Category: Monitoring

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Apps Asthma fitness mHealth Monitoring Sensors Sleep

Mobile phone microphones as health sensors

http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21578518-sensor-technology-microphones-are-designed-capture-sound-they-turn-out

The Economist’s Technology Quarterly describes how mobile phone microphones are being used as versatile sensors with myriad health applications.  Examples follow:

1. Professor Tanzeem Choudhury of Cornell has created StressSense to capture and analyze voice characteristics such as amplitude and frequency. Her team concluded that “it is feasible to implement a computationally demanding stress-classification system on off-the-shelf smartphones”.

2. BeWell’s sleep-tracking feature, also by Professor Choudhury,  determines whether the phone’s user is awake or not by analyzing usage, light and sound levels, and charging habits. Physical activity is monitored using built-in accelerometers for motion-detection. Social activity is measured by sounds that indicate that the user is talking to someone, either in person or over the phone.

3. Professor John Stankovic of the University of Virginia uses microphones to capture heartbeats. Researchers in his group use earphones modified with accelerometers and additional microphones that detect the pulse in arteries in the wearer’s ear. This makes it possible to collect physical state information, including heart rate and activity level, which is transmitted to the smartphone via the audio jack.

4. Shwetak Patel of the University of Washington uses a smartphone to measure lung function when users blow on its microphone. His team has developed the SpiroSmart app, which simulates a digital spirometer, to measure the volume of air a person can expel from his or her lungs. Spirometers help doctors better understand the health status of patients with conditions like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cystic fibrosis.

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Apps mHealth Monitoring Sensors

Smartphone as handheld biosensor

http://news.illinois.edu/news/13/0523iphone_biosensor_BrianCunningham.html

University of Illinois researchers have developed an iPhone cradle and app that uses its camera and processing power as a biosensor to detect toxins, proteins, bacteria, viruses and other molecules.    Professor Brian Cunningham, the team’s leader, discussed healthcare applications:  “A lot of medical conditions might be monitored very inexpensively and non-invasively using mobile platforms like phones. They can detect molecular things, like pathogens, disease biomarkers or DNA, things that are currently only done in big diagnostic labs with lots of expense and large volumes of blood.”

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Crowdfunding fitness Monitoring Sensors

Another crowdfunded vital sign monitor

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/scanadu-scout-the-first-medical-tricorder

As the crowdfunding of remote health devices increases, another vital sign monitor has launched on Indiegogo.

Scanadu Scout analyzes and tracks temperature, respiratory rate, blood oxygen, heart rate, blood pressure and stress trends.  The company states that it accomplishes this in 10 seconds.

The device is still pre-FDA approval but quite promising. They claim that they can read systolic and diastolic blood pressure at 95% accuracy.  It looks like they are not reading oxygen saturation level.  We hope they’ll add it in the next version.

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BCI Brain EEG Machine Learning Monitoring

Skin mounted electrode arrays measure neural signals

http://coleman.ucsd.edu/lab-research/

Professor Todd Coleman of UCSD is developing foldable, stretchable electrode arrays that can non-invasively measure neural signals. They can also provide more in-depth analysis by including thermal sensors to monitor skin temperature and light detectors to analyze blood oxygen levels.  The device is powered by micro solar panels and uses antennae to wirelessly transmit or receive data.  Professor Coleman wants to use the device on premature babies to monitor their mental state and detect the onset of seizures that can lead to brain development problems such as epilepsy.

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Heart Monitoring Sensors

Flexible “skin” heart monitor

Stanford professor Zhenan Bao has developed a flexible, skin-like heart monitor, worn under an adhesive bandage on the wrist.  This non-invasive method could replace intravascular catheters, which create a high risk of infection, making them impractical for newborns and high-risk patients.  An external monitor could give doctors a safer way to gather information about the heart, especially during infant surgeries.  Bao’s team is working with other Stanford researchers to make the device completely wireless.
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Arthritis Monitoring Sensors

Haptic hand monitors joint mobility

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/item/30530-a-helping-hand-for-med-tech/

Ireland’s Tyndall National Institute’s “haptic hand” sensorized glove collects hand movement data to assist doctors’ understanding of arthritis patient mobility. Sensors built into the glove will provide 3-D simulations of joint movement and information on hand stiffness. The glove could potentially also be used to track hand movements in other applications, such as stroke rehab and training of surgeons.

