KardiaMobile This week we are providing 350 mobile ECG devices to settings across south London to help detect the most common cardiac arrhythmia called atrial fibrillation or AF. These devices are going into a variety of settings including GP surgeries, community pharmacies, podiatry services, optometry, acute mental health units and care homes with the aim of finding many more people who are unaware that they have this condition. AF contributes to one in five strokes and is associated with a 20% increased likelihood of mortality, so those identified as having AF are given appropriate treatment to significantly reduce their risk of having a stroke. We’ve been seeking to raise the profile of AF across the country and were delighted that London Mayor Sadiq Khan joined our campaign addressing Londoners in this short film made for Global AF Awareness Week. My organisation, Health Innovation Network, is the Academic Health Science Network, or AHSN, for south London and we exist to speed up the best innovations across this geography. However, it is not just south Londoners who will benefit, every part of the country will as all 15 AHSNs, covering the full population of England, are busy distributing them to member organisations starting this week. Some people with AF experience no symptoms, or intermittent symptoms, that come from time-to-time and may not be present when people undertake cardiac examinations such as a 12-lead ECG. By being able to check much more readily and frequently, we increase the likelihood of picking up the presence of these intermittent symptoms. Dr David Albert This clinical challenge was tackled by an innovative clinician who saw opportunities to improve care. Dr David Albert a highly entrepreneurial cardiologist who graduated from Harvard and Duke, devised a device that can take a clinical grade ECG in 30 seconds on your smartphone, now known as Kardia, and its uptake across the NHS is led by Francis White, working for the company David founded, AliveCor. David is a serial inventor and has a mission of “saving lives one invention at a time …36 patents and counting”. What is fascinating is that he had the idea for this device back in the mid-90s and patented it then, but the rate limiting step was that smartphones were not yet ready to support these devices for another 15 years. David was also turned away by all the major manufacturers and venture capitalists when he built the first Kardia, so set up his own company. The interest began in 2011 when he posted a short YouTube clip of Kardia on LinkedIn that went viral and he had investors and distributors queuing up to be involved. Famously, Dr Eric Topol, another cardiologist and author of one of my all-time favourite books on how digital is transforming healthcare – The Patient Will See You Now – used a Kardia device he had in his pocket to assess a passenger who became unwell while in a plane over the US. Assisted by the Kardia device, Eric diagnosed a heart attack, the plane had an emergency landing and the passenger, who was complex as had cardiac history making it difficult to clearly diagnose, was stented and survived. 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) and NHS England The NHS Innovation Accelerator is a programme supported by all 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) and NHS England. It accelerates uptake of high impact innovations and provides real time practical insights on spread to inform national strategy, Francis is an NIA fellow, being supported by the NHS to spread and scale this innovation and the case study for Kardia features in the AHSNs Atlas of Solutions. In April 2017 NHS England agreed a new funding mechanism for innovations and supported AF detection devices as a priority. Prior to this, there was no clear way for the NHS to purchase devices such as Kardia. Interested GPs would find a way to fund them through their CCG, however they are neither part of hospital care, nor a piece of IT infrastructure, nor a drug. Francis likens Kardia as “more akin to a stethoscope”. The great news is that through AHSNs being able to access the product, for their populations, without charge under the new funding mechanism we will see many more new devices for picking up AF in use across the NHS. Francis believes that this mechanism is the “seed of a brilliant idea” in terms of supporting the spread of proven innovations “if we are to live the dream of the NHS becoming the place for speedy healthcare innovation adoption”. He is indebted to the AHSN Network and NIA for the support he has received. “Without the support of the AHSNs doing that last mile, telling the story and helping get our message out there is no way we would have reached what is now 2.7m recordings in Britain. Being on the NIA programme has also given us real legitimacy, for example being invited to present to the RCGPs’ cardiovascular GP specialists group. As a small innovator access to these key clinicians would have been out of reach”. Mobile ECG and blood pressure products Kardia is one example of a range of mobile ECG and blood pressure products in this arena including the following, which are now being used across the country to detect AF sooner: Watch BP Home A by Microlife – a blood pressure machine with an integrated AF detection device RhythmPad by Cardiocity – standalone single lead ECG device MyDiagnostick by MyDiagnostick Medical BV – a stick-like device which records a single lead ECG over one minute and will indicate if normal / not ImPulse by Plessey - a handheld standalone single lead ECG device which transmit the ECG to a smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth. These are going into a wide range of settings over the next few weeks with the aim of picking up undiagnosed atrial fibrillation - so people can receive treatment that will prevent many strokes. As the NHS approaches its 70th birthday this year, this is also a great reminder of the way that healthcare is continually evolving and innovating. Taking advantage of digital health solutions will be even more important for the next 70 years. Today’s new devices are just one example of the way that low-cost tech has the potential to make a huge difference to peoples’ health. The work on AF underway across the country, led by the AHSN Network is anticipated to prevent 3,650 strokes a year blighting lives. It is terrific that these fantastic inventions that improve safety and help people self-manage, devised by clinicians and innovators are being embraced by the NHS. And we are delighted that the AHSN network has the privilege of helping get thousands more people tested and diagnosed. Tara Donnelly is CEO of the Health Innovation Network, the AHSN for south London, and founder member of DigitalHealth.London. www.healthinnovationnetwork.com www.digitalhealth.london @tara_donnelly1 Photo by Emile Holba www.emileholba.co.uk Emile Holba is a portrait and documentary photographer working worldwide with a range of clients from non-profit organisations to commercial enterprise. emile@emileholba.co.uk +44 7780 621405

