Medical Device Design & Equipment Development

By Sujata Neidig

Wow! I can’t believe it’s 2012. Seems like just yesterday that  everyone was talking about Y2K. But, here we are, another year gone by  and another year to look forward to. For some, this is a time to make  new resolutions. For me, I will continue to focus on the things that I  am thankful for and that I feel are important for me and my family –  fitness and health. As I get older, I can’t take these for granted  anymore and being in the high tech industry means I’m always interested  in gadgets that help enable my efforts.

For fitness, cool gadgets like a heart rate monitor helped me achieve  my goal of running my first half marathon when I turned 40 (in fact,  I’ve now completed three and plan on doing more). At first, the heart  rate monitor was just a cool gadget, but I quickly realized how big of a  motivator it was for me when I started monitoring, tracking and  collecting all of my data, from my heart rate to my pace. So, this  gadget is helping me stay healthy and young so I can keep up with my  kids, take care of my family and hopefully encourage them to always be  active.

For health, I have blogged about dealing with Alzheimer’s as a caregiver for my father-in-law over a decade ago. I am now dealing with this  devastating disease again since my mother-in-law was officially  diagnosed with it last summer. I’ve also realized just how many people  this disease affects as several of my friends have loved ones with  Alzheimer’s. Although there is not a cure, it’s one of the many diseases  that I believe telehealth systems can help with.

Other major diseases that affect an even larger population are diabetes and heart diseases. Recently, the results of a major study conducted in UK showed just how significant of an impact telehealth systems can have –  pretty impressive reductions in patient deaths (45%), emergency visits  (15%), emergency admissions (20%), elective admissions (14%), bed days  (14%) and tariff costs (8%). These results show that telehealth has a  beneficial impact on healthcare costs which is extremely important, but  it also shows that these types of systems help provide better care to  those struggling with health issues.

What advances do you envision for 2012? This article gives some high tech health ideas for 2012,  from mobile access to data and remote care to artificial intelligence  and 3D printing for medicine. I can see several of these help me in my  fitness and health efforts, such as social health networks. (All right, I  am intrigued by a wireless weight scale but not sure I’d want it to  share that data with my Facebook friends. )

Happy (and Healthy) New Year!

Imagine being told you or your loved one will never be able to walk again, the devastation, the shock …

Well, there may be hope after-all.  In a lab at Duke University doctors, engineers, neuroscientists and physiologists from Brazil, Switzerland, Germany and the United States are all actively working on what many might call a miracle, a “prosthetic exoskeleton” that would allow those immobilized by injury or illness to walk again.  Their goal is to demonstrate that they could bypass the body’s complex network of nerve endings and supply the sensation of touch right to the brains of monkeys.

Dr Nicolelis, a Brazilian-born physician and neuroscientist, is bringing together brain science and engineering or sensory feedback and brain control devices to be combined in real time and in a useful way.  Kip Ludwig, who has funded some of Nicolelis’ work, states, “Before, they’ve always been separate.”  He also states that, ideally, the long-term goal would be a prosthetic that would send all the sensory information – touch, position and temperature- to a body part that would add meaning to it."

Nicolelis’ team has “recruited” two female monkeys, from southern Asia, to demonstrate the feasibility of their ideas. The team is sending electrical signals to the monkey’s brain to distinguish between three identical circles with different textures.  These sensations will come from coded electrical currents sent to each monkey’s sensory cortex, or outer layer of the brain, by four filaments the width of hair.

Nicolelis explained the brain the motor drive purpose, “The team is starting with simple experiments for Mango and Nectarine, (the monkeys) so that when the experiments move to humans he or she will not only learn quickly how to initiate and repeat movements using thought alone, but the prosthetic should interface so seamlessly with the intelligent human brain that the patient will begin to see the prosthetic as a natural extension of him or herself.... It would be just like a car…only a little tighter.”

Now, when is this determined and industrious goal expected to happen you ask?  This wonderful team that Nicolelis has put together, hopes to send a young quadriplegic striding out to midfield to open the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil, suited up in an “prosthetic exoskeleton."

How is that for ambitious?

Eavesdropper

Pictures and video via Duke University

The Department of Chemistry at Pennsylvania State University may have just built the future power plant for inner-human body robotics. At just 3.6 micrometers long, a rod consisting of copper (Cu) and Platinum (Pt) acts as both a battery and a motor. Researchers Dr. Ran Liu and Professor Ayusman Sen both believe this nanomotor-battery could be a different way to control drug administration.

The Cu-Pt rod, when placed in a solution of bromine or iodine (an oxidant), the Cu portion acts as an anode (with oxidizing) and the Pt part functions as a cathode. As the battery discharges, electrophoresis begins forcing the rod to move. In other words, the battery is short-circuited and the current produced is then changed to mechanical force.

The nanomotor effect continues until the Cu portion is completely oxidized. Adjusting the length of Cu changes how long or fast the rod moves. In the experiments, the movement lasted 40 seconds to 1 minute. Shorter lengths of Cu makes the motor move faster, but for a shorter time. The opposite is true for longer segments. By polishing one side of the Co end, the rod will act like a rotor. Making an asymmetrical end causes the rod to rotate up to speeds of 170 rpm (in bromine). 

The team's next step is to see if the battery/nanomotor can be recharged or reused. This is definitely smaller than the current alternative.

Eavesdropper