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NHS to use Uber and startup Cera for at-home patient care
Healthcare startup Cera is teaming up with Uber to deliver patient care on the NHS' behalf. The service, launched in November, matches "hundreds" of carers in the UK with the people who need them most. Today, the company is announcing a partnership with the Barts Health NHS Trust -- which runs Mile End Hospital, Newham University Hospital and others -- so that doctors can effectively prescribe the platform and help their patients receive timely care at home. The hope is that such a service will improve patient care while freeing up hospital beds in London.
Human 'suspended animation' trials to start this month
The researchers behind it don't want to call it suspended animation, but it's the most conventional way to explain it. The world's first humans trials will start at the UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, with 10 patients whose injuries would otherwise be fatal to operate on. A team of surgeons will remove the patient's blood, replacing it with a chilled saline solution that would cool the body, slowing down bodily functions and delaying death from blood loss. According to Dr. Samuel Tisherman, talking to New Scientist: "We are suspending life, but we don't like to call it suspended animation because it sounds like science fiction... we call it emergency preservation and resuscitation."
Toyota builds assistive robot to help the disabled around the home
Toyota has built the Human Support Robot, a 70 pound 'droid designed to help the elderly and less-able around the home. The tablet-and-voice-controlled unit can open your curtains, fetch items and even pick up after you, thanks to its single telescopic arm that stretches up to 2.5 feet. A tablet slot on top of its head lets you use the hardware as a telepresence device, although we're more interested in teaching it some attitude so we can live out our "sassy housekeeper" sitcom fantasies in peace.
X-Prize reveals plans for tricorder competition, suspiciously lacking Nimoy endorsement
We could feed you a line about the final frontier or exploring strange new worlds, but we'll just give it to you straight: the X-Prize Foundation has teamed up with Qualcomm to design the Tricorder X-Prize, a $10 million competition designed to boldly go where no contest has gone before. Sorry, we couldn't help ourselves. The most recent addition to the ambitious X-Prize stable is aimed at producing a mobile medical device, similar to those used on Star Trek, that can "diagnose patients better than or equal to a panel of board certified physicians." Said device would allow regular folks to "quickly and effectively assess health conditions, determine if they need professional help," and then decide on a plan of action. The Tricorder X-Prize competition is still in the planning stages and should be ready to launch sometime in 2012. Full PR after the break.
How the iPhone has influnced Intamac's connected home services
Intamac was probably one of the least consumer-facing appointments we had at last week's CES conference in Las Vegas -- the company develops and supports home monitoring systems, mostly for other businesses (security companies and telecommunications companies) rather than actual consumers. But it was still an interesting meeting, and if nothing else, showed us just how much the iPhone has changed all kinds of businesses around the world. Intamac's home monitoring systems are used for all kinds of purposes -- not only does it have products that can monitor video or motion, but it's developed ways to remotely monitor a home's temperatures and energy usage as well, and it uses all of those devices for things like making sure an elderly relative is moving around OK, or that guests are staying out of restricted areas. The systems can even do things like text-to-speech, or contact you on email or social networks when something happens at the house. All of these things are controlled via Intamac's system, which was originally designed to work with a browser-based app. But recently, the company released an iPhone app, and the representative told me this was a sea change in the way their business has worked. Customers are using the iPhone app (and other smartphone apps) in droves, and what Intamac is seeing is that usage of the iPhone app is actually determining company strategy these days. "This is certainly driving us," they said.
Affectiva's Q Sensor wristband monitors and logs stress levels, might bring back the snap bracelet
Credit to Affectiva -- for a medical bracelet, the Q Sensor looks delightful. The item you're peering at here has been developed by the aforesaid Massachusetts-based startup in order to give a voice to those who may not have one, and in theory, it can provide vital information to caregivers long before a breakdown takes place. Particularly with autistic children, who often cannot communicate their stress levels effectively, the Q Sensor is able to "detect and record physiological signs of stress and excitement by measuring slight electrical changes in the skin." From there, it can send signals to doctors, parents or caregivers, and those folks can react accordingly to information that they would otherwise not be privy to. Put simply, the band works by detecting subtle moisture changes under the skin when the "flight or fight" mode is initiated, and while even the creators admit that such a response isn't absolutely indicative of stress, it's generally a signal worth paying attention to for one reason or another. Purportedly, a beta version is set to go on sale to researchers and educators later this month for $2,000, and there's a video just after the break if you're still struggling to grok the purpose.
Panasonic's hair-washing robot: rinse, kill, repeat
If Panasonic can build an exercise horse then surely a robot that washes your hair should come as no surprise. Imagine being lifted from your robotic bed by a plush care-assist robot and placed into a chair for an automatic shampoo and scalp massage. That is the future of care for the elderly and sick in Japan, or the rich and lazy everywhere else. Panasonic's hair-washing robot scans each human head three-dimensionally to apply just the right amount of pressure during the shampoo, massage, and rinse phases. It recognizes repeat customers and then applies that person's preferred massage course using its human-like sixteen "fingers." Each arm contains a trio of motors to power swing, press, and massage motions... or to snap your spinal column should you decide to sass.
Alzheimer's patients, caregivers receiving VeriMed RFID chips
Caring for those with Alzheimer's could be getting a whole lot less stressful, as VeriChip has reportedly doled out 25 VeriMed RFID implantable microchips at the Alzheimer's Community Care 2007 Alzheimer's Educational Conference. Of course, these aren't the first invasive chips that the company has crammed under folks' skin for one reason or another, but these data packin' devices are aiming to provide medical personnel "quick access to identification and medical records information in an emergency situation." Interestingly, not much else was said about future rollouts beyond this small sample trial, but we can't imagine these not showing up en masse (and in humans) once it gets the green light from regulators.