The Deputy Chair of the new Clinical Digital Council argues that for effective digital health services and systems to succeed across the NHS improving patient care, we need agreed digital health standards which cover evidence, regulation and clinical safety: The global market for digital health is expected to reach almost £43billion by 2018 and £408 Billion by 2025. Health IT systems represent the largest market both globally and in the UK, where they contribute 66 per cent of digital health sales. But the most promising market for growth is mobile health with sales of apps and wearables predicted to increase by 35 per cent in the UK by 2018. With the increasing value of these markets comes increased focus on the policy around health IT systems and interoperability. This is key to enabling safe and effective data exchange, but unfortunately we have discovered a lack of interoperability with digital health tools such as devices, wearables and integrated apps which need to be addressed. What has become clear is that the market has pushed on ahead in creating high cost health IT systems, with little focus on building application programming interfaces (APIs) or allowing smaller digital health players to integrate clinically effective tools into those larger electronic health records and IT systems. In order to address this nationally, it is clear that a standard of what is ‘good’ needs to be developed and adopted. This would allow developers to create tools and products that not only impact clinical care and improve patient outcomes, but that can also connect to and talk to other clinical systems being used within the NHS. As part of the NHS Five Year Forward View and Next Steps, a common standard across regulators, NICE, Public Health England and other central NHS bodies to review digital health tools was developed. However, in the fast changing world of digital health, it was clear that a cross stakeholder group was needed to maintain this standard and to ensure it changed accordingly with technology developments and advancements. A group was also needed to address emerging questions around what amounts to good evidence in the digital health space, impacts of real world data, and how we change the narrative of healthcare delivery in the digital age. And while technology in healthcare does not yet truly make intelligent decisions independently, with the pace of change it is clear we need to address these questions now. To help address these, under the leadership of the outgoing Chief Clinical Information Officer (CCIO), Professor Keith McNeill, the Clinical Digital Council (CDC) was set up at the end of 2017. Its membership includes senior clinical digital health leaders from across the arm’s length bodies – currently the MHRA, NICE, Care Quality Commission, Public Health England, NHS England, NHS Digital and the Department of Health. The goal of the CDC is to ensure issues affecting digital health policy are raised in the right environment, and it acts as an advisory body to the governance and delivery groups informing the Digital Delivery Board – the governing body which decides NHS technology spending. It is a clinically-led forum for informed discussions and sharing of standards and policies relating to digital health and clinical implementation. The CDC meets every other month under the chairmanship of the CCIO for health and care and is managed by me, as deputy chair. Our focus this year is to: Publish a digital health standard with a focus on evidence, regulation and clinical safety. This will inform the wider Health Standards and NHS Digital Service Standards Manual and procurement frameworks; Create a common understanding of what is good evidence with respect to digital health, and use of real world data and trials to inform effectiveness of a product or tool; Explore the challenges of machine learning and intelligent technology to policy and regulation, with an aim to creating a policy framework. For more information on the CDC contact me at indra.joshi@nhs.net. You can also see our recently published roadmap for patient-facing digital services at www.nhs.uk/transformation Dr Indra Joshi Dr Indra Joshi is the Clinical Lead for NHS England’s digital health programmes. She has an overarching knowledge of the national patient-facing digital initiatives within the NHS with a focus on real world evidence, data and digital health tools standards. Indra has a unique portfolio with experience stretching across policy, governance, digital health and marketing, national project strategy and implementation; whilst remaining true to her professional training as an emergency medicine specialist. She is the Clinical Director of One HealthTech, a network which champions and supports underrepresented groups in health innovation, particularly women, to be the future leaders in healthcare. Indra, a mother-of-two, is also a Vice Chair for the British Computer Society (Health), an international speaker and consultant on digital health, an expedition medic. Source : https://www.england.nhs.uk/blog/raising-the-standard-in-digital-health/

Introduction Anvajo is a health tech start-up company and spin-off of the University of Technology in Dresden. Anvajo was founded in 2016 and is based in Dresden, Germany. In several years of extensive research, we have developed a cutting-edge and patented “Minilab” for 1-drop blood, urine, saliva and sperm testing, providing immediate and quantitative results at lab-grade accuracy. Our device is easy-to-use and low-cost, provides versatile connectivity and is suitable for a wide range of applications. We are currently developing cartridges for infection diagnosis and plan to provide many more for a variety of applications. Market launch is planned for early 2018. MiniLab The Minilab miniaturizes state-of-the-art blood diagnostics by combining our patented technology and innovative product engineering. It is a portable device that provides immediate quantitative test results at lab-grade accuracy while being easier to use than your smartphone. From everyday clinical applications to the most audacious science adventures – the Minilab will be your laboratory of choice. Diagnostic Cartridges Taking advantage of the versatility of the Minilab’s core technology, our microfluidic cartridges perform comprehensive diagnostics by analyzing both cellular and biochemical parameters. A simple 1-step-procedure allows convenient and quick loading with just one drop of sample. By using cutting-edge biomarkers we are going to provide diagnostic cartridges that give you results that matter. https://anvajo.com/

