Lifebot Turns Ambulances Into Super Ambulances

Ambulances will soon be getting some major technological upgrades effectively turning them into “super ambulances.” These technologically enhanced ambulances will allow paramedics to share patient data, video feeds and other information in real time with the remote hospital – a revolution in emergency care.  This is thanks to Roger Lee Heath, an inventor and entrepreneur with over a dozen patents to his name; his most recent being the LifeBot. It’s a system installed in ambulances to help paramedics and EMTs better communicate with the hospitals on the go – when treatment can be at its most critical stages. Paramedics can get expert instructions from doctors remotely to help keep patients stable and also the hospital is better prepared for the patient’s arrival when using the LifeBot system. Below you can see a video of the system in action. When combined with other Teletriage systems, this system helps create the “Super Ambulances” that EMTs and other first responders have been dreaming of.The platform is the Hewlett-Packard Slate tablet that weighs in at just 1.5 pounds. It features a 3 MP outward facing camera and a VGA inward facing webcam working together to capture both the patient and operator in field use, recording video and capturing still images.

Beyond the immediate capabilities of the device itself though, it is connected to the DREAMS(tm) telemedicine system. DREAMS was developed by the U.S Army Materiel Command for emergency and disaster systems deployments. The system allows for the sending and receiving of live patient physiological data, play-by-play screen color drawing with annotation, isolated video zoom to hi-res imaging, complete patient medical record ePCR charting systems, and multiple camera remote controls.

Aside from the tablet, the ambulance will come equipped with three additional cameras, all remote-controlled from the hospital. This allows the paramedic to focus on the patient while the doctor can take a look at any area they feel is important. The paramedic will also wear a head-mounted camera to transmit not only their work on the patient in the ambulance, but anything going on outside the ambulance before transport, like during a multiple car accident.

LifeBot also includes a barcode scanner to read a patient’s driver’s license. This will more quickly bring up medical information that normally has to be retrieved by radio or wait until the ambulance arrives at the hospital. The ability to be aware of potential hazards that an unconscious patient cannot alert them of is crucial here. If a patient has a pre-existing condition or an allergy to medication that might be used to stabilize them during their trip to the hospital, this will be brought to the attention of the ambulance crew, allowing for the best and most accurate care.

A price cannot be placed on a person’s life, but it certainly can be placed on a LifeBot. It will cost $50,000 to add the entire system to one ambulance. This system is a great investment since it not only saves lives, but also saves money. With the cost of placing a fully-trained doctor in every ambulance being prohibitive, having the watchful eye and advice of the doctor from the hospital will ensure that this system pays for itself relatively quickly. According to Heath, Teletriage can reduce ambulance transport volume by 20 – 60 percent, which saves as much as $2,000 per unnecessary transport.

One of the early target markets for the LifeBot is actually in places with lower technology in general: rural areas. These areas are most in need of this service since ambulance rides there can often be as long as an hour to the closest medical facility. If a paramedic is unfamiliar with a critical procedure that is required to save a patient’s life, a remote doctor can walk them through the entire process. The full coverage inside of the ambulance helps the doctor keep eyes and ears on every aspect of the process almost as if they were there themselves.

LifeBot offers many advantages, but what are the concerns? Medical records will always remain confidential, but should patients need to give consent to have their image and likeness recorded in this manner? Most people won’t have a problem with a system designed to save their lives, but will conscious patients have to give their permission before the system is turned on? If so, what would be the procedure for unconscious patients? As systems like these become standard in every ambulance, there could be a selection that we choose on our driver’s license, similar to the choice of being an organ donor. In the meantime though, how do we handle it all?

All in all, what we are looking at here is a substantial advancement in remote medical treatment. If implemented more widely, it should reduce the amount of patients that don’t survive the ambulance ride to hospital where they can get full medical treatment. The system is already in place in select areas within Arizona, Texas, and Florida. Plus with the relatively low cost compared to all of the benefits that the system can provide I don’t think it will be very long until this system becomes standard for hospitals all around the country.

[image credit: LifeBot]

[video credit: ABC News]

[Source: LifeBot,PRWeb, Mobi Health News]

The average American consumes 22 teaspoons of sugar every day.

