Technology to Help in Australia

Great Lakes Neuro Technology has received TGA approval to market their Kinesia technology in Australia. The KinesiaT product line has patient-worn motion sensors and a tablet computer to quantitatively assess tremor, bradykinesia, and dyskinesia associated with Parkinson’s disease. Other regulatory successes include FDA clearance, CE Mark, and ISO certification for Kinesia systems.

Physicians use a web interface to set up patient studies and to track symptom responses. Market applications include both in-clinic and home-based telemedicine patient care, assistance in programming deep brain stimulation, and quantitative endpoints to determine efficacy in clinical trials.

As adoption of Kinesia technology grows, Australia represents a unique opportunity. According to research, the incidence of Parkinson’s in Australia has grown 17 percent over the last six years with one in 350 Australians now living with the disease. This market coupled with the need for telemedicine tools in the region to improve care for remote populations provides a driver for entering the Australian market.

Kinesia’s infrastructure includes several key technology features for telemedicine and clinical trials. The patient take-home kit supports broadband data transfer directly from a patient’s home to a secure server. This allows physicians and researchers immediate online access to real-time symptom reports and video diaries. Next, miniature patient-worn motion sensors are integrated with wireless communications. This minimizes setup time and patient burden during home-based assessments.

Physicians and researchers can use their own tablets, or any smart mobile device or computer to view web-based reports plus color-coded mapping provides intuitive quantitative tools to document symptom severity and motor fluctuations.

Great Lakes Neuro technologies will be showcasing the technology at the Movement Disorders Society Conference in Sydney, Australia in June 2013. For more information, go to www.glneurotech.com.

Coordinated Emergency Care

Working age adults with disabilities account for a disproportionate high amount of annual emergency department visits, reports a recent study published online in Health Services Research. The authors of the study from the NIH Clinical Center and Brandeis University found that people with disabilities use the emergency room more than other patients.

When a patient is admitted to the emergency department, if detailed medical information was shared between the emergency room and primary care staff, then possibly repeat visits could be prevented. Coordination is particularly important for disabled patients as they may have limitations that interfere with medical self-advocacy and complex conditions that demand care from various providers.

According to Elizabeth Rasch, PhD, Chief of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Section in the NIH Clinical Center’s Rehabilitation Medicine Department, “When a person visits the emergency department, their primary care providers often don’t know or don’t get the results of that visit, and vice versa. The emergency department often doesn’t know about the complex medical history people bring with them,”

The study found that despite representing 17 percent of the working age U.S. population, adults with disabilities account for 39.2 percent of the total emergency room visits. It was found that people with severely limiting disabilities visit an urgent care department more often than their peers and more likely to visit the department more than four times per years. Also, emergency visits were also associated with poor access to primary medical care which was more prevalent among adults with disabilities.

The authors identified three nationally representative comparison groups. The groups without any self reported mental or physical limitations, those with a limitation but who did not need daily living assistance, and those who did need assistance with daily living.

The researchers evaluated access to medical care through self-reported survey answers from individuals and how they obtained care and primary care services. Also, the number of emergency department visits was also self-reported.

To address this disparity, the researchers recommend the need for better communication between emergency departments and primary care physicians along with more information from tailored prevention and primary care programs.

In addition, the authors reported in the study that prevention and chronic condition management programs tailored for the functional limitations and service needs of people with disabilities may help avoid a crisis situation that would call for an urgent care visit. The authors endorsed wider adoption of coordinated care systems for the disabled that would provide case management, integration of psychosocial care and 24/7 access for medical assistance among other services.

Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydb10shyo6Y to hear from Rasch on the research and her findings.

Georgia Tech Develops Device

Imagine not being able to control a touch-screen device. Researchers at Georgia Tech are trying to open the world of tablets to children whose limited mobility makes it difficult for them to perform the common pinch and swipe gestures required to control the devices.

Children with neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy, TBI, spina bifida, and muscular dystrophy typically suffer from fine motor impairments which make it difficult to control small coordinated movements of the hands, wrist, and fingers. These children tend to lack the ability to touch a specific small region with appropriate intensity and timing needed for press and swipe gestures.

Current assistive technology, such as Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Devices are available to children with motor impairments for use on traditional computers but not on tablets or smartphones.

Georgia Tech researchers have created Access4Kids, a wireless input device that uses a sensor system to translate physical movements into fine motor gestures to control a tablet. The device coupled with supporting open-source apps and software developed at Georgia Tech enables children with fine motor impairments to access off-the-shelf apps such as Facebook and YouTube as well as custom-made apps for therapy and science education.

The impact of Access4Kids could be significant since more than 200,000 children in the U.S public school system have an orthopedic disability and have been excluded from using tablet and touch screen devices.

The current prototype of the device includes three force-sensitive resistors that measure pressure and convert it into a signal that instructs the tablet. A child can wear the device around the forearm or place the device on the arm of a wheelchair and hit the sensors or swipe across the sensors with their fists. The combination of sensor hits or swipes gets converted to different “touch-based” commands on the tablet.

So far, Access4Kids has received positive feedback from both typically developing children and children with disabilities as well as caregivers. The device was also a finalist in a recent Intel-sponsored competition and was showcased to the British Consulate prior to the Paralympic games this summer receiving good reviews.

