The Tricorder Federation, which I think is a promotional arm of theQualcomm Tricorder XPrize Foundation, has this promotional poster item for the Tricorder XPrize. You get to have your photo taken with a real illness or an alien illness. This dude looks like he has the Fostossa Virus for sure, because he doesn't have diabetes. If you actually own a Trekkie uniform, it is takes a better photo, as I think mine would attest for not being in the trekkie spirit:
A large part of the XPRIZE mission is making science fiction science reality. That's what the $10M Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE is all about. No other group in the world embodies that spirit more than the 40 million Star Trek fans around the world. So we created the Tricorder Federation for you. Where futurists, innovators and fans can come together and celebrate the efforts of the teams around the world who are competing to make the medical Tricorder a reality, so we can all live long and prosper.
Recently there were some CBC news stories about a local company that has entered the Tricorder XPrize. I have been blogging about this XPrize many times, and here is a link to the collected news stories from this blog <here>. I heard an interview on radio and picked-up the story on one of my voluminous RSS newsfeeds. I heard a joke the other day that Youtube, Twitter and Facebook will merge together as one company some day and it will be called YouTwitFace.
Biosign is an interesting company and I once did a lot of research on it. They were developing a "pin-prickless" blood sugar reading device for diabetes. This is one of the holy grails of biomedical device research. Unfortunately, their "cuff" did not fully measure blood sugar levels accurately and never obtained FDA clearance, as far as I know. I still don't think there are any devices developed yet that are "pin-prickless", but it is a fascinating science, and well worth the time to look into the controversial developments, frustrations, and failures in this area.
There is a really bizarre story reported by CBC and sundry other new services that has a decidedly eHealth angle. A person named Howard Levanthal in the US impersonated a Canadian Deputy Health Minister to fraudulently win loans from an investment bank. The guy doesn't look remotely like Glenda Yeates, but her signature appears on his million dollar contract with Health Canada. Revolving around these expenses was a supposed medical device his company Neovision had developed called the Heltheo's McCoy Home Health Tablet, named after Dr. McCoy of Star Trek and Tricorder medical device fame.
Tricorder-like devices are actually being developed by the Qualcomm Tricorder XPrize. There are are now 3 Canadian teams in the competition. I blogged about the XPrize Tricorder competition before and continue to be interested in it. This story was picked up by a delightful science fiction/science fact blog called Giant Freaking Robot. The Robot had the wherewithal to know that there are quickly evolving attempts to develop tricorder like medical diagnostic and assistive devices, and even posted to his story a youtube video to one of the contestants for the Xprize - Scanadu.
It makes me wonder if eHealth is being over-hyped these days ("Healthcare Hullabaloo", as Giant Freaking Robot says) and people are readily responding to new developments. Not that this blog is helping to over-hype eHealth or anything... Anyway, I really like the quote in the CBC news story that: "His actions were the stuff of fantasy and science fiction, valid only in another dimension"
Pleads guilty to aggravated identity theft for impersonating Glenda Yeates
The FBI says an Illinois man accused of impersonating a Canadian deputy health minister as part of a fraud scheme has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft charges.
Howard Leventhal, 56, of Long Grove, Ill., was accused of trying to defraud a number of individuals and entities of millions of dollars by falsely claiming his company, Neovision, had a lucrative contract with the Canadian Health Department.
'His actions were the stuff of fantasy and science fiction, valid only in another dimension.' - United States Attorney Loretta Lynch
Leventhal pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory two-year term of imprisonment, for stealing the identity of Glenda Yeates.
When sentenced on April 3, 2014, Leventhal faces up to 22 years in prison, $1,050,819.78 in forfeiture and restitution, and a fine of more than $2 million.
Tablet named after Star Trek's Dr.Leonard McCoy
Court in Brooklyn, N.Y. heard Leventhal told potential investors Neovision had written agreements with Health Canada, whereby Neovision would provide Health Canada with Heltheo's McCoy Home Health Tablet.
Leventhal pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory two-year term of imprisonment, for stealing the identity of Glenda Yeates, pictured above.
The device — named after the fictional Dr. Leonard McCoy of TV's Star Trek series — purportedly delivers instantaneous and detailed patient data to physicians and other licensed health-care providers.
