New Low Cost Handheld Devices
Handheld devices for caregivers have yet to find the sweet spot that will drive adoption. Part of the problem has been a lack of well designed applications that meet market requirements. The other part has been the devices themselves – either too big, too heavy, too expensive, and not enough battery life. Did I mention too expensive?
Here we have a trio of devices from Sony, Nokia and Aeronix. All three are Linux based devices with WiFi, web browser and a variety of chat messaging applications.
The Sony Mylo (pictured right) is the most attractive, is priced at an affordable $350, and sports an integrated keyboard.
expected to support VoIP and instant message services available from
Google Talk, Skype, and Yahoo! Additionally, the Mylo will include
nearly a gig of user file storage, expandable via Memory Stick, along
with players for MP3s, ATRAC, WMA, and MP4 video.
The Mylo measures 1 x
4.8 by 2.5 inches, and sports a 2.4-inch QBVGA (320 x 240) LCD screen.
It supports 802.11b networking, with WEP and WPA encryption. Text entry
is done through a retractable thumb keyboard.
The Nokia 770 is also priced at $350 and has a touch screen user interface (no keyboard).
Internet Tablet offers convenient Internet browsing and email through
built-in WiFi, or via a Bluetooth connection to a compatible mobile
phone. The device boasts a 4.3-inch, 800 x 480 pixel touch-screen, plus
integrated WiFi, Bluetooth, and a reduced-size MMC (RS-MMC) card slot.
Although
positioned as an “Internet tablet,” the 770 has much wider
applicability. Bundled software currently includes: web browser, email
client, Internet radio, news reader, media players, image viewer, file
manager, search, calculator, world clock, PDF-viewer, notes, sketch,
and games. Additionally, a broad and growing range of software can be
downloaded and installed onto the device from the 770's Maemo.org community website.
My favorite is the Aeronix Zipit…
brandnames that include ZipitWireless and K-Byte, and is currently
available at Target and TigerDirect, priced at $99, in colors that
include white, silver, blue, red, and pink. It includes an 802.11b WiFi
radio, 16-color greyscale LCD with QVGA (320×240) resolution, and a
thumb keyboard with rubber buttons. Also included is a stereo DAC
(digital audio converter) connected to a speaker and headphone jack.
According to the AiboHack Project,
a group of hackers devoted to Sony's robotic dog, the Zipit is based on
a Cirrus EP7312-CR-90, an SoC (system-on-chip) with an ARM720T core
that clocks up to 90MHz. This chip is supported by several Linux
distributions, including FSMLabs's real-time RTLinux.
The Zipit boots from 2MB of Flash, reportedly, and has 16MB of SDRAM. David Anders is reportedly investigating a way to add an MMC memory card slot to the device, to expand its storage capacity, according to Tim Riker's Embedded Linux website, which hosts project pages devoted to the Zipit.
On
the software side, the Zipit comes stock with a 2.4.21 Linux kernel
with Russell King's ARM patches. The WiFi chip is powered by a patched
version of Agere's Linux WiFi driver. Other open source software
includes busybox, uClibc, glibc, and wireless tools. Proprietary
software includes the bootloader, audio driver, and the monolithic
native ARM application that provides the device's user interface and
all its features, according to Aeronix's Zipit Linux page.
Writing software clients for hand held devices is not a trivial undertaking, and these devices are no exception. What's intriguing is the idea of using devices like these for wireless VoIP clients (a la Vocera) and alarm notification from patient monitors and IV pumps and other medical devices. These devices are small and light weight, have graphic displays (for sample arrhythmia waveforms), and keyboards (okay, the Nokia has a touch screen keyboard). Compared to a $2,000+ ruggedized PDA from Symbol or Hand Held Products these devices are a steal.
FDA Warning Letter Targets Cure for Common Cold
On a lighter note, check out this FDA warning letter sent to ParaDevices, maker of the ParaZapper. In a classic case of bureaucratic understatement, the letter states:
According to your web site, “[t]he Parasite Zapper originally
introduced by Dr. Hulda Clark can provide relief from many
illnesses caused by parasites such as giardia, cryptosporidium,
flukes, other colon parasites and intestinal parasites in
humans.” You further claim, for example, that:
-
ParaZapper is a “safe, simple, easy way to eliminate
parasites” that cause colds and flu; -
ParaZapper “can be an effective arthritis pain remedy”;
-
ParaZapper can reduce “food allergies, allergy, low
resistance to illnesses such as colds and flu, asthma,
diarrhea, ibs ( irritable bowel syndrome ), colitis,
chronic fatigue syndrome, and malaise”; -
ParaZapper is “safe and effective” for treating “persistant
or recurring athletes foot, foot fungus, toenail fungus,
ringworm, and other fungus symptoms.”
Your product is therefore a device as that term is defined in
section 201(h) of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act
(“the Act”) because it is intended for use in the cure,
mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease.Our records do not show that you have received clearance or
approval from FDA to market the ParaZapper™. Indeed, as your
web site acknowledges, “FDA approval has not been applied for”
for the ParaZapper™.
ParaDevices response? An appeal to the public to “petition Congress to stop the FDA from pursuing zapper manufacturers and depriving you of your right to make health choices” (you can sign the petition here). Pictured right is the infamous ParaZapper.
