Children with autism often seem to want to socialize with robots more than humans, something that researchers at MIT want to harness as a pathway for therapy. The team, partnering with others at Chubu University in Japan and Imperial College London, have given a popular humanoid robot, called NAO, the ability to see what the kids […]
Tag: Psychiatry
A Brief Look at FOCI: The Wearable That Helps You Stay Calm and Focused
At the ITF Conference in Belgium in May, imec director Chris Van Hoof shared with us how mental health is an area of medicine that is underserved and ripe for innovation with medical technology. While they might be more for general wellness, we’re slowly starting to see a new wave of technologies in the form […]
Kids Want Virtual Reality to Help Get Through Immunizations
Getting children to go through a needle-based immunization can be incredibly frustrating to parents and very scary for the kids. Cheap virtual reality headsets are becoming just the thing to overcome this seemingly perpetual problem and researchers at Florida Atlantic University were looking to prove this out. The group invited a group of kids and their […]
ResQ is Using Games to Fight Opioid Addiction: Interview with Dr. Paul Glimcher
Earlier this year at the Health 2.0 WinterTech Conference, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and Catalyst @ Health 2.0 launched the RWJF Opioid Challenge, an initiative aimed at bringing together healthcare and technology innovators to solve a growing epidemic of addiction in the United States. A panel of 19 judges evaluated 97 initial submissions based […]
Litesprite Helps Patients Manage Illnesses Through Gamification
Gamification is gaining recognition as a powerful tool for contexts far removed from gaming itself, and the approach has been used for applications as varied as advertising, to recruiting, to rewards programs. Litesprite hopes to expand gamification in a rather important sector: health. Litesprite’s mobile application, Sinasprite, helps patients proactively manage their chronic illnesses, including […]
Wristband with a Myriad of Sensors to Improve Lives of Dementia Patients
At the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration in Berlin, Germany researchers are working on a sensor and software package that would help people developing dementia to slow down the disease progression and improve their and their families’ quality of life. The system, that has already been tried on patients, revolves around a wristband that measures […]
Klue Hand Tracking Tech for Behavior Change to be Tried at Stanford, Crossover Health
Klue, a Silicon Valley company that’s working to better utilize data gathered from wearable body trackers, is now working with Stanford University and Crossover Health, a primary care medical group, to study the effectiveness of Klue’s modules to affect change. The partnership with Stanford involves conducting a scientific study of Klue’s Mindful Eating Messenger and […]
MRI Maps of Brain’s Visual Cortex Connectivity Point to Mental Illness
Researchers at Duke University may have identified a way of predicting future (!) onset of mental illness. They used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study how various parts of the brain communicate with each other. What the investigators noticed is that those individuals with a poorly functioning visual cortex, that doesn’t seem to talk well […]
Nextstim’s NBT Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Coming to U.S. to Treat Major Depression
Nextstim, based in Helsinki, Finland, is making its NBT Navigated Brain Therapy system available in the U.S. for treatment of Major Depressive Disorder. The device is used to deliver transcranial magnetic stimulation to the brain, a therapy that has shown to be effective for certain patients. The system consists of the transcranial magnetic stimulator, stimulation […]
SmokeBeat Uses Fitness Bands and Smartwatches to Detect Smoking: Interview with CEO of Somatix
The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health issues in history. There are more than one billion smokers worldwide and smoking kills more than seven million people annually. Although many smokers recognize how deadly their habit can be and express the desire to stop smoking, quitting remains very difficult. To help smokers kick […]
EEG Shown Effective at Predicting Onset of Autism
Diagnosing autism early in kid’s life can help to mitigate its future development. Now researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital are reporting in journal Scientific Reports that they were able to use EEG (electroencephalography) to predict the onset of autism or rule out its development with impressive accuracy. A group of children was subjected to EEG […]
Brain Power Has Created A Novel Google Glass Autism App (Interview)
The month of April is Autism Month. Autism affects 3.5 million families in the United States alone, with each person uniquely on the spectrum. These people commonly experience symptoms related to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), including hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity, but more well known is their struggle to decode emotions, to manage transitions and behaviors, eye […]
Implanted Brain Prosthesis Helps to Retain New Memories
Diseases such as Alzheimer’s and stroke, as well traumatic brain injuries, can do severe damage to patients’ memory system in the brain. Anyone taking care of Alzheimer’s sufferers, for example, knows well the importance of memory to a person’s sense of self and overall well-being. Hope is on the horizon, though, as researchers at Wake […]
Specially Designed Virtual Reality Game Distracts Kids from Blood Draws
At Rigshospitale, a Danish hospital for patients requiring specialized treatments, kids that fear syringes are barely aware that their blood is being taken. This is thanks to a virtual reality game developed by Khora, a nearby virtual and augmented reality production firm. The Ballade på Badebroen (Trouble on The Jetty) game was the result of trying […]
KineQuantum Uses Virtual Reality for Real Physical Rehabilitation
Physical rehabilitation can be tedious and boring, and evaluation of a patient’s progress fraught by poor metrics and subjectivity. At the recent CES 2018 in Las Vegas we discovered a new virtual reality-based evaluation, rehab, and follow-up platform that makes it fun and convenient to assess patients, administer various game-based training regimens, and to assess […]
Deep Brain Stimulation Shown Effective at Slowing Down Alzheimer’s Symptoms
At Ohio State University, clinical researchers have successfully tested deep brain stimulation as a possible treatment option to slow down the onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms. Three patients with the disease had a Medtronic deep brain stimulator implanted, with leads reaching into the frontal lobe where a lot of advanced cognitive tasks are done. Following initiation […]
Ultrathin Needle for Delivering Drugs to Specific Brain Regions
Researchers at MIT have developed a miniaturized cannula that employs a needle as thin as a human hair to directly deliver drugs to highly specific brain regions, even as small as one cubic millimeter. This direct dosing approach could allow doctors to target specific brain circuits, potentially helping to reduce side-effects in the rest of […]
Virtual Reality to Treat PTSD: Interview with Todd Richmond, Director of USC’s Mixed Reality Lab
While PTSD is a significant issue for many of those serving in the military and others who work in traumatic situations, it also affects huge numbers of ordinary people who experience traumatic events such as assaults or natural disasters. Nearly 24 million Americans suffer from PTSD at any given time, and women are twice as […]
First Electronic Device for Opioid Withdrawal Therapy Approved by FDA
The FDA has given a regulatory green light to the first device that reduces opioid withdrawal symptoms. The NSS-2 Bridge from Innovative Health Solutions, a Versailles, Indiana firm, is stuck to the skin behind the ear and relies on four electrodes that are attached around the ear. The electrodes are used to deliver electric current […]
ABILIFY MYCITE, The First FDA Approved Digital Medicine That Tracks Its Own Ingestion
Proteus Digital Health, a Redwood City firm, and Otsuka Pharmaceutical of Tokyo, Japan won FDA approval for the world’s first digital pill. The ABILIFY MYCITE (aripiprazole) is a tablet with a tiny sensor embedded in its interior. After the tablet is swallowed and dissolved, the sensor meets the stomach juices, which activate it and allow […]