Virtual Reality to Help Control Prosthetic Arms
Virtual reality is finding a surprising application in rehab, as a team of engineers at Arizona State University will soon be using an Oculus Rift headset to help tune prosthetic arms. The problem the investigators are addressing is training the brain to consider a virtual arm, used to develop actual prosthetic interfaces, as part of the body. There’s a neural feedback loop that links feelings, decisions, and actions taken, and seeing a virtual arm react as though a real one does can go a long way to making programming easier.
The high definition of control of a virtual arm is possible in the first place thanks to Ar...
Source: Medgadget - July 8, 2016 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Editors Tags: Rehab Source Type: blogs
Crowdfunding Progress Towards a Universal Therapy for All Cancers: an Interview with SENS Research Foundation Scientist Haroldo Silva
As you might have noticed, the SENS Research Foundation is presently asking for your support in a crowdfunding campaign that aims to close in on a universal therapy capable of effectively treating all types of cancer, one based on blocking telomere lengthening. As is often the case, the SENS network is here using philanthropic donations to pick up necessary work that hasn't been taken on by the rest of the community, so as to unblock progress. The scientist who will lead the work is Haroldo Silva; he has been focused on this particular branch of cancer research for some years now, and below you'll find a short interview th...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 4, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Activism, Advocacy and Education Source Type: blogs
From Pilot to Policy: Lessons from e-Health Deployed at Scale
As mentioned in previous posts, the United4Health project was intended to test the deployment at scale of mobile health solutions and to integrate those telehealth services as part of the standard of care. Participants took this to heart and used the project to help tackle larger issues of policy, funding, technology, resources and overall workflow.
The following interview explores some of these larger issues, specifically: the need to realign payment models, challenges around the adoption of communications and data standards, the role of test and certification bodies like Continua, overcoming systems integration challe...
Source: Medical Connectivity Consulting - May 26, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Bridget Moorman Tags: Mobile Health Source Type: blogs
Case Study: Sensor Selection for Remote Monitoring
In a previous blog post, I highlighted general principles for implementing and scaling systems to support remote monitoring of chronic conditions, namely congestive heart failure (CHF), Diabetes Mellitus (Type II Diabetes) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In this blog post I will focus on COPD as a case study for the development, implementation and scaling of a remote monitoring system.
Definition of COPD
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines COPD as a “…lung disease characterized by chronic obstruction of lung airflow that interferes with normal breathing and is not fully reversible [̷...
Source: Medical Connectivity Consulting - May 10, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Bridget Moorman Tags: Mobile Health Source Type: blogs
Post-doctoral position in sensorimotor learning and control of speech production -- UW, Ludo Max Lab
The Laboratory for Speech Physiology and Motor Control (PI Ludo Max, Ph.D.) at the University of Washington (Seattle) announces an open post-doctoral position in the areas of sensorimotor integration and sensorimotor learning for speech production. The position will involve experimental work on both typical speech and stuttering. The lab is located in the University of Washington's Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences and has additional affiliations with the Graduate Program in Neuroscience and the Department of Bioengineering. See http://faculty.washington.edu/ludomax/lab/ for more information. The successful ca...
Source: Talking Brains - May 9, 2016 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Greg Hickok Source Type: blogs
The MARCS Institute/The HEARing CRC Postdoctoral Fellow Hearing and Cognitive Aging Available
Ref 610/16 Postdoctoral Fellow Hearing and Cognitive Aging (HEARing CRC), MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney UniversityThe Multisensory Communication Program in the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development in association with the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre (HEARing CRC) is seeking a postdoctoral researcher with high level skills and expertise in the broad area of speech perception in elderly people (with/without hearing-impairment).The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour, and Development is an interdisciplinary research institute of the Western Sydney University. Rese...
Source: Talking Brains - May 1, 2016 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Greg Hickok Source Type: blogs
Post Bac position available at Duke University
We are looking for a highly motivated recent graduate (BS, BA) to gain research experience in the lab of Prof. Tobias Overath (http://people.duke.edu/~jto10) at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. Work in the lab investigates how sounds, from simple sinusoids to complex speech signals, are processed in the human brain via a combination of behavioral (psychoacoustics) and neuroimaging methods (fMRI, EEG).The ideal candidate will have received an undergraduate degree in psychology, neuroscience, biomedical engineering, or a related field, by summer 2016, and will have some familiarity with fMRI, M/EEG, ECoG, and/or other ...