The world is hooked on sugar. Ray Kurzweil calls it the “White Satan.” And he might be onto something. The futurist guru has found overwhelming evidence that consuming refined sugar is linked to cardiovascular disease, obesity, type-2 diabetes and even cancer. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), women should consume no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar per day and men no more than 9. At 22 teaspoons of sugar consumed by the average American each day, it’s no wonder that our excessive habit is so costly. Scientific innovation is pushing human longevity past the traditional limits. Yet despite this upward trend, we’re still not much smarter about what we put in our bodies. And, according to recent studies, food manufacturers and the U.S. government aren’t doing much to curb our voracious appetite for sugar. We found a video featuring a talk by University of California professor Robert Lustig that exposes the bitter truth about sugar. Make sure you check it out below.

Here at the Hub we think the world of technology. It’s thought that by the year 2030 there will be about one million people living in the triple digits. If we lose a tooth because we ate too much sugar, we will one day replace it with our stem cells, but one simple truth remains: state-of-the-art medicine and brand-name prescriptions can’t—at least not yet—compare to a good dose of common sense. As the singularity’s fiercest advocate, Kurzweil stands by the power of human reasoning, but he also might say that in the battle against sugar, willpower isn’t to blame. The fight can seem futile at best for the more than 17 million Americans currently diagnosed with diabetes. And it seems as though the U.S. government and product manufacturers aren’t doing their share to balance a system that caters hand and foot to sugar-holics.

For one, many foods that aren’t considered desserts actually contain more sugar than their seemingly sweeter counterparts. Some foods considered more natural, like salads, might be higher in sugar if served with a sweet dressing. There isn’t much to alert consumers to this misnomer. In fact, the FDA has yet to issue regulations to control claims of what is and isn’t “natural.” Sugar is everywhere. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists the common aliases of sugar found in most food products, and links to resources that explain how to navigate those misleading product labels we frequently forget to read. But what good is a nutritional label if it lists dubious information? The World Health Organization puts the safe amount of sugar in a healthy diet at no more than 10 percent, whereas the sugar industry in the United States has claimed that 25 percent of our diet can safely consist of sugar—a disagreement with an obvious agenda.

Sugar is subtle. Manufacturers bombard us with half-truths and misleading information on boxes and product labels are skewed to make ingredients seem more benign. It’s been suggested, for instance, that nutritional information be made less confusing by replacing “per serving” quantities with what’s present in the entire container for some products. This popular breakfast cereal is described as “lightly sweetened” on the box, yet sugar is the second ingredient listed (ingredients are generally listed in order of prominence). Websites are no different. Coca-Cola advocates for an “active, healthy lifestyle” on its nutritional information page. Here’s a novel idea: how about skipping soda altogether? Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology would agree. In a recent video presented by the UCSF’s Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Lustig exposes a few dietary myths, going so far as to call high-fructose corn syrup “poison.” It’s a long video, so if you don’t have time to watch it through (which you should), there are a few highlights not to miss: at 15:50 Lustig links Type II diabetes to sugar sweetened soft drinks; find out how juice can cause obesity at 27:21; and at 34:50 who would have thought that doughnuts could unite the world? Check out the video below.

Sugar is addictive. Sugar—along with chocolate, cheese and meat—releases an opiate-like substance that activates the brain’s reward system. So kicking the habit isn’t quite as easy as taking everything in moderation. But we as consumers have more power than we think when it comes to dictating food industry trends, which could advocate for a healthier population in the long run.

Health and longevity is on everyone’s mind. But what good is immortality if we’re riddled with disease and calamity—all because we can’t exercise a little discipline? What good is modern medicine when we demand no less than a miracle? Are we expecting technology to take the place of a healthy lifestyle? If we really want to live longer, we need to take responsibility for our bodies and stop expecting technology and medicine to clean up the mess when we can’t say ‘enough is enough.’

