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Why is Imperial College permitting Westminster public school to sell an internship?
This is very odd indeed. Westminster, one of the most expensive public schools in the UK, is holding a fund-raising auction. In this auction, you can buy an internship at Imperial College’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering, on the promise that this will look great on your CV. auction.westminster.org.uk/lots/one-week-internship-at-the-institute-of-biomedical-engineering-imperial-college-london-for-a-level-students “On offer is a one week internship [...] (Source: badscience)
Source: badscience - May 14, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Ben Goldacre Tags: bad science just a blog Source Type: blogs

Biomedical Engineer 3.8 GPA overall 3.94 BCPM
by dzinger14 (Posted Mon May 06, 2013 7:59 pm)Not Bad I must say! Pretty amazing comparing up to all of the EP cardiologists leading up to my Career. My collegue athttp://heartrhythmsfla1.com/ was in a pretty comparable predicament. (Source: Med Student Guide)
Source: Med Student Guide - May 6, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: blogs

Trying to sort out all the STEM and STEM related departments, graduate programs , at #UCDavis
Well, I was in a meeting yesterday for the UC Davis ADVANCE program. This program is an NSF funded project to improve presence of women and underrepresented minorities on the faculty in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). So I decided to see - how many departments at UC Davis might participate in such an initiative. And, well, wow. I knew there were a lot of STEM or STEM-related departments at UC Davis but I did not know there were this many. Here is a list I compiled of UC Davis STEM or STEM-related Departments. I included medical departments here since many people in such...
Source: The Tree of Life - April 27, 2013 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs

MIT professor studying the mechanics of metastasis
Professor Roger Kamm at MIT was my advisor when I was a mechanical engineering student at MIT. Roger Kamm, the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering, and his doctoral student Ioannis Zervantonakis are studying the mechanics of metastasis. They are using a 3-D microfluidic device developed in his lab, including a recent study on the effect of flow on tumor-cell migration. Read more here. (Source: Medicine and Technology by Dr. Joseph Kim)
Source: Medicine and Technology by Dr. Joseph Kim - April 24, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Tags: MIT biomedical engineering research bioengineering cancer mechanical engineering Source Type: blogs

Memory Implants for Alzheimer's Patients?
A maverick neuroscientist believes he has deciphered the code by which the brain forms long-term memories. By +Bob DeMarco +Alzheimer's Reading Room Every year the MIT Technology Review picks the 10 technologies they think most likely to change the world. Imagine if Alzheimer's patients could have a chip implanted in their brain that would allow them to form long term memories. In other words, remember the present, and recall it. Theodore Berger, a biomedical engineer and neuroscientist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, is envisioning a day in the not too distant future when a patien...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - April 23, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs

Valuing Private Certification
There are currently several private entities that seek to certify medical apps, connectivity solutions, EHR record exchange, and other products, services and people in our sphere of interest. Given the ongoing proliferation of private certifications, there is a growing need to evaluate them, judge their relative costs and benefits, and determine which – if any – are worth adopting as either the one certified or as the consumer of certified products or services. These private activities are usually distinct from governmental requirements (e.g. FDA or FTC compliance, or state licensing), although in the case of EHR M...
Source: Medical Connectivity Consulting - April 9, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: William Hyman Tags: Standards & Regulatory Source Type: blogs

How Big a Loophole is “Wellness”?
The medical app and regulatory pot is being stirred as products continue to appear, including those with questionable FDA credentials, or lack of credentials. As discussed in our earlier posts on apps regulation (here and here), an app is a medical device if its meets the congressionally mandated and FDA enforced definition of a medical device as something whose intended use “is for the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or is intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man”. As stated in the FDA’s Draft Guidanc...
Source: Medical Connectivity Consulting - March 18, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: William Hyman Tags: Business Planning Standards & Regulatory Source Type: blogs