Friction. The forces that act in opposition to someone being able to achieve the goal they set out to achieve. Go on to the street and ask anyone whether they think there’s value in getting a regular check-in on their health and you’ll find the vast majority of people say “yes”. Ask whether they’re getting the aforementioned check and the vast majority say “no”. Why not? Friction. Actual and perceived friction associated with the process. That’s why. Worryingly, you often hear the same story if you ask patients* whether they’re keeping on top of their condition and abiding by the testing or monitoring that’s required to optimally treat their health issue. That perceived and actual friction associated with getting tested is driven by a powerful force: The NHS evolved in order to deliver ‘sickcare’ and serious care. As a consequence, there is a huge amount of unintended friction associated with much of the testing, diagnostics and remote monitoring that, unfortunately, play a central role in proactive, preventative health. When, in practice, the idea of getting a blood/urine/saliva test evokes images of phone calls, time off work, waiting rooms full of sick people, travel time, a lack of clarity, a lack of ownership, it’s hardly surprising we see 1 in 4 deaths linked to something preventable. It’s impossible to know how many more could be tracked back to treatment being on the back foot. The future, today Helping to tear down elements of this friction, there are exciting companies (https://anvajo.com/) working on delivering testing devices that’ll enable you to test from home. They’re nascent technologies for now. And equally, while Theranos didn’t execute according to plan, others are working on developing faster, cheaper and more sophisticated testing equipment which might start cropping up in pharmacies etc. However, at Thriva, we’re of the view that you can deliver a 10x better experience using existing technology and methodology. Getting a regular blood check for things like heart attack risk, diabetes risk, vitamin D and B12 deficiency can be done without leaving the house. Today, Thriva delivers a finger-prick blood test through your letterbox and with results provided the next day (not in 2 weeks) via a personalised online dashboard and having been reviewed by an NHS trained GP. And while unassisted finger-prick collection remains clunky, it won’t be long before hardware innovators call an end to the days of the lancet and usher in a new era of totally painless blood collection from home. *defined in this context as someone who’s been through a medicalised process requiring expert medical care Hamish Grierson CEO and Co-Founder Thriva Hamish@thriva.co

The age of finger-pricking will soon be over with the announcement of a non-invasive method for measuring the body’s blood glucose levels from German medical technology company, DiaMonTech. DiaMonTech has created technology for a medical device which directly measures the presence of glucose molecules in the blood through an invisible infrared laser, giving a reading of a user’s blood glucose level within 15 seconds. All users need to do is place their finger on a sensor on the device and their blood glucose levels will be displayed in real-time. With 400 million people suffering from diabetes worldwide, this new device will liberate many from the antiquated means of pricking their fingers and the potential health risks it carries. DiaMonTech’s technology enables unlimited measurements and consistent, constant reporting on the presence of glucose in the blood, giving greater control over managing your diabetes. The breakthrough patented technology was developed by DiaMonTech’s Head of R&D, Professor Werner Mäntele, Director of the Biophysics Institute at Goethe University in Frankfurt. With over 30 years of experience in spectroscopy, Professor Mäntele’s leading work on molecule detection enabled the team to create an advanced laser, capable of measuring blood glucose with pinpoint accuracy. “Developing a non-invasive device for the management of diabetes has been our top priority since day one,” says DiaMonTech’s CEO, Thorsten Lubinski. “With so many other devices that require a break to the skin, and with millions worldwide suffering from this disease, we made it our mission to help make the day-to-day monitoring of diabetes more manageable and less intrusive.” “Unlike previous diabetic monitoring methods, which have focused on one particular layer of the skin to measure blood glucose, DiaMonTech’s approach means blood glucose is measured with ‘depth-profiling’,” says Professor Mäntele. “This method allows us to measure one’s skin at a multitude of different depths and is fine-tuned to measure glucose molecules rather than a high-level overview.” A series of devices are planned with a larger desktop unit, ‘DMT Base’, scheduled for release in 2018, a pocket-sized device ‘DMT Pocket’ scheduled for 2019 and a smart-wristband, ‘DMT Band’, which will continuously monitor blood glucose, scheduled for 2021. Each device will be compatible with Android and iOS mobile devices, allowing you to check your information in real-time. Source : http://www.healthmatters.org.uk/public-health/diamontech-announces-breakthrough-technology-non-invasive-method-measuring-blood-glucose/

Introduction to Microsoft HoloLens Microsoft HoloLens is the first self-contained, holographic computer, enabling you to engage with your digital content and interact with holograms in the world around you. To put it in simple terms, it projects images over your vision so they appear as holograms, providing you with more information about the world around you or changing the way you perceive a space. Unlike virtual reality, which takes over your entire vision and hearing to transport you to another environment, augmented reality complements the world around you. Features of HoloLens Holograms are responsive to you and the world around you. Microsoft HoloLens enables you to interact with content and information in the most natural ways possible. 1) Gaze Built-in sensors let you use your gaze to move the cursor so you can select holograms. Turn your head and the cursor will follow. 2) Gesture Use simple gestures to open apps, select and size items, and drag and drop holograms in your world. 3) Voice Use voice commands to navigate, select, open, command, and control your apps. Speak directly to Cortana, who can help you complete tasks. HoloLens In Healthcare - Real World Example 1 - Stryker Stryker, a leading global medical technology company, has set out to improve the process for designing operating rooms for hospitals and surgery centres. Stryker is using HoloLens to build the operating room of the future. Stryker Communications designs state-of-the-art, customized operating rooms using its ByDesign 3D design software. Microsoft HoloLens extends the capabilities of the ByDesign software, bringing their extensive portfolio of digital 3D assets to life and allowing stakeholders to collaborate in ways they couldn’t before. Recognizing that the current model of operating room design needs to be evolved from 2D to 3D, and knowing that the needs of these specialties can be quite divergent, Stryker has found a way to design a shared operating room that can accommodate all surgical disciplines in a far more efficient manner. HoloLens In Healthcare - Real World Example 2 - Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Clinic Case Western Reserve and Cleveland Clinic are partnering with Microsoft on HoloLens as part of its collaboration on its Health Education Campus, a state-of-the-art project that will include the schools of nursing, dental medicine, and medicine, including Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, a track within Case Western Reserve’s medical school. One of the project’s primary goals is to pioneer new ways of preparing 21st century health care leaders. Technology is a key element of those efforts, as is an emphasis on inter-professional education. As Cleveland Clinic President and CEO Toby Cosgrove often observes, “health care is a team sport.” The educational opportunities the HoloLens offers extend well beyond health care. Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Marc Buchner and a few of his students have worked with the device to model molecules or develop gaming applications. HoloLens In Healthcare - Real World Example 3 - University College London University College London is exploring how Microsoft HoloLens can transform medical imaging, like CT scans, into 3D models. Surgeons use these three-dimensional anatomical holograms to plan for complicated surgeries and to help patients get a clearer picture and better understanding of their own bodies. The plan is to use the technology to help surgeons understand the specific anatomy and condition of a patient. When wearing the HoloLens, surgeons will be able to see an image of the patient’s organs. The short term hope is this will help with pre-surgical planning. The longer term vision is to super-impose the hologram on the patient during an operation, and for the image to change in real time to reflect what the surgeons are doing. The technology is being created as a collaboration between the trust, University College London Computer Science, and NHS Code4Health, under the platform for enhanced analytics and computational healthcare (PEACH). Where does HoloLens fit into the Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality ecosystem? Conclusion - Hope for Surgery HoloLens effectively gives doctors 'X-ray vision' to allow them to peer inside patients during surgery. For example surgeons can use the 3D interactive system to get a perspective of the inside of the patient, which accurately guides the surgeon in ways that weren't previously possible. Any new technology which break barriers and offers its users new functionality previously not possible is hope. In this case more hope for patients to survive complicated surgery and more hope for surgeons to perform effectively with better outcomes. Source : https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/hololens

1st February 2018: Nottingham City General Practice Alliance has signed a contract to use Zesty’s online appointment scheduling technology for its extended hours service. Extended hours is primarily an NHS service designed to alleviate demand on GP practices in Nottingham city, providing 182 hours of additional care to patients every week between 4-8pm Monday to Friday and 9am-1pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Emma Bravery, Chief Operating Officer, NCGPA commented “Our 54 GP Practices use EMIS Web and TPP SystmOne as their practice management software, however there is no appointment system that can connect to both, so we looked for an easy to use online scheduling system separate from EMIS and TPP. Having reviewed the market and spoken to a number of suppliers, Zesty’s cloud based system was the best solution for our requirements.” Equipped with an awareness of the changing issues affecting its members and their workforce, NCGPA strives to respond to their requirements by developing innovative solutions that are both practice led and patient focussed. NCGPA is committed to maintaining strong relationships with local organisations including, Nottingham City CCG, its partner organisations and having an active presence at high level discussions about the future of the local care landscape. These relationships will allow NCGPA to represent the voice of its members, whilst seeking necessary sources of help, funding and required resources to support and develop them. Speaking about the partnership Zesty CEO, James Balmain said: “We are excited to be working with Emma and her team in Nottingham on this new project to alleviate demand on local GPs and provide a convenient service to patients. Zesty continues to design and deliver robust, easy to use online scheduling software for primary, secondary and community care across the NHS and private healthcare markets. ENDS Notes to editors After a year of development work, early 2016 saw the establishment of Nottingham city’s 1st GP Federation – Nottingham City General Practice Alliance (NCGPA). Comprising 48 GP Practice Provider members, and covering a population of over 335,000 patients, NCGPA is committed to combining the time honoured valued of List-Based General Practice with the benefits of working together at scale. In the ever changing and challenging operational landscape of general practice, in recent years Practices have been encouraged to work more closely together, either in loose networks or more formal arrangements with increasingly binding agreements between practices, even up to merger into Super Partnerships holding a single contract. In NCGPA practices continue to exist independently, with being a member of the federation allowing them to operate collaboratively with other practices in their locality. This approach provides opportunities for economies of scale along with access to funding not available to individual practices, thus equipping practices with a vehicle to obtain the resources and opportunities they require to improve or continue to deliver high quality care to their patient communities. http://www.ncgpa.org.uk/

The OrCam MyEye 2.0 is a breakthrough, wearable artificial vision device designed for people who are blind, partially sighted, or have reading difficulties. The great advance achieved with this new version, compared to the original OrCam MyEye device, is that it is completely wireless, and the whole device is now only about the size of a finger. Despite its compact size, the device includes even more powerful artificial vision technology which enables users to read text off of any surface instantly and discreetly, as well as to recognise faces, bank notes, and products seamlessly. The OrCam MyEye 2.0 is designed to be intuitive and easy to use for people with visual impairments. The wireless device magnetically mounts onto the user’s eyeglasses or sunglasses frame, and weighs less than an ounce. It is the only wearable artificial vision technology that is activated by an intuitive pointing gesture, or simply by following the wearer’s gaze, allowing for hands-free use without the need for a smartphone or Wi-Fi. Functions like volume control are now performed using a touch pad on the side of the device. Another new feature is LED lighting which can illuminate text, faces, products, and currency notes in low light environments, making the OrCam MyEye 2.0’s text reading and facial/object recognition even more powerful. Identification of consumer products, colours, and money notes also provides users with greater levels of independence. Leon Paull, OrCam’s international business development manager, commented: “We are thrilled to be launching our next generation OrCam MyEye device at 100% Optical. This device is a huge step forward in artificial vision technology, and is more powerful, more discreet, and more intuitive than any of our previous devices. Our technology can help people living with visual impairments to lead more independent and connected lives, even when they have no remaining medical/surgical options.” Ian White, an