[image credit: Yes-Zim.com]
[video credit: University of California Television]
[source: FDA, CDC, Life Extension Magazine, Coca-Cola, Purdue University, CSPI]

Each TEDMED speaker is at the top of their field. We have spiritual gurus like Deepak Chopra, public health figures like CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, and Singularity Hub regulars like 23andMe‘s Anne Wojiciki. Of course, sprinkled into the conference are more familiar names like Martha Stewart, Goldie Hawn, and David Blaine. Each presenter, celebrity or otherwise, has a tale to tell about the past, present, and future of medicine. There is literally no other conference on Earth that has such a diverse and star studded set of speakers.

The great thing about TEDMED presentations is that they focus in on developments that the speaker finds as amazing as the audience. Every TED video I’ve ever seen has shown me individuals who are excited and moved by the topics they discuss. These people love to present what they excel at, and that sort of enthusiasm combined with competence really makes TEDMED stand out.

If you want to know what each guest will focus on, just go to the TEDMED speakers page and start browsing through head shots of the attendees. While the topic of the presentation isn’t stated outright, you can get a good idea of what each will discuss just by reading their bio. I’m really interested to see if Anne Wojiciki gives us updates on how the ‘research revolution’ at 23andMe is coming along.

Want to attend? You’ll need $4000 and a time machine. Tickets for this year are sold out and they come at a hefty premium. If you think you’ll be willing to shell out four grand next year, you need to get on the mailing list so that you can sign up for next year’s conference. I don’t want to come off as a fanboy, but attending TED or TEDMED would be a dream come true. If you’ve got an extra (and amazingly discounted) ticket let me know. I’ll trade you a blog post for it.

This tiny implant is able to monitor important chemicals near a tumor.

The little implant works in a really cool way. Only five millimeters long, the cylinder contains magnetic nanoparticles coated with antibodies. These antibodies will bond to whichever chemical the implant is designed to monitor. A semi-permeable membrane keeps the nanoparticles in the implant while still allowing ambient particles in and out. When the antibodies bond to a chemical they form clumps. These clumps are then read using an MRI.

It’s surprising what you can learn from clumps. Chorionic gonadotropin is a hormone produced by human tumors. The CCNE implant Dr. Cima designed can help monitor levels of this hormone to determine the relative size of a tumor over time. Already, Cima’s team has tested the effectiveness of their implant by using them on mice that have human tumors transplanted inside. Over the period of a month Cima was able to track the changes in tumors using their setup.

The CCNE implant uses antibodies to clump around important indicator particles (analytes).

Giving mice human tumors sounds a little too much like mad-science, but the technology speaks for itself. While some researchers are developing take home kits to test for cancer, and others seek for robots to explore the body or have nanobots fight the disease, a passive and continuous monitor is a unique and necessary addition. The ability to correlate chemotherapy drug levels with tumor size is going to be crucial in customizing care to each patient. The implant, which could help determine if a tumor has metastasized, can be placed during the first biopsy, removing the need for repetitive exploratory surgery.

As mentioned by Catherine Mohr in her talks on advances in surgery, improvements in sensing are going to be as important as improvements in cutting. Surgeons need a better understanding of how their operations have affected their patient. The implant can serve that purpose while still helping other doctors choose chemotherapy levels or monitor how their patient is responding to another treatment.

Dr. Cima believes that a version of the implant that tests for pH levels could be ready in as few as five years. That’s still a ways off, but it won’t take long after the pH implants are approved before the hormone and oxygen level monitors follow suit. Continuous observations will be a successful ingredient in maintaining our health. Just like big brother always said.

Good news, it's not a suppository

The one-time use Smart Pill is ingested by the patient in a doctor’s office.  A data receiver is worn by the patient, or kept within at least five feet, while the pill naturally passes through the body.  The pill is capable of transmitting data continuously for up to 72 hours, including pressure, pH and temperature.  Connecting the data recorder to a PC will allow doctors to figure out residence times in each area of the GI tract as well as pressure contraction patterns, which may indicate signs of GI issues.

This valuable tool is part of the beginning of the body 2.0 revolution, a continuous monitoring of all systems within the body that will alert the patient at the first signs of malady.  On top of that, the data collected from millions of users would be put in a database for all others to see, creating a free, open source information system similar to the Personal Genome Project.  The true body 2.0 may be a ways off in the future, but the Smart Pill is available now and may already be in the local GI specialist’s collection already.  Such a simple and painless way of monitoring the body for wellness will make it the process much easier for both doctors and patients.