Can computers replace physicians?
A reader sent me this question: "Yesterday, after my MCAT class, two biomedical engineering students and I talked about this article and the future of medicine: we debated whether such robots could reduce the need for doctors by 80%" When I read such predictions I chuckle at the naivety of those who make such pronouncements. The computer advocates do not really understand medical care and diagnosis. What do we do that computers/robots will have great difficulty replacing? The most important thing that we do involves understanding our patients and what they are really saying. We understand how to...
Source: DB's Medical Rants - February 17, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: rcentor Tags: Medical Rants Source Type: blogs

Fight Aging! Newsletter, February 4th 2013
Discussion - Latest Headlines from Fight Aging! - A Podcast Interview With Aubrey de Grey - Wrapping Nanoparticles in Cell Membranes - Vegetarianism Associated With Lower Risk of Heart Disease - A Commentary on Radical Life Extension - The View of Mortality as Not Easily Explainable By Common Genetic Variants - Foundational Work For Nervous System Repair - Magnetic Levitation in Tissue Engineering - Advocating Intermittent Fasting &nb...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 3, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs

Magnetic Levitation in Tissue Engineering
Researchers here demonstrate a way to use magnetic levitation to make small pieces of tissue grow more naturally, though one suspects it won't scale to much larger tissue sections. The focus here, as for much of tissue engineering at this time, is to produce tissues as close to the real thing as possible, suitable for testing and research, applications where the small amount is not an issue: The research is part of an international trend in biomedical engineering to create laboratory techniques for growing tissues that are virtually identical to those found in people's bodies. In the new study, researchers combined four t...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 29, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs

Are J&J shooting themselves in the hip?
This study seems like suicide to me,” he said in a 2005 e-mail. Flett testified that he likened such a study to suicide because “it will prove that one is better than the other and they are both our products and that means one will be worse.” He said DePuy stopped selling the ASR in late 2009. “We didn’t see the sales of the product continuing the way we wanted, so we took it off the market,” Flett said. Kransky’s lawyers claim the implanted metal cups didn’t stimulate ingrowth of surrounding bone, making them unstable in the hip. They also claim the shallow design of the ASR cups, in which a metal ball ...
Source: PharmaGossip - January 29, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs

Biomedical Engineer 3.8 GPA overall 3.94 BCPM
by dredwinf (Posted Tue Jan 15, 2013 5:57 am)I also thinks that your stats looks to be reasonably optimum for the medicine engineering courses in several schools.For changing into a medicine engineer the most effective means may be a formal coaching in mechanical and physical science engineering with centered medicine coaching. however since you've got already completed the engineering degree you'll select a academic degree in medicine. (Source: Med Student Guide)
Source: Med Student Guide - January 15, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: blogs

Non trad second time question
by miketutor (Posted Sun Jan 06, 2013 12:25 pm)Hi All!My name is Mike and I always wanted to get into med school. My background is Electrical and Biomedical Engineering and I am currently working as an electrical engineer. A year and a half ago I have applied for both med school and law school. Unluckily, med school did not accept me but I got accepted to part-time law school instead. I am on my second year of law school now but I am also trying to get into med school as it was always my biggest interest. If med school continues to not accept me I may end up working as a patent lawyer for medical devices.I am very good in ...
Source: Med Student Guide - January 6, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: blogs

EHR MU – Interoperability, but of what?
In preparing for my presentation on Stage 2 Meaningful Use (MU) requirements for the November, 2012 Fourth Annual Medical Connectivity Conference I had the opportunity to delve further into the question of what had to be connected to what, and interoperable with what, in order for providers seeking EHR incentive payments to satisfy their MU obligations. (I ended up making this presentation by phone from New York to Boston because of the lack of transportation out of New York post hurricane Sandy.) Stage 2 of the federally defined Meaningful Use (MU) is now upon us (details here), and a recurring theme is clearly interope...
Source: Medical Connectivity Consulting - December 27, 2012 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: William Hyman Tags: Healthcare IT Source Type: blogs