Funding for the research was originally funded through the National Science Foundation-sponsored Broadening Participation in Computing Program and then through I-Corps, an NSF program that translates scientific discoveries into useful products for society. Researchers are working on a version of the device called TabAccess for adults to use with motor disabilities.

Access4Kids also received a seed grant from the Atlanta Pediatric Device Consortium, a partnership between Georgia Tech, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and the Atlanta Clinical & Translational Science Institute, that provides assistance in commercializing novel pediatric medical devices and technologies.

Exclusive License Granted

Rutgers University entered into an exclusive license with Everist Genomics Inc., headquartered in Ann Arbor Michigan for patents covering a novel technology. This technology makes it possible to receive early measurements on various vascular conditions especially on patients with no obvious symptoms.  

Gary M Drzewiecki, Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering developed the technology.  “The accuracy and clinical relevance of the available non-invasive measurement techniques has been a challenge until now,” Drzewiecki said. “Our approach for analyzing arterial and endothelial function data provides a unique means for diagnosis and monitoring at the point-of-care.

Everist Genomics intends to develop and commercialize products based on the Rutgers’ patents using the AngioDefender device platform. The system uses non-invasive sensor technology and a sophisticated software algorithm to rapidly provide physicians with data that can help detect early stage cardiovascular disease.

The entire AngioDefender procedure is completed in less than 15 minutes and the system transmits 25 components of information, including relevant elements of the patient record and CVD diagnostic data to a desk-top computer, laptop, notebook, or tablet.

According to Alex Charlton, Executive Vice Chairman of the company, “This low cost test using Rutgers technology is already gaining acceptance in the Indian market where the company has partnered with the Manipal Group, a major healthcare provider. Charlton reports that Everist is installing AngioDefenders in the Middle East and has regulatory approval to introduce the product to 27 European countries.

For further information on technology commercialization at Rutgers, go to http://otc.rutgers.edu. For partnership opportunities related to AngioDefender, email Vicki Theisen, General Manager, Everist Genomics, Inc. at vt@everistgenomics.com.

Fellowships to Develop Devices

The Center for Device Development (CD2) at Northwestern is offering entrepreneurs paid fellowships to develop medical devices. CD2 is hiring clinicians and engineers to team up and develop their medical device ideas at Northwestern in a supportive environment.

CD2 is offering paid one-year fellowships to medical residents and fellows at the Feinberg School of Medicine and to the engineers at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. The CD2 fellows will interact with a variety of industry experts that will include venture capitalists, regulatory strategists, reimbursement specialists, and medical device company executives that will vet ideas and provide advice.

Program highlights include:

• Mentorship by the CD2’s steering committee and a group of industry experts from Chicago Innovation Mentors
• Access to the university’s resources on protecting intellectual property, prototypes, and testing advice
• Funds to work with industry partners in setting and meeting development milestones
• Opportunities to market the device to potential licensees and to meet potential investors
• Externship opportunities at medical device companies

 The program is accepting applications until February 1, 2013 with final selection to be announced by March 1, 2013, and the program to begin July 2013.

For more information, go to http://cd2.northwestern.edu  for the application form or email marla-paul@northwestern.edu.

Philips Introduces Innovation

Royal Philips Electronics introduced the “Philips Lifeline GoSafe”, a new mobile Personal Emergency Response System (PERS) designed to help seniors at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas January 8-11, 2013.    

This latest innovation from Philips provides help for seniors from almost any location or in or out of the home. Users wear the GoSafe button around their neck as a pendant at all times, both inside and outside the home. In the event of an emergency, the user can push the button to initiate a call for help to the Lifeline Response Center of if a fall is detected then the AutoAlert feature automatically places a call to the Lifeline response Center without the need of the user to push the button.

GoSafe also provides:

• Use of up to seven user-locating technologies designed to help identify the user’s location in a variety of situations
• The button can go seven days between charges and the GoSafe help button can be worn even while charging
• Pairing with an in-home communicator to maximize performance, redundancy, and reliability

For more information, go to www.philipslifelineGoSafe.com.

IEEE-SA Exhibiting at CES

The IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA), a standards-setting body within IEEE is exhibiting at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas that started January 8^th and will run through January 11^th 2013. The exhibit showcases several standards and standards development projects in health device communication, home networking, mobile video, smart grid-into-home devices and electric vehicles.

IEEE-SA is working to enable consumer connectivity through a broad range of global consensus-building efforts with special emphasis on facilitating and improving health device communications via IEEE 11073.

The IEEE 11073 family of standards expands support for plug-and-play interoperable medical device communications that can shorten the clinical decision-making cycle, empower consumers to better and more independently manage their own healthcare choices and aid in reducing errors. It also helps manufacturers by expanding the potential market for medical devices.

The IEEE-SA exhibit in located at the IEEE Booth 30242 in South Hall 3 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Demonstrations are being offered based on the IEEE 11073™ family of standards.  

IEEE-SA is demonstrating how IEEE-11073 based personal medical and telemedicine devices like blood pressure monitors, glucose meters, and scales function over WAN and HRN interfaces. Also, conference attendees can see how this data is used in EHRs and PHRs. The demonstrations will be held January 9-10 from 9am to 1pm.

For more information, go to www.facebook.com/ieeesa, www.twitter.com/ieeesa, or connect on Linkedin at www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1791118 or go to the Standards Insight Blog at www.standardsinsight.com.