While the GI tract is a bit of an easy one to measure (it’s a linear system, from in to out), it is possible that data-gatherers for other systems may soon follow.  Perhaps scientists could use the same principles to measure breathing for asthmatic patients, alerting them to the best time to take medication or even administering it automatically.  Similarly, the insulin pump, which works to monitor glucose levels in the body and inject insulin as needed, has been common practice for patients with Type 1 diabetes for quite some time.

Humans have begun to follow the path to body 2.0, and the next step is to create less invasive permanent solutions.  The Smart Pill only stays in the body for a three day maximum at a time (it depends on the patient’s evacuation time), which is great for a routine check-up at the doctor’s office, but what about a chronic patient who needs constant monitoring?  Perhaps taking a pill every few days is not much of a chore, but it would be significantly better to have real-time data all the time that can be analyzed automatically and warn a patient as necessary.

Body 2.0 has not yet arrived, but medical breakthroughs like the Smart Pill are slowly building the practice of medicine up to that point.  Will diseases be eradicated and people live forever due to this magic meld of man and machine?  Either way, humanity will be closer to that utopian goal than it ever has before.  Body 2.0 is certainly in the near future and, when that revolution happens, early detection of diseases and constant monitoring of disorders will lead to a better survival rate and better quality of life for those who suffer.

Light and Channels and Receptors, Oh My!

This device could be tremendously useful when an epidemic breaks out.  There would be no need for guesswork in outbreaks like the recent swine flu.  Once the disease itself is isolated and added to the database, patients could be told in mere minutes whether they are affected and quarantined so as not to spread the disease.  If these devices disseminated into home use, the results could be even more effective.  Parents would know immediately what their children are suffering from and could respond accordingly.  The entire family could be treated before symptoms are even seen.

Conversely, this system could also help to save money in the already bloated healthcare system.  Patients could test themselves at home for a disease and, if it just turns out to be the common cold, they would not need to go in and see their primary care physician.  There would be no need for extraneous visits to the doctor to run tests that will simply come back negative.  This device could be the biggest breakthrough since thermometers went from rectal to oral.

The device works on the fairly simple concept of light refraction.  If there is something (on the molecular scale) in the way of a beam of light, that beam will be scattered ever so slightly.  It’s a bit like a fingerprint, where no two molecules scatter light in the same manner.  A detector determines exactly how the light was scattered and checks the patterns against a database of known patterns that can positively identify the mystery molecule.  For this to work effectively, the molecule, bacterium or virus needs to be held directly in the path of the light.

To do that, a special microchip of sorts was created with channels for the light to pass through.  Molecular receptors were placed on the chip in such a way that when it binds to a target, it is held in the beam.  On the chip are many types of molecular receptors, with at least one capable of attaching to each species in the database.  As a sample of the patient’s saliva or blood is spread on the chip, the receptors bind the malady in place.

This device is still in its prototype stage, so it will be a few years before “say ahhh” disappears from the doctor’s office altogether.  But the sheer excitement generated by the prospect of this absolutely remarkable machine should be enough to warrant a trip to the clinic or at least a new pair of pants.  The journey from prototype to product is perilous, arduous and time consuming, but hopefully we’ll be seeing this device hitting hospitals in the near future.

Honda Vehicle Not Included - The Brando Spy Camera Keychain

This little guy is capable of shooting color video at 29 frames per second, still images or just audio and easily transfers files to a computer using USB.  It has 2 GB of memory and a rechargeable lithium ion battery.  Since most of life is spent searching for the car, it is more than likely that the spy camera will always be in hand and ready to shoot.  But is Big Brother really becoming so mainstream that everybody will own one of these?

Okay, maybe these key fob spy cameras won’t sell like Twilight books at a teen girl convention, but in the near future the trend is inevitable that virtually every person on the planet will be carrying one or more cameras in one form or another.  Here on Singularity Hub, we have covered the privacy debate when it comes to small recording devices and this keychain continues the trend of dwindling personal privacy.  As this technology becomes more accessible, more reliable and smaller, it can possibly be implemented in many more places.  This debate applies not just the tin foil hat crowd that will purchase the spy camera keychain but to everybody, as this technology is already in many cellular phones and handheld devices.