Bluetooth and Medical Device Connectivity
Following on from the Bluetooth Medical Devices SIG (special interest group) is this story about a new OEM Bluetooth module from Bluegigga Technologies. While the story leads with the advantages of eliminating the wires between sensors and devices or gateway devices, it quickly segues to Bluegigga's vision of networking medical devices using Bluetooth. They have a case study (PDF file) of a telemetry monitor using a Bluetooth radio and a “gateway to network” device (what everyone else calls an access point). The profiled company is Swedish firm Ortivus. Here's Bluegiga's description of their access point:
radios with Wi-Fi, GSM data, GPRS, and Ethernet connectivity in one
integrated form factor. The product is capable of serving up to 21
simultaneous Bluetooth connections making it the ideal solution for
linking small battery operated mobile devices to a wide range of data
networks. Also configured to act as a Wi-Fi base station, the WRAP Access Server™ offers one integrated Hot Spot solution for serving Wi-Fi and Bluetooth access to cell phones, PDAs, and laptops as well as to special purpose hand-held devices.
Sounds like a pretty cool AP. I'm wondering where the market is for the use of Bluetooth as a wireless network. According to the 2006 HIMSS Leadership Survey, 32% of U.S. hospitals are implementing wireless systems, and 84% of U.S. hospitals have wireless networks deployed somewhere in their hospitals. The wireless technology that's been deployed is 802.11a/b/g, not Bluetooth. The Ortivus case study is not cable replacement, but LAN replacement (for a wireless LAN).
Bluetooth can of course serve as a WLAN – a class 1 Bluetooth radio has a range of 100 meters. The problem here is not a technical one, it's a marketing problem. Virtually all medical devices use some flavor of 802.11 for network connectivity. The wireless LANs deployed in hospitals are virtually all WiFi. I would hate to be the sales rep trying to convince a hospital they need to implement Bluetooth on top of their infrastructure WiFi if they buy my medical device – especially when everyone else (okay, everyone but Philips) is using WiFi.
Bluetooth makes a great radio for some sensor to gateway connections. The LifeSync wireless ECG uses Bluetooth, but only between the sensor and the gateway that resides at the patient monitor. A medical device is like a gateway where the sensors are connected by wires. Medical device connectivity needs the range of WiFi (or class 1 Bluetooth) and the low cost of a shared infrastructure – especially as devices become more pervasive outside of critical care areas.
Be sure to check out the Ortivus products. They focus more on the EMS market than hospitals, and their devices use Bluetooth to connect to a gateway in the ambulance that then connects to a wireless carrier's network. Pictured right is their SmartLead ECG system.
Blue Cross Blue Shield and Hackensack to Pilot VeriChip
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and Hackensack University Medical Center are recruiting volunteers with chronic conditions to get “chipped” with VeriChip's implantable RFID chip.
In the two-year trial, the insurance company will pay about $200 for
the chips to be implanted, plus $80 a month for a subscription fee,
according to reports in the RFID Journal.
Horizon will then assess whether the devices lower health care
costs by reducing duplicate lab tests, drug interactions or
misdiagnoses.
Horizon will invite patients with conditions like diabetes and
heart disease to participate and hopes to enroll about 300 volunteers.
[...]
VeriChip has given several New Jersey hospitals—Beth Israel, Clara
Maass, Columbus, Hackensack, Kimball, Newark, Ocean and PBI
Regional—equipment to read the chips and access the company's database.
Interesting. This is only the second press that I've seen that describes a rationale for chipping – the first was Alzheimer's patients, and now chronic disease. Also interesting is that the database that links the chip's 16-digit identifying number with a specific patient apparently resides on VeriChip's servers (hence the $80 per month subscription).
It seems that no story about VeriChip is complete without the obligatory references to the potential loss of privacy or signs of the apocalypse, and eWeek doesn't disappoint. There's even mention of anti-RFID site Spychips.
Pictured right is the sign of the beast implantable chip from VeriChip.
UPDATE: Oops, I guess the above is just additional info to this post.
Hospital to Use Bar Coded Sponges
Here's another company with a surgical sponge tracking solution: SurgiCount Medical. According to this story, the VA's West Los Angeles Health Care Center will be using the bar coded sponges in a trial.
The surgical sponges and towels come with their own bar
codes. Using a barcode scanner, operating room staff scans the sponges at the beginning of the operation and
as it is removed from the patient. The system keeps track of the scanned sponges, noting any discrepancy between those scanned before use and any that might not have been scanned at the end of surgery. This system is probably less expensive than this one that uses RFID. However, the barcode solution seems dependent on all the sponges getting scanned prior to use – the RFID technology simply tells you if any tagged sponges are in a particular location (like a bucket or the patient).
SurgiCount Medical, in Temecula, Calif., has not released the cost
of its system, but says the system is more accurate and less costly
than RFID (radio-frequency identification).
Earlier in August, SurgiCount Medical announced that it had
entered into a three-year agreement to provide its patented
Safety-Sponge System to the entire network of Oklahoma City-based
Integris Health, Oklahoma's largest not-for-profit health care
organization.
According to SurgiCount Medical, sponges are accidentally left inside
patients in an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 surgical procedures each year
in the United States alone, while liability settlements and other costs
related to forgotten sponges reach an estimated $500 million to $750
million each year.
SurgiCount has some interesting stats on their site about the frequency (3,000-5,000 per year) and costs ($750 Million – $1.5 Billion in legal costs) around sponges inadvertently left in patients after surgery. Whoa.
Pictured right is a sample sponge with a barcode.