How an interview for Kaiser Health News rekindled memories of health IT dysfunction in the 90's that persist in the 10's
I was interviewed in my home yesterday by Jay Hancock, Senior Correspondent, Kaiser Health News about my background, how I got to the current point in my Healthcare Informatics career, my opinions on the state of health IT in 2012, and related matters for a possible article:Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a nonprofit news organization committed to in-depth coverage of health care policy and politics. KHN’s mission is to provide high-quality coverage of health policy issues and developments at the federal and state levels. In addition, KHN covers trends in the delivery of health care and in the marketplace.KHN is an...
Source: Health Care Renewal - December 6, 2012 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: healthcare IT difficulties Washington Post Kaiser Family Foundation Kaiser Health News Jay Hancock Source Type: blogs

Biomedical Engineer on How Fresh Design and Smart Engineering Can Help Transform Healthcare
Dr. Joseph Cafazzo, a biomedical engineer that has spent his career in the hospital, spoke at TEDxToronto about how everyone in the medical field should look to applying technology to solve all sorts of problems. Treatments could be made more effective at lower cost and with greater patient satisfaction, and much of it is a matter of adapting already existing capabilities to new uses. Here’s the full talk from the independently organized event:Read More (Source: Medgadget)
Source: Medgadget - November 12, 2012 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Gene Ostrovsky Tags: in the news... Source Type: blogs

Best Post of May 2012: New Study Looks at Head Impacts in Youth Football
The next in our "Best of the Month" series is from May 14, 2012:We neuropathologists, and society as a whole, have spent a lot of time over the last couple of years rethinking the long-term effects of repeated concussive and subconcussive blows to the heads of professional and college football players. But what about the 3.5 million kids in American who play below the high school level? Dr. Peter Cummings today sent me a link to a report regarding groundbreaking research being done at Virginia Tech in which impact-measurement instruments were placed on 7 and 8-year-old football players. Data was collected on more than 750 ...
Source: neuropathology blog - November 6, 2012 Category: Pathologists Tags: Best of the Month series trauma Source Type: blogs

Me :)
I love this. My lovely and talented friend, Sarah, who I have known since she was a 12 year old fencer, is now a biomedical engineering college graduate and roller derby superstar! :) I gave her a picture of me (at a time when I was having a rough time when she was still in high school) and she re-drew the picture in marker. I adore it. I didn't think about until later that the picture showed a pretty classic pose for me, hand-wise. I tend to have a lot of flexion poses that I don't realize are so unusual or different until I see them in pictures. People who have had strokes or brain damage often have some pretty str...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - November 2, 2012 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

How Alzheimer's Disease Kills Brain Cells
“The better the research community understands how Alzheimer's operates, the more likely we are to develop an effective treatment.” ~ Michael Mayer Alzheimer's Reading Room Exactly how Alzheimer's disease kills brain cells is still somewhat of a mystery, but University of Michigan researchers have uncovered a clue that supports the idea that small proteins prick holes into neurons. The team also found that a certain size range of clumps of these proteins are particularly toxic to cells, while smaller and larger aggregates of the protein appear to be benign. The findings, which appear in the journal PLOS ...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - October 17, 2012 Category: Dementia Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs

Postman Could Soon Deliver Your Nanopatch Vaccine in the Mail
CONCLUSION Dr. Carley and Dr. Stoller say it all. Both professionals give excellent examples of fraudulent behavior that is being committed by the pharmaceutical industries. Bearing this in mind, the best thing that anyone can do if they receive a Nanopatch with their mail is to wrap it up securely, to protect wildlife, and put it out with the garbage. References Independent on Sunday- Health in the Future: Mail Order dissolvable vaccine patches http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-in-the-future-mailorder-dissolvable-vaccine-patches-2031808.html# MBio – Local Response to Mi...
Source: vactruth.com - October 14, 2012 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Christina England Tags: Christina England Top Stories big pharma dr. kenneth paul stoller Dr. Rebecca Carley influenza Micro Needles nanopatch Vaccine vaccine delivery Source Type: blogs