Privacy debate aside, this is just another example of the mastery over the physical world that is coming to the mainstream market.  For example, about 70 years ago, colored video images were just starting to break through into movie theatres of Hollywood, requiring large and costly camera equipment.  Now, the same images could be captured (if one so happens to be spying on a 1930’s Hollywood set – see time travel) from this spy camera that fits in the hand, weighs only ounces and costs a mere 66 of your 2009-year dollars.  It’s absolutely astounding.

If this cheap trinket can be mass-produced and sold to the masses now, what lies in store for the future of tiny gadgets?  The next evolution of technology may not even have a need for handheld appliances.  These tiny electronics may tap straight into the brain or be implanted within the body.  Even now, a biomechanical implant is already being tested on Canadian documentary filmmaker Rob Spence, who lost one of his eyes and has now replaced it with a digital camera.

With advent of new technologies and manufacturing processes, the unthinkable is becoming a possibility.  Yes, there certainly are many privacy and ethical issues inherent in these new products that may need to have the kinks worked out of them but here at Singularity Hub, we are excited by the new possibilities that are opened up by burgeoning technologies.  The keychain spy camera (along with the rest of the miniaturized video camera market) could open up a raft of new applications and consumer experiences, making it a neat little gadget that is on our early holiday shopping list.  Plus, if the aliens land while you are about to get in your car, you’ll finally be able to prove wrong all of the non-believers out there.  Let us all hope that they come in peace or else you may return to your car in pieces.

For all those Singularity Hub readers out there who want to live forever, Alzheimer’s disease should be very high on the radar.  Humanity looks to be well on the way to establishing a cure for cancer, heart disease and several other afflictions within our lifetimes, but for happy living well past a century the Alzheimer’s riddle must be solved.

The Alzheimer’s Project

The Alzheimer’s Project is made by HBO, the National Institute on Aging and the National Institutes of Health in association with the Alzheimer’s Association, Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, and the Geoffrey Beene Gives Back Alzheimer’s Initiative.  Forty-five scientists and doctors were interviewed for the program, creating a nearly complete compendium of knowledge from which the film’s producers could draw.  The collection of films document the struggles of families that are afflicted by the disease as well as the scientific approach to finding a cure and understanding how it affects the brain.

Alzheimer's Disease: Longevity's Worst Enemy

The project takes a deep look inside the lives of patients who suffer from Alzheimer’s.  The filmmakers bring to life the fear and anxiety that the elderly feel as they watch themselves slip down into the clutches of the disease.  The psychological tests that doctors use are as simple as remembering three words or drawing the face of a clock, but there is a profound heartbreak at the instant where one realizes that this patient can no longer do either of those tasks.  One plays along at home, much like avid Jeopardy watchers, trying to make sure that their marbles are still intact.

Yes, there is a slight omnipresence of fear coursing through the documentary but it is far from directing the viewers to buy duct tape and bottled water whilst they hold out in their basement and wait for Armageddon.  The candid look at the science behind the disease is welcome in a world of biases and pandering.  The documentary remains hopeful yet does not make any promises for the future.  It documents science at its best, where doctors and researchers are faced with a monumental problem and they have been able to learn so much about it that it may soon be time to find a solution.

There are no words to describe the pain that is shown on each of the faces in the documentary.  From the aging law professor who has watched himself slip from the 90th percentile IQ down through the seventies and even lower to the daughter who candidly admits that her mother is not the same lady that she knew growing up, but a shell of her former self.  These stories are chronicled in the documentary as well as those of scientific endeavor and really deserve to be heard.  Visit the documentary web site and stream it instantly to your computer.

The Disease

So what is this famously hideous disease, but more importantly, how can it be avoided or even cured? It all started over a century ago when Alois Alzheimer discovered what is now known as Alzheimer’s disease by experimenting with a novel way of staining cells.  Alzheimer noted that there were pockets of discolored stuff in the brains of those who suffered from dementia.  For many years, doctors did not think much of his work but, about 25 years ago, doctors slowly began to realize that the memory loss in many old folks was more than just senile dementia and the study of Alzheimer’s disease really began to pick up pace.