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Brain Computer Vision mHealth Monitoring Sensors

Computer vision algorithms used to diagnose depression

http://medvr.ict.usc.edu/projects/dcaps/

SimSensei software, developed by Stefan Scherer and colleagues at the University of Southern California, combines computer vision algorithms and the psychological model of depression. An on-screen psychologist asks you a series of questions and watches how you physically respond. Using Kinect, the computer vision algorithms build up a very detailed model of your face and body, including your “smile level,” horizontal gaze and vertical gaze, how wide open your eyes are, and whether you are leaning toward or away from the camera. From these markers, SimSensei can determine whether you’re exhibiting signs that indicate depression — gaze aversion, smiling less, and fidgeting.

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Monitoring Seniors Sensors

Smart bottles measure medication, send reminders

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1681935/a-cell-phone-in-a-pill-bottle-to-text-you-to-remember-your-meds

AdhereTech bottles measure the exact amount of pills or liquid they contain in real-time. The data is sent wirelessly into the cloud, and patients are reminded to take their medication via an automated call or text message.

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Apps mHealth Monitoring Pharmaceuticals Seniors Sensors

Ingestible sensors alert doctors and caregivers when a pill is taken

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2013/04/16/the-newest-high-tech-pill-will-text-when-swallowed/

Proteus Digital Health is creating a new category of products, services and data systems that have the potential to significantly improve the effectiveness of existing pharmaceutical treatments.  Called Digital Medicines, these new pharmaceuticals will contain a tiny sensor that can communicate, via a digital health feedback system, vital information about an individual’s medication-taking behavior and how their body is responding.

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Apps Monitoring Seniors

Google Glass for frail seniors

http://www.zdnet.com/old-age-is-the-killer-app-for-google-glass-7000014602/

Google Glass applications can benefit the aging population in many ways:

– Sensors can track a person’s gait, and identify mobility problems that signal a potential fall and broken bones. Early warning signs can trigger preventative treatments and healthcare providers could try stop a fall before it happens.

– Reminders for taking medication can be scheduled and double dosing prevented.

– For those suffering from dementia, the device could recognize family members and offer simple messages such as, “This is your son, his name is John. Say, “Hello John, how are my beautiful grandchildren?”

– Google Glass-type devices could enable family members to patch into what seniors are doing, even what they are seeing. If there were a problem, emergency aid would be on the way in seconds.

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Diabetes Monitoring

A “bionic pancreas” for diabetes management

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/riva-greenberg/diabetes-clinical-trial_b_3110140.html

The bionic pancreas consists of three pieces of hardware. There’s an iPhone with an app that contains the system’s control software and algorithm and a continuous glucose monitor (CGM).

The CGM’s sensor/transmitter, worn under the skin, streams glucose (blood sugar) data to two connected infusion pumps. One delivers insulin to lower blood sugar and one delivers glucagon to raise it. Based on glucose levels transmitted every five minutes from the CGM, the app determines and dispatches how much insulin or glucagon should be delivered to maintain ideal blood sugar levels.

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Monitoring

70% of doctors have self-tracking patients; better outcomes reported

http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/physicians-report-self-tracking-popular-positive/2013-04-16

7 in 10 doctors report at least one patient sharing some form of health measurement data with them, according to Manhattan Research’s annual “Taking the Pulse” survey of 2,950 physicians.  Nearly three-quarters agreed that self-tracking leads to better outcomes.

Self-tracking patient impacts include:

  • 40% lead them to ask their doctors new questions
  • 46% changed their overall approach to their health
  • 34% affected decisions about how to best treat their conditions