Healthcare IT Transparency Could Stand Some Improvement
Transparency in the health IT sector is akin to the transparency of Pb (lead).The following report comes from the FDA Maude (Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience) voluntary-reporting database, reported by a (likely unhappy) biomedical engineer a month after the "incident" - the nature of which is deliberately kept hidden. This is regarding the PICIS "Pulsecheck" EHR for emergency departments:Report Date 05/14/2010PICIS INC. CARESUITE ED PULSECHECK S/W, TRANSMISSION & STORAGE PATIENT DATAEvent Type: OtherPatient Outcome: Required InterventionEvent DescriptionThe customer ...
Source: Health Care Renewal - October 6, 2012 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: Joint Commission MAUDE healthcare IT risks PICIS Pulsecheck Source Type: blogs

Allegheny Health System Computer Crash (Again) and Paper Backups
I reported on a health IT crash in my May 2011 post "Twelve Hour Health IT Glitch at Allegheny General Hospital - But Patients Unaffected, Of Course..."Now, there's this at the same healthcare system:Computer system at West Penn Allegheny restored after crash Liz NavratilPittsburgh Post-GazetteOctober 2, 2012 The computer system at West Penn Allegheny Health System crashed about noon today, temporarily leaving doctors and nurses to work off of paper records instead.Kelly Sorice, vice president of public relations for the health system, said all systems have since been restored. She said the servers crashed about noon ...
Source: Health Care Renewal - October 3, 2012 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: Healthcare IT failure Patient care has not been compromised West Penn Allegheny Health System Source Type: blogs

quick mcat/gpa advice
by sjmiller609 (Posted Tue Sep 18, 2012 7:04 pm)-Ohio State biomedical engineering GPA 3.35 (junior year presently)-MCAT 31L-Have a good amount of research experience in ophthalmology, but not published.-whiteI was quite baffled after getting an L writing score, especially considering the much higher scores on my practice tests.Regardless, what do you guys think about these stats for med school?Also, I have almost all As in all the premed classesI feel that it's very difficult to get a 3.5+ in the honors engineering program I am in.thanks! (Source: Med Student Guide)
Source: Med Student Guide - September 18, 2012 Category: Medical Students Source Type: blogs

Scott Jung: For Hire
Since a lot of folks from the medical device industry read these pages, we thought we should take a break from usual fare and instead publish some news about our editor, Scott Jung. Scott’s got a background in biomedical engineering, sales and communication, and is looking for a new full time position in the medtech field. You’ve read his work here, and having seen him in action these past few years, we figured we should help propel this valuable member of our team.Scott Jung has helped Medgadget be a better publication, and we’re sure he would do the same in any other organization. He clearly understan...
Source: Medgadget - September 10, 2012 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Medgadget Exclusive Source Type: blogs

Part Pliers, Part Hole-Puncher, “FastStitch” Aims to Reduce Post-Op Complications (video)
Abdominal surgery itself is pretty invasive and comes with a number of potential complications. Many of these complications – some serious – arise as a result of poor suturing. That’s because suturing the abdominal wall requires piercing through a layer of muscle called the fascia, which doctors liken to pushing a needle through a leather shoe. Accidentally puncturing a vital organ, such as the bowel, can lead to a sepsis infection. Moreover, if an incision isn’t closed properly, patients can develop herniation and evisceration.To address these problems, biomedical engineering students at Johns Ho...
Source: Medgadget - August 20, 2012 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Scott Jung Tags: Surgery Source Type: blogs

Overcome hospital workflow challenges with collaboration
by Kathrynn Thompson and Craig Martin When designing and activating a new healthcare facility, there is tremendous opportunity to rethink clinical workflows as you address the specific challenges of moving into a different environment. After nearly eight years of construction and planning, in December 2011, our patients were moved into the new C.S. Mott Children's and Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital. The experience taught us the value of collaborating across the continuum--from the clinicians, IT, biomedical engineering, nursing informatics, and project leadership--and that vendor relationships are key to successfully ...
Source: hospital impact - August 14, 2012 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs

Improving Anti-seizure Technology
Scientists at Johns Hopkins University are developing a new early warning system for seizures that is sensitive enough to detect imminent seizures without setting off a large number of false alarms. The software may someday be embedded in a microchip that would continually check electrical activity in the brain and launch electrical stimulation whenever a seizure is beginning to form. A seizure is a temporary disturbance in brain function whereby groups of nerve cells in the brain signal abnormally and excessively. Epilepsy — sometimes called seizure disorder — is a general term that refers to a tendency to h...
Source: Highlight HEALTH - July 12, 2012 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Walter Jessen Source Type: blogs

Pancreatic Cancer May Be Detected With Simple Intestinal Probe
In this study, the Mayo Clinic physicians tested a light probe developed by their long-time collaborators at Northwestern University. The light, attached to a small fiber-optic probe known as an endoscope, measures the amount of oxygenated blood as well as the size of blood vessels in tissue near the duct where the pancreas joins the small intestine. Because a growing tumor requires a heightened supply of blood, normal tissue in the vicinity of the cancer reveals evidence of enlarged blood vessels and changes in the amount of oxygen within the blood. Such "field effects" from cancer can be measured in other areas of the ...
Source: Digital Pathology Blog - July 4, 2012 Category: Pathologists Authors: Kaps Source Type: blogs

StarDental®’s Identafi® Honored as Winner in the 2012 Medical Design Excellence Awards
Malvern, PA (May 31, 2012) – DentalEZ® Group, a supplier of innovative products and services for dental health professionals worldwide, today announced that its StarDental® Identafi®oral cancer screening device has been selected as the Gold Winner in the dental instruments, equipment, and supplies category of the 2012 Medical Design Excellence Awards (MDEA) competition, the premier awards program for the MedTech industry.The 2012 MDEA-winning products were announced at a presentation ceremony held May 23, 2012 inside the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown hotel. The ceremony was held in conjunction with the MD&M...
Source: Dental Technology Blog - June 14, 2012 Category: Dentists Source Type: blogs

Two assistant professor openings at purdue university
The Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN invites applications to fill two tenure-track faculty positions. Appointments are expected to be at the assistant level; however, an especially well-qualified candidate may be appointed as associate professor. Successful candidates will be expected to pursue vigorous research programs. We are committed to excellence in research in communicative sciences across the lifespan. Areas of specialization are open. Our research portfolio would be enhanced by expansion in areas including phono...
Source: Talking Brains - June 13, 2012 Category: Neurologists Authors: Greg Hickok Source Type: blogs

Mind Over Matter
The wonderful world of biomedical engineering is demonstrated beautifully in this video from the journal Nature. It shows a tetraplegic woman controlling a robotic arm with nothing but the thoughts from the motor cortex of her brain: Take 4.5 minutes to view this incredible work. It will make your day. -Wes (Source: Dr. Wes)
Source: Dr. Wes - May 17, 2012 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: DrWes Source Type: blogs

atUMCG Update : Top 25% tag
The University Medical Center Groningen has introduced a mechanism to evaluate research output by UMCG staff. Basically it comes down to: a better citation score in highly valued Journals gets rewarded. Of course more aspects are taken into account, but those will not be the topic of this post right now. Main focus is to stimulate researchers to target the Top 25% Journals of the relevant JCR (Journal Citation Reports). The above picture is an illustration of how departments are promoting these articles. The Department Biomedical Engineering (BME) actually bought a stamp to mark the articles on their bulletinboard! In ...
Source: DigiCMB - May 17, 2012 Category: Medical Librarians Authors: Guus van den Brekel Source Type: blogs

New Study Looks at Head Impacts in Youth Football
We neuropathologists, and society as a whole, has spent a lot of time over the last couple of years rethinking the long-term effects brain damage causes by repeated concussive and subconcussive blows to the heads of professional and college football players. But what about the 3.5 million kids in American who play below the high school level? Dr. Peter Cummings today sent me a link to a report regarding groundbreaking research being done at Virginia Tech in which impact-measurement instruments were placed on 7 and 8-year-old football players. Data was collected on more than 750 hits to the head over the course of the seaso...
Source: neuropathology blog - May 14, 2012 Category: Pathologists Tags: trauma Source Type: blogs

