a unique drinking (Read more...)
Smart Phyjamas for Monitoring Physiological Signals at Night
Researchers from University of Massachusetts at Amherst have developed a new smart pajama, dubbed Phyjama, that can track physiological signals during sleep. Their work demonstrates that the technology can reliably measure heart rate, breathing rate, and sleep position during the course of the night. One day, advances like this can be incorporated (Read more...)
MRI Can Now See Molecular Content of Our Brains
As we age, the molecular composition of our brain changes. This is a natural process, but it can also be associated with the presence of disease. Currently, there’s no practical way to study the molecular changes within living humans, and post-mortem studies are limited in the scientific information they can provide. Now, scientists at the [& (Read more...)
FDA Clears First Cuff-Free Blood Pressure Monitors
The FDA has granted Biobeat, an Israeli firm, clearance for the company’s wrist watch and patch that measure blood oxygenation, heart rate, and blood pressure. Not relying on a traditional cuff allows for long-term monitoring of blood pressure, particularly in patients who have difficulty keeping track of their health parameters on their own. (Read more...)
Cartilage on a Chip to Identify New Treatments for Osteoarthritis
Researchers from the Polytechnic University of Milan and the University Hospital of Basel have developed a microfluidic chip containing cartilage, which can be subjected to mechanical stress. The procedure mimics the conditions of osteoarthritis and could help in developing new treatments. Osteoarthritis is relatively common among people over 60, w (Read more...)
Fully Flexible and Wireless Body Monitoring Sensors
Flexible body-worn sensors that conform to the skin have great potential for monitoring patient health, conducting long-term studies, and giving consumers a way to track their exercise and overall health. Although there have been flexible sticker-like body monitors developed in the past, they have all involved rigid electronic chips and batteries. (Read more...)
Flexible Pump Breakthrough for Soft Robotics to Advance Artificial Muscles, Assistive Technology
Researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland have developed a flexible and stretchable pump for soft robotics. The existence of the device, described in the latest journal Nature, means that soft robots may no longer need to be tethered to rigid and bulky pumps, allowing for greater versatility in soft medica (Read more...)
Flexible Body Monitor Measures ECG, Breathing, Heart Rate Continuously for Weeks
Continuous, long-term monitoring of physiological activity can provide doctors, caretakers, and scientists with nuanced information about someone’s health. Children, the frail and elderly, and people with all sorts of conditions often have difficulty wearing and using existing body-worn sensors. Now, researchers at Georgia Tech have designed (Read more...)
Electric Brain Stimulation Shown to Improve Memory Function
Our memories often seem ephemeral, coming and going without any obvious reasons. Researchers at UCLA seem to have come up with a way to bring some memories back that would probably otherwise have gone missing forever. The team relied on transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a technology that can direct low energy electricity into specific (Read more...)
Electric Brain Stimulation Shown to Improve Memory Function
Our memories often seem ephemeral, coming and going without any obvious reasons. Researchers at UCLA seem to have come up with a way to bring some memories back that would probably otherwise have gone missing forever. The team relied on transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a technology that can direct low energy electricity into specific (Read more...)
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Improves Working Memory
Researchers from Duke University School of Medicine have found that magnetic brain stimulation can help improve working memory. They studied repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), showing that it improved memory task performance in all ages of adults. Given that individuals with Alzheimer’s will more than double by 2050, rTMS ma (Read more...)
Brain Controlled-Hearing Aid Separates Voices in a Crowd
When we are at a party and talking to someone, our brain is able to identify a single speaker’s voice and focus our hearing on it, helping us to listen more closely and ignore the other voices nearby. For the millions of people with hearing impairment who use hearing aids, they often lose this ability, […]
Electric Stimulation Drastically Improves Memory of Older Folks
The performance of our working memory starts to go down right around the time we finish residency. The older we get, the more difficulty we have forming new memories and holding on to them for a long time. Because it’s still a mystery how the memory system of our brains works, a decline in its […]
The Power of Modern Hearing Aids: Interview with Laurel Christensen, Chief Audiology Officer, GN Hearing
Modern hearing aids have to pack a great deal of technology in a tiny package. The batteries, high speed computer chips, speakers, microphones, and antennas have to all fit together and work in unison. They drive multiple sound processing algorithms that can modify how audio is boosted for the unique needs of each individual user. […]
Custom Pill Bottles Thanks to E-Paper Labels
Labels on pill bottles are designed to give the patient the necessary information, such as the drug inside and how often to take it. Prescriptions change, though, and in some cases, such as clinical trials, the regimen can vary significantly from day to day. We recently learned of a relatively new product, an electronic screen […]
Caregivers Want Robots to Take Care of Annoying Dementia Sufferers
People with dementia, as well as those that take care of them, can benefit from a bit of robotic assistance. There are a few robots on the market that are designed to help elderly people around the house, but not too much exists for those suffering from cognitive decline. While there’s been development in this […]
CareAlert, A Non-Intrusive Home Monitoring System: Interview with Fereydoun Taslimi, CEO of SensorsCall
The world’s aging population continues to grow. Today, in the U.S. alone, there are more than 46 million people 65 years and older, accounting for around 15 percent of the population. This is expected to swell to 20 percent by the year 2030. One of the main decisions that we are bound to make as […]
Google’s Live Transcribe and Sound Amplifier to Make Communications Easier for Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Deaf people and others who have trouble hearing are constantly finding themselves in situations in which communicating with other fellow humans is a challenge. Gesturing and writing things down on paper is simple, but slow and frustrating. Google, a part of Alphabet, is hoping to change that with a couple new tools that will be […]
Toilet Seat Automatically Measures Host of Cardiac Parameters to Monitor Heart Health
Getting daily checks of one’s cardiovascular function requires cooperation and commitment on the part of the patient. Monitors have to be put on, the readings recorded, and then shared with physicians or caregivers. While electrocardiogram (ECG) monitors, blood pressure cuffs, and other technologies are readily available for at-home use, they (Read more...)