Where did it go? Some short cuts and loose ends tied up from a very fast year…
LifeNexus scores $2.2 million for credit card-type PHR from 16 investors. The proprietary software/card reader/provider terminal system can handle up to six persons per card and also can double as a prepaid card. According to reports, 4,000 cards are already in use in Washington state. Pluses: convenience, privacy and security. Minuses: potential loss, closed system and EHR interoperability. MedCityNews
We haven’t heard from the LifeBot emergency telemedicine system in a long time–early 2011. Their news is that they have finally untethered their units from the original ‘super ambulance’ concept to a fully portable 15 lb. unit which connects an EMT anywhere to a hospital with patient data and live video feeds. The LifeBot 5 Interceptor has voice and video transmission, ECG leads, monitors heart rate and blood pressure, blood oxygen levels and body temperature and also connects to EHRs. Cost is estimated at $20,000. The LifeBot DREAMS communications system was developed by the Department of Defense’s TATRC and the US Army Medical Research and Material Command. SingularityHub Hat tip to reader Toni Bunting.
Telehealth innovating the clinical trial in 2013. Expanding upon Editor Steve’s recent noting of startup Transparency Life Sciences gaining the first FDA approval of a clinical trial using telehealth monitoring (on the use of the blood pressure drug lisiniprol on MS patients) is Mobihealthnews. Other companies are slicing off digital pieces, such as Janssen R&D’s Clinical Trial Innovation Unit (of Johnson & Johnson) developing a shared online databank of non-proprietary clinical information plus a standard online portal for investigators to communicate with pharmaceutical companies. Omniscience Mobile is currently using mobile communication between participants and investigators for companies like Pfizer and Merck. The pointer to the future is that mobile data collection can make trials more efficient, more accurate and decrease cost. Clinical trials still ripe for mobile-enabled innovations
A digitalized tuning fork for detecting diabetic neuropathy. Podiatrists and physicians use the 128-Hz tuning fork to detect early signs of diabetic loss of sensation in the feet. Serial inventor and device entrepreneur Todd O’Brien, DPM has now invented, with design at the Advanced Manufacturing Center at the University of Maine, a tubular digital device which reproduces the vibrations and duration in a quantifiable manner. A small clinical trial has already won recognition by the American Podiatric Medical Association. He is seeking to commercialize its use in both podiatry and for the home with a mobile platform. MedCityNews