Sleepless in the Valley…
Maggie woke me up extremely abruptly at 2am barking her fool canine head off. My heart was racing with fear as I wiped the sleep from my eyes and sat up in the bed. Dad came at 8pm last night so I was in the bed at 9pm so I just decided to get up after five hours of sleep and spend some time on the computer. I turned on the myriad of outside house lights I have and she has calmed down somewhat. Something really got a wild hair up her arse this morning, though. She sounded absolutely vicious as if there was an imminent threat. It scares me when she does that. It could have been an errant cat or a possum, o...
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - May 10, 2012 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs

Novel Bone Scaffold Draws Strength from Tiny Silk Fibers
Every few months or so, researchers announce a new breakthrough with silk. For instance, earlier this year in March, scientists from the US Air Force Research Laboratory reported that they had transformed the material into a bactericidal fabric. In February, researchers at University of Akron had developed a spider-silk inspired thread for wound-healing applications.Now, David Kaplan, PhD, chair of biomedical engineering at Tufts University, whose interest in silk goes back for decades, has helped develop a silk-reinforced biodegradable material that can provide significant mechanical support during bone repair. He and a g...
Source: Medgadget - May 3, 2012 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Brian Klein Tags: in the news... Source Type: blogs

Invitation to Sponsor/ Exhibit @ 2012 SharpBrains Virtual Summit (June 7-14th)
We invite organizations shaping the future of brain health and health overall to become Sponsors or Exhibitors @ 2012 SharpBrains Virtual Summit: Optimizing Health through Neuroplasticity, Innovation and Data (June 7-14th, 2012), in order to expand a critical conversation, engage an influencial community of early-adopters and decision-makers, and showcase innovative research, solutions, and services during the Summit Expo (June 12-13th). You can learn more via this Sponsorship Brochure (opens PDF), and also consult this Sample of Participants in 2010/ 2011 SharpBrains Summits (opens PDF). Participa...
Source: SharpBrains - April 19, 2012 Category: Neurologists Authors: Alvaro Fernandez Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Health & Wellness data Expo future innovation neuroplasticity sponsorship Source Type: blogs

New SharpBrains Summit Speakers — Games for Brain Health, EEG, Human Computer Interaction
We are pleased to announce three new Speakers @ 2012 SharpBrains Virtual Summit (June 7-14th, 2012): Dr. Sheryl Flynn, CEO, Blue Marble Game Co Tan Le, CEO, Emotiv Lifesciences Corinna E. Lathan, Founder and CEO, AnthroTronix Dr. Sheryl Flynn, CEO, Blue Marble Game Co Dr. Sheryl Flynn is the founder and CEO of Blue Marble Game Co, a serious games company that focuses design and development of video games to enhance rehabilitation for people with disabilities worldwide. Sheryl has also begun the development of the Games4Rehab.com social network that aims to bring together individuals with disabilities, clinicians, rese...
Source: SharpBrains - April 17, 2012 Category: Neurologists Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Health & Wellness Professional Development adhd AnthroTronix Blue Marble Game Brain-games corinna lathan EEG Emotiv NIDRR OPTT-RERC physical therapy sheryl flynn tan le video-games Source Type: blogs

The Humble Cervical Collar Gets an Overhaul
An undergraduate team of three mechanical engineering students and three biomedical engineering students have redesigned the common cervical collar to provide better stabilization for the head and neck of accident victims. The inspiration for the HeadCase cervical collar came from Dr. John Hipp a former director of the Spine Research Laboratory at Baylor College of Medicine.Dr. Hipp and his colleagues published a paper in 2010 in The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery reporting abnormal separation between vertebrae in cervical collar users. The HeadCase collar aims to prevent this separation by providing a greater d...
Source: Medgadget - April 12, 2012 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Gavin Corley Tags: Neurological Surgery Neurology Orthopedic Surgery Source Type: blogs