Prosecutors alleged earlier this year that Leventhal scammed Paragon Financial Group for $800,000 by claiming it could collect money he said Health Canada owed to his company.
Leventhal also used the purported agreement with Health Canada to solicit more than $25 million from other potential investors, including an undercover law enforcement agent. RCMP allege Leventhal tried to get a $2.5-million line of credit from TD Bank in Toronto in July.
"In Leventhal's world, the truth was cloaked by his web of lies and impersonation. Within this alternate reality, Leventhal marketed non-existent technology, fabricated an online presence, and impersonated a government official, all to defraud investors out of very real money," said United States Attorney Loretta Lynch in a statement.
"His actions were the stuff of fantasy and science fiction, valid only in another dimension."
I have been looking for stories or updates on the Tricorder Xprize and have found a few updates here and there, but this one on the March issue of McLeans magazine just caught my attention. How could I, a member of the public, have missed it? I like the McLeans online version "View in Clean Reading Mode". Is that a hat tip to the smartphone too? Probably. Time to get one myself maybe. Anyway, no belly aching about that. And that reminds me about a conversation I had with a refugee from Ethiopia that other day. He is interested in starting "literacy" programs in Ethiopia/Eritrea. I asked him if it was true that everyone in Africa has a cellphone. He said yes it was true that everyone had a cellphone, but not bread. This article is one of those "must reads" for anyone who actually reads this blog. http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/03/04/the-smartphone-will-see-you-now-2/ http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/03/04/the-smartphone-will-see-you-now-2/2/ http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/03/04/the-smartphone-will-see-you-now-2/3/
Emotiv is a revolutionary EEG system (and it's wireless):
A revolutionary personal interface for human computer
interaction.The Emotiv EPOC uses sensors to tune into electrical signals
produced by the brain to detect user thoughts, feelings, and
expressions. To devlope your own applications for the EPOC, license an
SDK to obtain our proprietary software toolkit.
We
demonstrate a fully functional smartphone brain scanner consisting of a
low-cost 14-channel EEG headset with a wireless connection to a
smartphone (Nokia N900), enabling minimally invasive EEG monitoring in
naturalistic settings. The smartphone provides a touch-based interface
with real-time brain state decoding and 3D reconstruction.
The
Smartphone Brain Scanner is developed by Arkadiusz Stopczynski, Carsten
Stahlhut, Michael Kai Petersen, Jakob Eg Larsen, and Lars Kai Hansen,
DTU Informatics, Cognitive Systems Section.
I thought the iStethoscope was a pretty good missing piece for the Qualcomm TriCorder XPrize. I blogged about this before < here >. Here is another component which fits nicely. It won't be long before a powerful point of care diagnostic smart phone finds it way to FDA approval - and an XPrize winner.
This $200 iPhone Case Is An FDA-Approved EKG Machine
HEALTH CARE IS HURTING, AND THE WORLD IS CHANGING. MORE AND MORE, HOSPITALS WILL FIT IN OUR POCKETS.
Most iPhone cases just protect your phone from drops. If you’re getting fancy, it may have a fisheye camera lens or a screen-printed back. But what about diagnosing coronary heart disease, arrhythmia, or congenital heart defects? The AliveCor Heart Monitor is an FDA-approved iPhone case that can be held in your hands (or dramatically pressed against your chest) to produce an EKG/ECG--the infamous green blips pulsing patient-side in hospitals everywhere.
“We think that EKG screening can be as approachable as taking blood pressure,” AliveCor President and CEO Judy Wade tells Co.Design.
There are already apps that take your heartbeat, of course. But there’s a big difference between the fast-paced standards of casual electronics and the strict sanctions of government-approved medical devices. “The heartbeat camera apps are good at wellness,” Wade admits, “but we see ourselves for use by people who want clinical-quality equipment.”
So unlike most iPhone cases that are squirted by Chinese factories at extremely high margins, AliveCor’s case has been in serious development since 2010. Aside from building the gadget itself, to become approved for medical use by the FDA, AliveCor had to participate in two clinical trials to field test both the hardware and the accompanying app. One study investigated how its single-lead EKG compared to a traditional 12-lead device, the other examined if 54 participants could figure out how to use the case properly, with no previous medical training. The latter study was not only successful but led to the diagnosis of two serious heart problems.