OrCam user and trainer who has lost the majority of his sight and has been registered blind since 2011, commented: “The biggest difference that I noticed with the OrCam MyEye 2.0 is the increased performance. It is even more responsive and intuitive than the previous version. The fact that it’s wireless also means that I can be really spontaneous with how I use it. I can take the OrCam MyEye 2.0 out at the bus stop, or at the shops, and very quickly click it onto the side of my glasses to read anything that’s in front of me. It is also so compact and discreet that I never draw attention to myself when I’m using the device. “My favourite new feature has to be the built-in LED lighting, which means you can read in low or ambient light. I went away with my wife over Christmas, and we went out to a restaurant that had ambient low lighting. In the past, it would have been impossible for me to read the menu in light like this, but the OrCam MyEye 2.0 had no problems at all!” https://www.avinteractive.com/news/orcam-showcases-life-changing-myeye-2-0-artificial-vision-device-29-01-2018/

Pfizer The year 2018, barely under way, has already dealt a series of disheartening blows to the quest for an Alzheimer’s cure. Within the first three weeks, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. abandoned the costly and frustrating field of dementia drug development, and two promising treatments stumbled in patient trials. Alzheimer’s support groups are putting on a brave face, but the collective disappointment is palpable as the global cost of caring for some 50 million dementia sufferers is set to reach $1 trillion this year. “It’s very fair to say that progress is slow,” David Reynolds, chief scientific officer at the charity Alzheimer’s Research UK. “Companies have put a lot of time, effort and money in over the last 25 years, and there haven’t been any new medicines launched in this area for 16 years now.” Long Term Experts say it takes 12 to 15 years, on average, and more than $2 billion to develop a single drug. According to the Alzforum website, which gathers data on candidate drugs, fewer than 300 have made it to phase two trials of drug efficiency. Only five have ever been approved to treat symptoms such as memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s, first identified more than 100 years ago. With a clinical trial failure rate of over 99 percent, there is still no licensed drug that slows the condition’s progression, or cures it. Today, about 100 candidate dementia drugs are enrolled in trials, compared to over 1,000 for cancer, according to Reynolds. One reason is that “pharmaceutical companies ultimately are companies. They are beholden to their investors,” he said. “A return on investment is really: How much time and money do you put into getting a new medicine versus how much money can you make once you’ve actually got it? In this area, success has been very difficult to come by.” The stakes are high According to the World Health Organization (WHO), some 10 million people per year are diagnosed with dementia, with Alzheimer’s disease accounting for about two-thirds of cases. By 2030, the number of sufferers is projected to reach 82 million globally, and by 2050 some 152 million. The medical, patient-care and economic costs are enormous. A heavy burden falls on family members, the majority of care providers worldwide. Many have to give up their jobs. Alzheimer’s affects mainly older people — about 1 in 4 over 85 years old is a sufferer. And numbers have soared as life spans have lengthened thanks to medical advances in other fields. With cardiovascular disease and cancer the biggest killers in the 1960s and ’70s, that is where most of the research money went. “In dementia, that investment wasn’t there. So the amount of knowledge … about the disease is at a much, much earlier stage, and arguably the brain is a much more complicated organ” than the heart, said Reynolds. To this day, scientists don’t know exactly what causes Alzheimer’s, leaving drug developers stumped. On Jan. 6, Pfizer announced an end to its “discovery and early development efforts” for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s dementia drugs. H. Lundbeck AS Two days later, Danish company H. Lundbeck AS reported its idalopirdine compound did not “decrease cognitive loss” in patients, and on Jan. 12, biotech firm Axovant Sciences Ltd. announced the end of the road for its offering, intepirdine. Experts say every failure of a drug reveals something new about Alzheimer’s disease, which is thought to be associated with a buildup of protein plaques and tangles in the brain. One important recent realization was that an effective treatment may have to begin long before symptoms appear as protein buildup likely starts decades before disease sets in. This, in itself, presents a research challenge. When they are in middle age and symptom-free, “How do you find these patients?” asked French neurology professor Bruno Dubois. “How long do you treat them?” Drugs in development today are targeting several tracks. Some use antibodies to mop up proteins in circulation, or enzymes to inhibit their production. Another experimental approach is vaccination: training the body to produce its own antibodies to attack disease-causing proteins. “We are not moving backward,” insisted Reynolds. Yet he was “by no means certain” that a goal set by the Group of Eight in 2013 to develop a cure or treatment for dementia by 2025 can be met. “Even knowing the obstacles, we have never been as optimistic as we are today,” added James Hendrix, a director at the U.S.-based Alzheimer’s Association, one of several nonprofit research funders. “We will not slow down in our fight against this terrible disease,” he vowed. “We are steadfastly committed to both advocating for further increased federal funding for Alzheimer’s and dementia research, and increasing our own level of research funding to get us to where we ultimately need to be — a world without Alzheimer’s disease.” Source : https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/01/25/world/science-health-world/rocky-start-alzheimers-drug-research-2018/#.Wmzs8SOcYkg

