First Home-Use Trials Of Non-Invasive Antepartum Fetal Monitor
Synova Healthcare announced last week that a Synova subsidiary and development partner BioPad Ltd. successfully produced the initial set of antepartum fetal-movement
monitors for use in their first “in-home” clinical trial. The device is
designed to provide a non-invasive means of monitoring fetal movement
during the last trimester of pregnancy (press release).
trimester (and often earlier), and can be performed at-home manually by
the mother herself. Manual fetal monitoring is currently done while the
mother lies quietly on her side and counts the number of fetal
movements within a given time frame, or the time necessary to detect a
given number of fetal movements. The non-invasive fetal movement
monitor currently being co-developed by Synova and BioPad is aimed at
improving this practice by increasing the accuracy agreement of the
measurement via this non-invasive device versus manual measurement by
the expectant mother, when compared with ultrasound. The Company
believes this will reduce maternal anxiety (as the fetal monitor is
expected to identify fetal movement the mother may miss) and may
contribute to improved outcomes by assisting in identifying real
emergencies when they occur and potentially providing the time
necessary to intervene successfully.
Intended as an over the counter (OTC) product, the unit includes the sensor, signal processing and a small alpha numeric display. Pictured right is a photo of the sensor.
[Hat tip: Wireless Healthcare]
More on ISO/IEEE 11073
24×7 Magazine has published my column “Is ISO/IEEE 11073 a Viable Standard?” in their Soapbox department. The column provides a bit of history, describes the contributions of the 11073 effort, and asks some hard questions about the standard – it's much more coherent than my previous ramblings on the subject.
Bottom line: the time for 11073 adoption is now, and the industry could use some facilitators to help with that adoption. Otherwise, the alternative (which so far seems to be XML-based web services) will be to formalize existing practice. I guess one or more alternative standards might possibly eclipse 11073 – there are interesting efforts underway by the Continua Health Alliance and the Medical Device Plug and Play lab.
VeriChip Receives Patent for Asset Tracking with Active RFID
VeriChip Corporation has announced that it has obtained the patent for
a portable RFID asset location system. The product combines RFID tagging technology
along with a portable receiver that can enable the tracking of assets
in a fixed setting like a warehouse or building.
messages and identify the unique ID of an asset, as well as its room location.
This will eliminate the installation costs of fixed receivers throughout a
facility and could substantially lower the initial cost of implementing RFID
technology.
as:
- An asset location system comprising a plurality of
location tags, each having: - A location tag transmitter for controlled
range transmission of a location identifier;A plurality of asset tags, each being affixed to an asset
and each having: a receiver for receiving a location identifier from any
of the location tags; - A memory for storing at least an asset identifier and a
location identifier; - A transmitter for transmitting an asset signal, the asset
signal including at least the asset identifier and the received location
identifier; - An asset location retrieval unit, the retrieval unit
having: a receiver for receiving the asset signal from any of the asset
tags; a memory; a power unit; and an output means for outputting asset
locations based on the received asset signal from any of the plurality of
asset tags.
At this time, VeriChip has not indicated when the Portable
RFID Asset Tracking System will be available for purchase.
This should not impact most RFID asset tracking vendors since they use a fixed infrastructure. I'm aware of a few vendors who have systems based on carrying around a portable receiver, but they are not widely used.
I did learn about a asset tracking system based on a portable receiver just today, from a company called Aethon. They have an autonomous robot called Homer that moves throughout a facility determining the location of assets, thus obviating the need for a fixed RTLS infrastructure. When combined with their other autonomous robot, Tug, the Aethon system can reportedly find and retrieve assets automatically. Sounds pretty cool, but I can't imagine they'll be pleased to hear about VeriChip's new patent.
Pictured right is a photo of Verichip's implantable passive chip to spice things up a bit.
[Hat tip: MDBuyline]
Economists Question Savings from Healthcare IT
Amid all the cheerleading and flag waving over EHRs and EMRs, comes a splash of reality for two practioners of the dismal science.
health records may actually increase costs for health providers,
according to economists Robert Reischauer, president of the Urban
Institute, and Eugene Steuerle, a senior fellow from the institute, Health IT Strategist reports.
“I
don't think we know, on net, if [health IT] will save money,” said
Steuerle at the Senate Budget Committee meeting on Tuesday.
Both
economists, however, agreed that health IT could make the health care
system safer and more efficient. Health IT will provide the basis for a
pay-for-performance program, but the cost savings of implementing new
technology are still unknown, according to Reischauer. He added that
even though health IT will reduce redundancy in hospitals and physician
practices, the monetary savings likely will be minimal.
[Hat tip: iHealthBeat]