AliveCor was lucky. Though it took about six months to get the application ready, the approval arrived well within the 90-day approval window, allowing the company to come to market sooner. It was a necessary hassle; FDA approval opens a lot of doors. Instantly, what could be considered some scam iPhone case was marketable to health care professionals--doctors--who’d most likely pay out of pocket for a $200 stethoscope replacement without blinking. FDA approval also allows doctors to prescribe, and potentially have insurance cover, AliveCor’s device for their patients to take home.
But even with an approval in-hand, AliveCor will continue to juggle complicated regulations to stay competitive in the market. For one, the approved monitor was designed for the iPhone 4 and 4S. Before AliveCor can release an iPhone 5 version with the exact same hardware internals, they will need to seek out additional FDA approval. (With previous approval and clinical trials to cite, the process is mostly a formality, but it’s still paperwork that takes more time and resources.)
The company also intends to release an over-the-counter version of the case. The good news is, this device will be eligible for coverage in most employee spending programs. But because of FDA regulations, this OTC version cannot provide the raw EKG data to a consumer who might not know how to interpret the esoteric waveforms. Instead, AliveCor will redesign the app to provide an infographic-esque interpretation of the EKG. “An EKG means something to a trained physician, but we can provide a lot of insights to an untrained consumer that might help explain what triggered a cardiac event,” Wade explains. “Like caffeine is a trigger. With an app, we see being able to offer more insight to an individual about their heart health.”
From a product design standpoint, this second-level data analysis sounds like an ideal, consumer-oriented decision. But from a consumer rights standpoint, why is any government agency standing in the way of consumer access to our own raw data? I can see how strongly my iPhone’s antenna is reaching the nearest cell tower, but I can’t see how well my own heart is ticking inside my body? How absurd is that? Interestingly enough, AliveCor is using this regulation to their advantage, banking on the health care model as it stands now. Its OTC device will offer services to refer you to a physician for deeper result analysis (and access to your actual waveforms, if you’re so concerned), which will provide a backend revenue stream beyond typical hardware sales. Imagine the potential: In-app purchase for a follow-up appointment.
An eagle at the Edinburgh Zoo that had been shot, but AliveCor’s case measured a heartbeat through its feathers. The eagle was deemed fit enough for surgery, underwent the procedure and lived. Needless to say, the device has veterinary applications as well.
For the time being, AliveCor is continuing to develop their EKG cases into a full line, including that OTC device, which will also be a universal version working for both iOS and Android. (Since the case actually communicates with the phone wirelessly, once the software programming is done, these product differentiations are largely cosmetic in nature.) No doubt, AliveCor sees the case as a stepping stone to the company’s overall vision, that “everyone should have their health at their fingertips,” Wade says. But the company will have to solve a lot of larger problems that the industry is struggling with to make that future a reality.
While diagnostic devices may be coming to the phone, we still have no standards to get such diagnostic information back to our doctors. AliveCor explained to me that it can send a push notification to my cardiologist every time I check my heart, but does my cardiologist really want push notifications all day from their client list? Or worse, would any doctor want a devastating cardiac episode just sitting under 30 other messages in the iOS Notification Center? Should my phone text or not text emergency information? Should doctors be held accountable for app-based information? Should medical devices be regulated to automatically dial 911 in cases of emergency?
No doubt, AliveCor’s Heart Monitor is another case of affordable consumer technology outpacing our brick-and-mortar hospitals, but to the credit of our hospitals, affordable consumer technology is outpacing most of the world. Still, just as Domino’s has figured out to deliver me a pizza through an app (no doubt, saving a few cents in the process), so, too, will the medical community come around to juggling big data at the individual patient level. The real question is, will FDA regulations leave space for the little guys--the weekend app warriors and the Kickstarters--to innovate responsibly, at a price cheaper than clinical trials and a timeframe faster than paperwork?
This book by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler professes the exponential timelines of Ray Kurzweil and the remarkable inventions, technologies, philanthropists, and the BoP (bottom of pyramid) rising billions of people.