1) The LOHAS bed Sweet, sweet sunshine was the inspiration behind this innovative, hybrid hospital bed/wheelchair design by Lirong Yang. Just a bit of sun can go a long way to make paralyzed individuals feel unconfined to their beds. The problem is that it currently takes 3 nurses to transition the patient from bed to wheelchair. The LOHAS bed, however, only requires one. Utilizing a unique folding design, the assistant or nurse can safely and easily transition the patient without any real lifting. The bed can be folded and transformed into a wheelchair in a matter of minutes without disturbing the individual. The result is more privacy, more independence, and more sunshine to enjoy! Designer: Lirong Yang 2) Dosnoventa bicycle Unimpressed by the sterile vibe of existing wheelchair models, designers Hoyoung Youn, Sungyub Lee, and Jiyoon Han looked to Barcelona’s Dosnoventa bicycle brand as inspiration for their Infinito mobility concept. The design first tackles the stigma wheelchair users face with an entirely new aesthetic and form. With a sporty silhouette and large go-anywhere wheels, the new look is more rover-like than wheelchair. Fun, vibrant color details mimic that of Dosnoventa fixie collection. The new design also enhances mobility thanks to its scissor-inspired structure. It sports an innovative adjustable seat-height feature for better ergonomics. It also has two distinct riding positions: one that is ideal for cruising and manoeuvering and the other for putting the user at eye level with standing individuals. This in combination with a safety features like 6-point buckling and a gyroscopic stabilizer give users the confidence and independence they so desire. Designers: Hoyoung Youn, Sungyub Lee & Jiyoon Han 3) OH hearing aid This thoughtful design by Julia Marina Cunha forces us to examine our attitudes about hearing disabilities. For years, hearing aid designs have gotten “better” by blending in with the human body. However, this masking of the device also perpetuates the concept that hearing loss or disability is something to be ashamed of. Designed with this in mind, OH is at once a hearing aid and a fashion accessory. It allows the user to customize the product by changing the external ring’s range of textures and colors. It can also be used as an earring or attached hearing pin. However it’s worn or in whatever style, it’s aim is to diminish the stigma associated with assistive technology and enhance the user’s self confidence. Designer: Julia Marina Cunha 4) DolPhin Smart Mini Infrared Thermometer Thermometers have taken a giant leap in design with the popularity of Withings Thermo last year. Ever since then, thermometers have come leaps and bounds in their abilities, aesthetics and especially sizes – however none of them have been as compact as the DolPhin Smart Mini Infrared Thermometer. This smart thermometer is the embodiment of portability and compact design being just 5cm long and weighing a total of only 13g. The thermometer simply plugs into one’s smartphone audio jack (sorry everyone who owns the new wave of jack-less smartphones). Thankfully, due to the noninvasive, non-contact nature of this thermometer, it can be used again and again while staying safe and sanitized. With the thermometer comes a helpful app to read and store the temperatures being taken. Not only this, the accompany app has useful searching capabilities for nearby facilities such as; neighboring hospital, internal treatment, university hospital, otolaryngology, health center, pharmacy or the emergency room. This little guy is perfect for a vast range of applications and taking up only 5cm in your pocket; it’s safe to say it’s an easy decision bringing this with you in your travel/medical kit everywhere and anywhere because you never know when you just might need it. Designer: DolPhin 5) Clevu wearable tech As someone who’s been a lifelong sufferer of deteriorating vision, I can testify that no mix of glasses and corrective lenses is enough to get it right all the time. Simply put, there will always be instances where your vision could be better throughout the day. Designed with this in mind, Clevu (a clever combination of the words clear and view) is a wearable system that can not only work as traditional reading glasses but is capable of enhancing a variety of other sight situations. Enjoying the outdoors? There’s a setting for that. Watching TV? There’s a setting for that too. Using a digital lens overlay system with parts integrated into the compact frame, users can toggle between preset and customized settings to enhance contrast and even make the most minute adjustments in focus. Ideal for aging individuals with varying degenerative eye problems, Clevu not only adapts to the user’s unique needs but simultaneously inspires their sense of independence. Designer: Hyosub An 6) Cloudandco Smart Cane Design for so many people is such a visual medium, one must ask oneself… If you remove sight from the design experience, does it still remain a good product? I find designing for the visually impaired quite an interesting domain, because they experience products in a way we don’t, or more importantly, cant. Try doing whatever it is you’re doing right now (eating a meal, perhaps) with your eyes closed. It’s a completely different experience that most people may not be comfortable with. The Cloudandco Smart Cane by Brandon and Max takes on the challenge of designing a product with an experience that is far from visual. The ergonomic smart cane comes as just a joystick handle with an automatic telescoping stick that shoots out when switched on. However, the walking stick doesn’t stop there. It connects to an app on the smartphone, actually guiding the user to destinations they set. The Smart Cane can give off vibration and audio feedback, guiding its user to their destination. Users can toggle through destinations using a button on the top. There’s even a braille panel on the back that can communicate with the user. The Smart Cane takes its non-visual experience further by allowing the users to charge it wirelessly. Instead of having them fiddle with ports and cables, the Smart Cane can just be placed on its charging pad and it automatically gets charged for when it’s required next! Designers: Brandon Cooke & Max Dahl 7) Handihaler Why do medical products look the way they do? That’s a question I’ve asked so many times on this website, it’s beginning to become my catchphrase. Look at the GIF above. The first couple of products you see look instinctively medical. Why so? My theory is that because in an attempt to not overpower the function, less attention was paid on form. This makes medical products look functionally reliable. In short, the more functional it looks, the more functional it must be. However, designers are working to change that now. Medical products should be functional without looking ugly under the ruse of functionality. You can have a medical product that looks incredibly stylish and yet does a remarkable job of saving lives. So look at the GIF above. Look at it some more. The inhalers transform from functional to fabulous, breaking all norms of medical product design, a trend we’re beginning to see a lot these days. Simple and desirable, these black and white inhalers don’t just break the stigma of carrying an inhaler, they also look striking enough that you’d instantly spot it on the shelves (helping the brand reach customers). They embody a characteristic not often used with medical products. Iconic. The black and white body helps create a contrast while cutting the visual bulk of the product. The white part of the product lies on top and doesn’t interact with the user’s hands much, while the bottom is mainly used for gripping, and comes molded in a matte black rubbery material for easy and comfortable gripping. The three inhalers, although different in design, look like a part of the same visual family, and do a remarkable job of making medical products desirable and instantly iconic. Designers: Craig McGarrell, Dawn Tang and Agata Guz (Team Consulting) 8) Epipi Time is of the essence when it comes to treating anaphylaxis, so it only makes sense that the standard EpiPen would be as simple to use as, say, a fire extinguisher. Only… they’re not! All