Source: Talking Brains - April 6, 2016 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Greg Hickok Source Type: blogs
In Synch – Growing Older with the Rhythms of Life
Dr. Donald L. McEachron, Teaching Professor, School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, Drexel University
Dr. Eugenia V. Ellis, Associate Professor, Architectural and Interior Design, Drexel University
Human beings are the result of biological evolution rather than engineering design. One result of this reality is that humans are dependent on a variety of internal biological rhythms to control and coordinate both physiological and behavioral activities. Organisms, exposed to powerful geophysical cycles for countless millennia, have evolved specific mechanisms to adapt both internally and externally to da...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - December 9, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Aging Source Type: blogs
"Dreaming On" - The Illusions of the Leaders of Large Health Organizations, as Illustrated by Medtronic's Founder
On Health Care Renewal, we have posted story after story about amazingly well paid leaders of big organizations presiding over amazingly bad organizational behavior (including subversion of mission, conflicts of interest, deception, fraud, kickbacks, various other crimes and outright corruption). Yet the leaders often seem curiously disconnected from what occurs on their watches, while they are sometimes hailed as "visionaries," and at times exude messianic confidence.Medtronic's Founder on its Sacred Mission A recent article appearing in an unexpected place provides an example of leaders' excess confidence in their ...
Source: Health Care Renewal - November 12, 2015 Category: Health Management Tags: CEO disease deception legal settlements Medtronic mission-hostile management Source Type: blogs
Applied RNAi review
Excerpt from a book review of Applied RNAi: From Fundamental Research to Therapeutic Applications"This book provides valuable information on the rapid advances in RNAi research, drug discovery and delivery, and biomedical engineering and biomaterials ... This is an excellent resource on applied RNAi that covers fundamental research to therapeutic applications and the role of mircoRNAs in trinucleotide repeat disorders. This is indeed essential reading for the intended audience." from Omer Iqbal (Loyola University Medical Center, USA) writing in Doodys (2015). read more ...Applied RNAi: From Fundamental Research to Therapeu...
Source: Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists. - May 4, 2015 Category: Microbiology Source Type: blogs
January Man of the Month: Dr. Donald McEachron
We are thrilled to name Dr. Donald McEachron this month’s Man of the Month. Currently, he is a Teaching Professor and serves as the Coordinator for Academic Assessment and Quality Improvement for the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems at Drexel University. We will all benefit from the work Dr. McEachron is doing. Below is a brief look into his work. We have no doubt you will understand why we named him Man of the Month after learning more.
Dr. McEachron’s background in evolutionary biology, neuroscience and chronobiology led him to connect with architect and lighting expert Dr. Eugenia Victori...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - January 27, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Man of the Month Source Type: blogs
New Streamlined Technique for Processing Biological Samples
Researchers have discovered a faster, easier and more affordable technique for processing biological samples. Credit: Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University.
It’s not unusual for the standard dose of a drug to work well for one person but be less effective for another. One reason for such differences is that individuals can break down drugs at different rates, leading to different concentrations of drugs and of their breakdown products (metabolites) in the bloodstream. A promising new process called slug-flow microextraction could make it faster, easier and more affordable to regularly monitor drug ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - January 14, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Srivalli Subbaramaiah Tags: Chemistry and Biochemistry Pharmacology Source Type: blogs
The FDA October Workshop on Cybersecurity
If it were possible to be unaware of the general problem of cybersecurity, the recent Sony hack with its public disclosures of “private” e- conversations and then terroristic blackmail, following the earlier release of celebrity cloud photos, ought to have provided notice that what is electronically stored is likely to be available to those determined to have it. Moreover we know that cybersecurity can in principle also impact the function and availability of connected systems (Sony again) and/or the information they contain. We also need to be concerned about the malicious alteration of information or di...
Source: Medical Connectivity Consulting - January 5, 2015 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: William Hyman Tags: Events Standards & Regulatory cybersecurity Source Type: blogs
Neuroprosthetics
is a relatively new discipline at the boundaries of neuroscience and biomedical engineering, which aims at developing implantable devices to restore neural function. The most popular and clinically successfull neuroprosthesis to date is the cochlear implant, a device that can restore hearing by stimulating directly the human auditory nerve, by bypassing damaged hair cells in the cochlea. Visual prostheses, on the other hand, are still in a preliminary phase of development, although substantial progress has been made in the last few years. This kind of implantable devices are designed to micro-electrically stimulate nerves...
Source: Positive Technology Journal - December 16, 2014 Category: Technology Consultants Tags: Neurotechnology & neuroinformatics Source Type: blogs
Start-up pitches high-tech glue for surgical leaks
TEL AVIV — An Israeli medical-device start-up is tackling one of the most dangerous occurrences in surgery — and it's doing it with glue.LifeSeal is a glue-like substance that augments and, in some surgeries like hernias, replaces the traditional and painful sealing procedures of staples, tacks and sutures.The privately-owned Israeli company behind the high-tech glue, LifeBond, says it should help in the treatment of post-operative leaks in closures of gastrointestinal and other surgical wounds. Patients get back up to speed more quickly and are more comfortable as they do.Orahn Preiss-Bloom, one of LifeBond's co-found...
Source: Medical Hemostat - November 16, 2014 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: hemostatguy at gmail.com (hemostat guy) Source Type: blogs