Looking for eHealth content is not that hard. Diamandis started the X Prize foundation and there is a competition for a mobile medical device that will diagnose a patient faster and with more accuracy than a human, based on the inspiration of the Star Trek Tricorder, which I blogged about before. We almost have IBM's Dr. Watson doing alot of that (on the cloud for everybody), but not with the X-rays, ultrasound, blood pressure, blood sugar, etc.
I have heard a lot of these stories before in the news - the internet pommels us everyday with these stories, but still some of them remain most startling and inspirational. Take for example "Lab on a Chip":
"Harvard professor George M. Whitesides, a leader in this emerging field explains: 'We now have drugs to treat many diseases, from AIDS and malaria to tuberculosis. What we desperately need is accurate, low-cost, easy-to-use, point-of-care diagnostics designed specifically for the sixty percent of the developing world that lives beyond the reach of urban hospitals and medical infrastructures. This is what Lab-on-a-Chip technology can deliver.'
Because LOC technology will likely be part of a wireless device, the data it collects for diagnostic purposes can be uploaded to a cloud and anlayzed for deeper patterns. 'For the first time,' says Dr. Anita Goel, a professor at MIT who company Nanobiosym is working hard to commercialize LOC technology, 'we'll have the ability to provide real-time, worldwide disease information that can be uploaded to the cloud and used for detecting and combating the early phase of pandemics'.
There is a whole chapter on Healthcare. I didn't know Diamandis also had an MD. Another great story is zero-cost diagnostics, and the discovery by Carlos Camara that Scotch tape can be used for X-Rays - the Tribogenics X-Ray Pixel. There was a great story about in Nature.
There are other stories/inventions/visions in the book that caught my attention:
"The impacts of mobile telephony on health stretch from being able to quickly locate the nearest doctor to a smart phone app invented by Peter Bentley, a researcher from University College London, that turns an iPhone into a stethoscope, and has since been downloaded by over 3 million doctors. And it is only one of 6,000 health care apps now available through Apple."
I read about this story in the local newspaper because a local person was one of the first to try the eSight goggles, and could see her husband's face and her two kids' for the first time very clearly. Turned out she liked what she saw, which is a good thing. The technology behind eSight is company of people who I recognize because I used to work (on the margins at least) of Ottawa Silicon Valley.
eSight Corp is an early commercial stage privately held company that has developed intelligent video eyewear for people challenged by degenerative eye diseases. We are primarily focused on eSight Eyewear – assistive technology that helps people with low vision lead more independent lives at home and at work.
The X Prize Foundation announced a Tricorder competition not long ago, but a McMaster graduate and researcher has been working on one for quite some time. See Jansen Tricorder Project. I say just add a geiger counter feature and this will fly off the shelves the next time there is a nuclear error. Hat tip to the Hamilton Spectator for publishing this.
The dire need to improve healthcare and health in the U.S. is a problem whose solution has evaded the brightest minds. The Qualcomm Tricorder
X PRIZE is a $10 million competition to stimulate innovation and integration of precision diagnostic technologies, making definitive health assessment available directly to “health consumers.” These technologies on a consumer’s mobile device will be presented in an appealing, engaging way that brings a desire to be incorporated into daily life. Advances in fields such as artificial intelligence, wireless sensing, imaging diagnostics, lab-on-a-chip, and molecular biology will enable better choices in when, where, and how individuals receive care, thus making healthcare more convenient, affordable, and accessible. The winner will be the team that most accurately diagnoses a set of diseases independent of a healthcare professional or facility and that provides the best consumer user experience. Visit the competition website to learn more.
This prize is made possible by a generous grant from the Qualcomm Foundation.
TRICORDER is a trademark of CBS Studios, Inc. Used under license.
After the Watson supercomputer TV show Jeopardy contest, the next exponential technology to watch out for is the Qualcomm Tri-corder X-PRIZE competition.It had it's birth as TV entertainment as well - in the Star Trek series. Smartphone apps can do a lot things, but just pointing one at a patient and getting diagnostics, repair tissue, etc. is something only the physician science fictional character "Bones" could do. I would first double check to see if there isn't already one on the Qizmodo, the Gadget Guide website. When I was writing papers for my ehealth degree, I didn't want to reference Qizmodo - too much "grey literature" - but new devices with medical or health informatics applications frequently answered the question. The first question was whether or not it was FDA approved.