The reason why it has taken so long to recognize Alzheimer’s at a threat, no less start on a cure, is that there are many different issues at play that create a perfect storm of forgetfulness.  There is no particular gene that is thought to be the cause of Alzheimer’s and doctors estimate that 1 in 10 people without a family history will develop the disease while a family history ups the odds to 1 in 5.  In the effort to stop this disease, the first step was to figure out the cause.

The stuff that Alois Alzheimer noticed was actually Beta Amyloid plaque, which is a protein deposit that clumps up and degenerates synapses and nerve endings in the brain.  Also found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients are Tau Tangles: yet more conglomerations of proteins that should not be simply sitting in the brain.  Doctors are still trying to piece together exactly what causes these Tau Tangles and Beta Amyloid plaques to form within the brain but they do know that these buildups cause synapses to no longer transmit information, destroying the nerve cells within the brain.

In their normal functions, neither Tau nor Beta Amyloid is dangerous.  But when the normal Tau structures fall apart, the proteins clump together to form tangles.  Likewise, when there is either an overproduction of Beta Amyloid or a slow down in its removal from the brain, deposits could form.  The presence of these unwanted disturbances in the brain are what doctors and scientists have been using as the telltale signs of Alzheimer’s disease in patients, not only relying on memory tests and observation.  These warning signs allow doctors to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease years before its onset, allowing patients time to prepare for the arduous, and for now unstoppable, descent into mindlessness.

The Dark Spots in the Brain Indicate Alzheimer's Disease

One of the most potent methods for doctors to be able to tell what is going on with a patient’s brain chemistry is by sampling the fluid within the spine.  Although the procedure is remarkably painful, spinal fluid travels along the entire spinal column and into the brain, making the chemistry within the brain a bit more accessible.  The level of Beta Amyloid within the spinal fluid can indicate whether or not the body is clearing it out of the brain and into the liver and kidneys for disposal at a fast enough pace.

Another less excruciating method for determining the presence of Alzheimer’s has been developed in 2004 with the coupling of MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and a new radioactive dye called Pittsburgh Compound B.  Just as the original experiments of Alois Alzheimer used a dye to highlight the protein buildups, doctors can now do the same thing but without having to remove the patient’s brain.  The dye is injected into the bloodstream and allows the MRI images to show exactly where the protein deposits are located.  As the deposits have grown, doctors have been able to correlate a reduced memory function within the patients.

The Cure

Although it is now easier to diagnose earlier, there has yet to be a universal cure for Alzheimer’s.  Physicians, however, have begun to draw correlations between many different factors for Alzheimer’s risk, with the biggest ones being inflammation and diet.  It was noted that patients who were on medication for the treatment of cholesterol problems had a significantly lower chance of developing the disease.  Doctors propose that the anti-inflammatory nature of the cholesterol fighting drugs caused there to be less pressure in the arteries, allowing for a more efficient removal of Beta Amyloid as well as less inflammation in and around the brain.

The roles of diet and exercise also have been extensively studied, showing that the creation of Beta Amyloid correlates directly with the amount of insulin in the body.  As a low sugar, low fat diet and daily exercise prevent prolonged exposure of insulin to the body, doctors are certain that a healthy lifestyle will help to avoid the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.  As of now, those are the methods for fighting the disease before its onset.  Unlike other Singularity Hub stories, there is no gene therapy or any sort of stem cell operation that has been riskily conducted with great success.  This disease remains a dangerous, unavoidable and unpleasant gift from mother nature to look forward to in old age.

The research indicates that a cure may one day be found, that there may eventually be a way to stop if not reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.  It is for the foreseeable future, however, that sons and daughters must continue to watch their parents regress through life, unlearning all that they have ever known and slipping into mindlessness one dying synapse at a time.  For many families, when scientists do come out with a novel method of stopping Alzheimer’s, it will simply be too late to avoid the suffering.  To witness the firsthand tragedy of those who are afflicted with the disease as well as the courageous battle of those who fight it, we urge you to check out HBO’s Alzheimer’s Project.