that archaic imagery and fine print only make things more complicated. This new design, called Epipi, really makes things as simple as unscrew, press, and go! The rigid casing protects the device even when its being juggled around in a purse or backpack. In the event that it must be used, its color combination and construction intuitively tell the user what to do. Just twist to arm it, hold against the skin, and press the button to release. A clear window into the medication reservoir will indicate that the contents have been emptied which enhances the confidence of the user that they performed the function correctly. Designer: Harry Moorman 9) The Hue inhaler Style that saves lives seems so apt a title for this post too (it was used for a post done earlier this week). I feel it’s important that medical products that are more commercial than industrial should be given style makeovers, so they don’t become isolating elements, but rather elements that boost the confidence and healing capabilities of the people using them. We’ve seen wonderful work done in the prosthetic department as well as for casts that heal fractured bones. The Hue Inhaler is a step in that direction, bringing incredible CMF detailing to the otherwise mundane asthma inhaler. The Hue is completely 3D printed (note the transition from mottled color to transparent) and comes with a dazzling set of color combinations that are bound to break the monotony of medical product design. There’s even a woven paracord for easy access, or clipping/strapping to your bag/pants. With roughly 300 million people in this world suffering from asthma and almost 250,000 deaths per year, the Hue Inhaler’s crusade to destroy stigma around inhalers may just save more than a fair share of lives. Designer: Tim Zarki 10) One Drop Diabetes system Oftentimes, in the process of designing a product that saves lives, we forget one rather crucial part of the healing process. The product must make users feel better, not just through function, but also emotionally, and psychologically. While most medical devices aim to perform functionally, only some try to look fashionable, less intimidating, or break stigmas through good design. A collaboration between Pensa and Jeff Dachis (the former co-founder of Razorfish), One Drop is a completely exhaustive diabetes fighting system that could easily be a part of any diabetic’s EDC kit. Designed with a homogeneous language that binds the three products together into a beautifully chrome kit that anyone would be proud to carry, the One Drop brilliantly bridges the wide chasm between medicine and fashion, empowering people and motivating them into keeping their health in check! Designers: Pensa & Jeff Dachis Source : https://www.yankodesign.com/2017/12/28/2017s-top-medical-designs-the-future-of-healthcare/

Introduction to Google's 'Project Soli' Soli is a new sensing technology that uses miniature radar to detect touchless gesture interactions. Soli sensor technology works by emitting electromagnetic waves in a broad beam. Objects within the beam scatter this energy, reflecting some portion back towards the radar antenna. Properties of the reflected signal, such as energy, time delay, and frequency shift capture rich information about the object’s characteristics and dynamics, including size, shape, orientation, material, distance, and velocity. Soli tracks and recognizes dynamic gestures expressed by fine motions of the fingers and hand. In order to accomplish this with a single chip sensor, we developed a novel radar sensing paradigm with tailored hardware, software, and algorithms. Unlike traditional radar sensors, Soli does not require large bandwidth and high spatial resolution; in fact, Soli’s spatial resolution is coarser than the scale of most fine finger gestures. Instead, our fundamental sensing principles rely on motion resolution by extracting subtle changes in the received signal over time. By processing these temporal signal variations, Soli can distinguish complex finger movements and deforming hand shapes within its field. Soli Gesture Recognition and Hardware The Soli software architecture consists of a generalized gesture recognition pipeline which is hardware agnostic and can work with different types of radar. The pipeline implements several stages of signal abstraction: from the raw radar data to signal transformations, core and abstract machine learning features, detection and tracking, gesture probabilities, and finally UI tools to interpret gesture controls. The Soli SDK enables developers to easily access and build upon our gesture recognition pipeline. The Soli libraries extract real-time signals from radar hardware, outputting signal transformations, high precision position and motion data, and gesture labels and parameters at frame rates from 100 to 10,000 frames per second. The Soli sensor is a fully integrated, low-power radar operating in the 60-GHz ISM band. In our journey toward this form factor, we rapidly iterated through several hardware prototypes, beginning with a large bench-top unit built from off-the-shelf components -- including multiple cooling fans. Over the course of 10 months, we redesigned and rebuilt the entire radar system into a single solid-state component that can be easily integrated into small, mobile consumer devices and produced at scale. The custom-built Soli chip greatly reduces radar system design complexity and power consumption compared to our initial prototypes. We developed two modulation architectures: a Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar and a Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) radar. Both chips integrate the entire radar system into the package, including multiple beamforming antennas that enable 3D tracking and imaging with no moving parts. What can Google's 'Project Soli' do for Healthcare? In March 2015, Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group (ATAP) announced Project Soli, which uses radar technology to create a touch free interface using hand gestures. While much of the hype has been around the implications for consumer wearables, Project Soli may also drive change in how clinicians and patients interact with technology. Using radar rather than cameras, Project Soli appears to stand out from other gesture-based technology by providing extremely high granularity and fast response times. The release video demonstrates its ability to quickly recognize sub-millimeter motions such as a finger flick or small hand rotation, as well as an extremely small form-factor chip which can be embedded behind certain surfaces. The implications for healthcare are very exciting: the ability to easily and intuitively control electronic information through gestures could radically change how we access information in hospital settings. Eliminating Input Devices The explosion of electronic information use in healthcare has resulted in a similar expansion of the quantity of computers, tablets and dashboards used in the hospital environment, and it is not unusual to have thousands of such devices in a medium-sized acute care hospital (300-500 beds). This poses a very real challenge for infection control professionals, as many of the surfaces are used