Crowdfunding for academic research: Innovocracy
The objective of the project is to further refine the prototype product and further field test it among children with autism. Prospective Supporters can view information about the project here. What are some of the possibilities you envision over the next few years? We hope Innovocracy becomes the platform of choice for individual support for academic innovation. In the future this may also span into opportunities for public and private organizations to co-sponsor projects to help increase their profile. Are donations tax deductible? The donations are currently not tax deductible but we hope to enable this in select situ...
Source: Health Business Blog - April 10, 2012 Category: Health Managers Authors: David E. Williams of the Health business blog Tags: Entrepreneurs Research Technology Source Type: blogs

Johns Hopkins Group Boosts Epilepsy Algorithm to Help Reduce Needless Brain Stimulation
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have been working on a way to improve the precision and effectiveness of seizure controlling brain implants by trying to eliminate false positives that needlessly trigger electrical pulses.Sridevi V. Sarma, an an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Hopkins with a background in electrical engineering and computer science, led the team that developed new algorithms that so far have been tested on brain recordings taken from four drug-resistant epileptics. The hope is that soon this algorithm will be tested in implanted devices of real patients in a proper clinical study.Read More (Source: Medgadget)
Source: Medgadget - April 5, 2012 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Gene Ostrovsky Tags: Neurological Surgery Neurology Source Type: blogs

Dr. Jesse Meredith Receives Award from AMA
Dr. Jesse H. Meredith General and thoracic surgeon Dr. Jesse H. Meredith was awarded the 2011 Distinguished Service Award from the American Medical Association recently. The award is given based on meritorious service in the art and science of medicine. Dr. Meredith, who is professor emeritus at Wake Forest University School of Medicine was one of the first surgeons to reattach a severed human hand. He also founded the biomedical engineering department at Wake Forest and was an early pioneer in the critical care model of healthcare delivery. (Source: Inside Surgery)
Source: Inside Surgery - March 5, 2012 Category: Surgeons Authors: Editor Tags: Medical News Wire Distinguished Service Award Jesse Meredith reattach hand School of Medicine Wake Forest University Source Type: blogs

More on Clinical Decison Support and EMRs
I have previously discussed Meaningful Use (MU) criteria for EHRs (here and here) , and Clinical Decision Support (CDS) (here). These topics are closely linked since the MU requirements mandate the inclusion of CDS. On February 22, 2012 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released (in a mere 455 pages in manuscript form) a proposed rule for Stage 2 criteria for qualification of an EHR for the Medicare incentive program. Among many topics, the proposed rule includes some elaboration on the mandatory use of CDS’s as well as issues related to their design and utilization. This mandate might ...
Source: Medical Connectivity Consulting - March 4, 2012 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: William Hyman Tags: Healthcare IT Source Type: blogs

Photoacoustic System Spots Circulating Tumor Cells to Detect Early Melanoma
John A. Viator, Ph.D, associate professor of biomedical engineering and dermatology at the University of Missouri, has developed a new technology, that combines light and sound, to detect melanoma. It actually spots circulating tumor cells that are markers for cancer, which provides an early warning signal before actual tumors develop, potentially helping physicians deal with the disease at an earlier, more manageable stage.From an announcement by the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS):Read More (Source: Medgadget)
Source: Medgadget - March 2, 2012 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Gene Ostrovsky Tags: in the news... Source Type: blogs

FDA to review inhalable caffeine -- msnbc.com
BOSTON — U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials plan to investigate whether inhalable caffeine sold in lipstick-sized canisters is safe for consumers and if its manufacturer was right to brand it as a dietary supplement. AeroShot went on the market late last month in Massachusetts and New York, and it's also available in France. Consumers put one end of the canister in their mouths and breathe in, releasing a fine powder that dissolves almost instantly. Each grey-and-yellow plastic canister contains B vitamins, plus 100 milligrams of caffeine powder, about the equivalent of the caffeine in a large cup of coff...
Source: PharmaGossip - February 19, 2012 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs

New Lab on a Chip Device for Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing
The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) is one of the most important values in the clinical bacteriology. The lowest concentration of a specific antibiotic that inhibits growth after overnight incubation determines whether an organism is reported susceptible or resistant. Researchers from the department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, published about a portable self-loading technology for determining MIC values in journal Lab on a Chip this week. The device is kept as simple as possible and requires only a single user pipetting step to introduce the sample.The device consists of chambe...
Source: Medgadget - January 5, 2012 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Jan Sinnige Tags: Pathology Source Type: blogs

Biomedical Engineer 3.8 GPA overall 3.94 BCPM
by wenwenzi (Posted Wed Dec 28, 2011 12:10 am)If I were to fall in love,It would have to be with youYour eyes, Sacramento Escort your smile,The way you laugh,The things you say and doTake me to the places, Sacramento Escorts My heart never knewSo, if I were to fall in love,It would have to be with you. Sacramento Asian EscortEd Walter,Forgive me for needing you in my life; Forgive me for enjoying the beauty of your body and soul; Sacramento Asian EscortsForgive me for wanting to be with you when I grow old (Source: Med Student Guide)
Source: Med Student Guide - December 28, 2011 Category: Medical Students Source Type: blogs

Microneedle Biosensors for Real-time Monitoring Of Body Chemistry
Scientists from North Carolina State University, Sandia National Laboratories, and the University of California, San Diego have developed new technology that enables doctors to detect real-time chemical changes in the body and to do so continuously for an extended period of time. Microneedles are very small needles in which at least one dimension –- such as length –- is less than one millimeter. Existing technology depends on taking samples and testing them; microneedle biosensors instead allow for continuous monitoring in real time. Dr. Roger Narayan, professor in the joint biomedical engineering department of NC Sta...
Source: Highlight HEALTH - December 23, 2011 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Walter Jessen Source Type: blogs

Lessons from a Recent Recall
A recent Class I recall (not pictured) of a medical monitor with a hospital network connected central station stimulates some generalities about software, “fixes”, and connectivity. (Class I recalls are defined by the FDA as a situation in which there is a reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death.) The use of the product in question was given as: a networked solution system used to monitor a patient’s vital signs and therapy, control alarms, review Web-based diagnostic images, and access patient records. The number ...
Source: Medical Connectivity Consulting - December 18, 2011 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: William Hyman Tags: connectivity Patient Safety Standards & Regulatory Source Type: blogs

Interventional Cardiologist Sees Negative Trend in Innovation: Despite Decreases in CVD Mortality
A recent article from TCTmd noted that, “the field of Interventional Cardiology has seen negative trends in innovation – defined as novelty that creates value - despite decreases in CV-related mortality over the last 40 years.” Citing to a recent Scientific Symposia session at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference, Martin B. Leon, MD, and Elazer R. Edelman, MD, PhD, debated the issue and discussed whether this trend should be deemed a “crisis.” Both Drs. Leon and Edelman have extensive experience conducting research and consulting with numerous pharmaceutical and medical device compa...
Source: Policy and Medicine - December 6, 2011 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs

Lane Desborough – Chemical Engineering and Diabetes?
Lane Desborough I met Lane at the Medtronic Diabetes Advocate Forum last Spring. He made quite an impression on me. Have you ever met a person who is so smart that they exude inspiration? That’s Lane Desborough, Product Strategist at Medtronic Diabetes. His son, Hayden, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in August of 2009. As Lane did his first presentation, he talked about many parallels between the complicated field of process control chemical engineering in oil refineries and the like, and the complicated field of diabetes management. It sounds crazy, right? But no more than six hours into his son’...
Source: Scott's Diabetes Blog - December 1, 2011 Category: Diabetes Authors: Scott K. Johnson Tags: Blog Posts Medtronic Chemical Engineering Closed Loop Diabetes Lane Desborough Source Type: blogs