constantly, but can suffer damage from the strong chemicals used to clean them. Despite the best infection control procedures, these surfaces often become a breeding ground for two of Canada’s most common hospital-acquired infections (HAIs): methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile bacteria. Incorporating Project Soli-type chips would allow users to control devices without touching them, reducing the risk of spreading infections. This could mean that not only would there be fewer germs present, but also that surfaces could be constructed with more durable materials if they do not have to recognize touch inputs. Streamlining Surgery Gesture recognition has the potential to streamline surgical procedures and provide better information to surgeons as they are operating, by allowing them to manipulate CT and MRI images without touching anything outside the sterile field. In this context, Project Soli does not represent a disruptive change, but rather an incremental improvement on technology already being pioneered in some hospitals. A Kinect-based gesture recognition system named GestSure has been developed in Toronto and was first demonstrated at Sunnybrook Hospital in 2011, and Microsoft has worked with hospitals in London, England to develop a similar Kinect-based technology that meets this need. However the increased responsiveness and granularity of Project Soli’s device may make gesture-recognition in ORs more intuitive and easy to use – which is important when driving adoption by clinicians. Finding a Place in Healthcare Project Soli is still in the very early development stages, which means it will likely be several years before it is available commercially – and even reaching that stage will be dependent on how it is adopted by application developers and hardware manufacturers – but the possibilities for healthcare are immense.... Source : http://atap.google.com/soli/ Source : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-googles-project-soli-means-healthcare-kim-osborne-p-eng-/ Kim Osborne Kim is a professional engineer specializing in Information Technology strategic planning and technical design on a range of healthcare & commercial projects throughout Canada. She excels at supporting projects from initiation through to implementation, and works closely with users and stakeholders to translate workflow needs and challenges into functional requirements and technical planning documentation. Her coordinated and knowledgeable approach to developing effective stakeholder engagement ensures that recommendations and project deliverables are feasible, and tailored to the unique needs of each client. Kim has applied her technical and business skills drive the success of a range of IT, security and AV design projects from visioning to construction, and works closely with other consultants to ensure a coordinated approach to planning. Her experience includes technology strategic planning for multiple hospital clients across Canada, network design and output specifications for large hospital redevelopment projects, work on large P3 construction projects and construction and commissioning support for technology systems implementation. Her extensive industry knowledge and real-world experience provides valuable strategic guidance throughout the IMIT visioning and planning stages, ensuring that solutions are value-driven, forward-thinking and can be realistically implemented. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kosborne/

Apple today introduced a significant update to the Health app with the iOS 11.3 beta, debuting a feature for customers to see their medical records right on their iPhone. The updated Health Records section within the Health app brings together hospitals, clinics and the existing Health app to make it easy for consumers to see their available medical data from multiple providers whenever they choose. Johns Hopkins Medicine, Cedars-Sinai, Penn Medicine and other participating hospitals and clinics are among the first to make this beta feature available to their patients. In the past, patients’ medical records were held in multiple locations, requiring patients to log into each care provider’s website and piece together the information manually. Apple worked with the healthcare community to take a consumer-friendly approach, creating Health Records based on FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), a standard for transferring electronic medical records. Now, consumers will have medical information from various institutions organized into one view covering allergies, conditions, immunizations, lab results, medications, procedures and vitals, and will receive notifications when their data is updated. Health Records data is encrypted and protected with the user’s iPhone passcode. “Our goal is to help consumers live a better day. We’ve worked closely with the health community to create an experience everyone has wanted for years — to view medical records easily and securely right on your iPhone,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s COO. “By empowering customers to see their overall health, we hope to help consumers better understand their health and help them lead healthier lives.” “Streamlining information sharing between patients and their caregivers can go a long way towards making the patient experience a positive one,” said Stephanie Reel, Chief Information Officer at Johns Hopkins Medicine. “This is why we are excited about working with Apple to make accessing secure medical records from an iPhone as simple for a patient as checking email.” “Putting the patient at the center of their care by enabling them to direct and control their own health records has been a focus for us at Cedars-Sinai for some time. We are thrilled to see Apple taking the lead in this space by enabling access for consumers to their medical information on their iPhones. Apple is uniquely positioned to help scale adoption because they have both a secure and trusted platform and have adopted the latest industry open standards at a time when the industry is well positioned to respond,” said Darren Dworkin, Chief Information Officer at Cedars-Sinai. The new Health Records section is available to the patients of the following medical institutions as part of the iOS 11.3 beta. In the coming months, more medical facilities will connect to Health Records offering their patients access to this feature. Further information for health institutions is available here. Johns Hopkins Medicine - Baltimore, Maryland Cedars-Sinai - Los Angeles, California Penn Medicine - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Geisinger Health System - Danville, Pennsylvania UC San Diego Health - San Diego, California UNC Health Care - Chapel Hill, North Carolina Rush University Medical Center - Chicago, Illinois Dignity Health - Arizona, California and Nevada Ochsner Health System - Jefferson Parish, Louisiana MedStar Health - Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia OhioHealth - Columbus, Ohio Cerner Healthe Clinic - Kansas City, Missouri Source : https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/01/apple-announces-effortless-solution-bringing-health-records-to-iPhone/