World's first: Personnel DNA analyzer by Spartan

To analyze your DNA in the comfort of your home, Spartan Bioscience Incorporation has announced the commercial launch of their Spartan DXTM real-time PCR (polymerase chain reaction) DNA analyzer.
This highly accurate DNA testing device is a ‘gold standard’ for molecular diagnostics that promises to offer DNA results in just 30 minutes or less for 4 samples at a time.
Though, it is a bit slow and expensive, since batched in contrast to mainframe-style DNA machines those are especially designed for highly-trained scientists to work on high-throughput environments and if we compare this machine with other mainframe-style DNA machines, Spartan DXTM is designed for non-batched, on-demand DNA applications in which speed and convenience is vital, whereas its applications are concerned it comprises low-throughput research experiments and non-batched testing for infectious diseases.

MiroCam: Miraculous capsule camera for Endoscopy!

With significant development in medical diagnostics and imaging, we see a lot of new products coming to health care market. Anyone who has undergone the traditional Endoscopy would vouch about the difficulty he faced while swallowing the rigid or flexible cable. This also leads to the risk of infection, harming body organs and over-sedation, etc. The wireless capsule camera has been a savior in this regard.
The cameras known by different names such as capsule camera, video pill, PillCam, EndoCapsule or Sayaka are look and size wise similar to a pill or capsule. These capsules are capable to see areas, which traditionally used endoscopes are unable to see. The capsule travels through the intestines after the patient swallows it. It’s true that it takes longer time to send images but it definitely sends better quality images.

Siemen's smallest ultrasound device improves infection diagnosis

Right diagnosis of a diseased part of body is important factor for permanent cure a patient. Am I sounding like a doctor? Yes! I am. Have a look on this portable ultra sound machine that is introduced by Siemens Medical Solutions, one of the world’s largest suppliers to the healthcare industry, helps the doctors to monitoring or treatment of medical conditions of diseased body.

Bluetooth heart monitor: Boon to assist almost 22 million people from heart failure

The new life-saving device that can emerge as godsend for all the heart patients called Bluetooth heart monitor. Developed by scientists from India this avant-garde device measures electrical signal from the heart, analyse them to produce an electrocardiogram (ECG), and thereafter sends an alert together with the ECG via your cell phone text message.
Periodically, the Bluetooth heart monitor records an electrocardiogram (ECG) and transmits the information via radio frequency signals to the patient’s cell phone with the help of an added analyzer circuit that checks the ECG signal for signs of imminent cardiac failure.
It is worth mentioning that this life saving device will certainly add some more breaths in around 22 million people psychologically and practically those are otherwise at intense risk of sudden heart failure.
Now with successful launch of their this life saving device developers are now also looking ahead to develop some more advanced models of this prototype that will hopefully integrate GPS and MMS messaging to enable hospitals to instantly locate anguished patients and their condition.

Instant Cold Or Hot Rechargeable Compress

Winter time isn’t exactly kind on those suffering from arthritis as well as painful joints, and some people resort to hot or cold compresses to get rid of that pain around the body when the mercury drops. Well, why not let technology step in and help you out? We’re talking about the Instant Cold Or Hot Rechargeable Compress, where this device is capable of instantly emitting cold or heat to treat muscle aches and joint pain. Boasting an aluminum head that heats to 110º F or cools to 40º F, these are ideal temperatures for thermo- and cryo-therapies. The cooling and heating process takes all of just 45 seconds, where it can then go ahead to relieve swelling or facilitate blood flow to help heal injuries. It also has another advantage since you need not be tethered to a heating pad or refreezing a cold pack. Tinier than a TV remote, it has a head that swivels 90º, letting you to easily position it against your body. There is a built-in toggle switch which changes it from heat to cold application instantly. You can use it with a quartet of AA batteries powering it, or choose to take the AC adapter route instead

Cordless Electrotherapy Pain Reliever

Are you sick and tired of taking in so much drugs into your body to soothe that pain, that you are looking for an alternative method in which it will not kill your kidneys or liver in the process? This is where the Cordless Electrotherapy Pain Relievercomes in, as this device will soothe sore muscles without having it tethered to a power outlet. Utilizing a similar technology that is employed by physical therapists, the battery powered device’s electrodes will emit low-voltage electrical pulses which stimulate muscles, help facilitate blood flow and oxygen to injuries, and reduce lactic acid, relieving muscle aches and pain. It isn’t too large to tote around either, being roughly the size of a wristwatch, allowing it to be attached anywhere on the body thanks to a reusable self-adhesive pad which can be worn under clothing while you work, or perhaps even during some light exercise sessions without hindering your movement. Boasting up to eight levels of intensity which can be easily adjusted thanks to the three-button control panel and LCD

Weight Watchers Electronic Tracker & Points Calculator

A new year means a new you, right? Well, if you want to work out the holiday excesses, then theWeight Watchers Electronic Tracker & Points Calculator will certainly come in handy. This is a unique calculator that boasts of a daily tracker that is a snap to use, letting you calculate the points values of your favorite foods in a jiffy. Perfect if your carefully planned diet plan is thrown off track because your boss invites you and the missus out for dinner at a fancy restaurant, then you can start counting all those points acquired during dinner to work them off later on. Since it sports a pretty compact form factor, you can just about carry it with you anywhere you go. The daily points tracker as mentioned earlier will let you save your daily points target while making sure you stay within the expected range. Using it is a no-brainer – just press the points key, enter the total fat grams as well as the dietary fiber grams and you’re good to go!

Irregular Heart Beat Detecting Blood Pressure Monitor by Edwin - on January 23, 2011

When one gets old, you would notice that your body tends to start breaking down whether you like it or not. Of course, if you had taken good care of it, then chances are pretty good that you will ease into old age in a less painful and more comfortable manner than your mates. Well, for some of us out there, our heart beats tend to end up getting irregular with our blood pressure shooting up after we retire as we look at our finances and realize that our savings aren’t enough to help us last through the next 30 years.

Enter the Irregular Heart Beat Detecting Blood Pressure Monitor from Hammacher – this blood pressure monitor will also detect a heart arrhythmia. Basically, whenever the monitor detects that your heart beat is 25% slower or faster compared to its average rhythm, an arrhythmia symbol will illuminate the LCD. This machine relies on the oscillometric method which has been clinically proven to detect arrhythmia and hypertension, where it will require a trio of consecutive blood pressure readings and averages the results for added accuracy. Built-in memory can store up to 30 measurements for four people (120 readings in total) which will also be time- and date-stamped to help those with failing memory.

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P.L.E.A.S.E. Handheld for Painless Drug Administration Soon to Hit the Market

P.L.E.A.S.E. has already demonstrated its clinical utility and we are delighted now to have a CE Mark that will allow us to make the technology available widely in the form of P.L.E.A.S.E. Professional," said Christof Boehler, CEO of Pantec Biosolutions. “This is an important milestone for Pantec as this device will unlock therapeutic areas with high unmet need for easy-to-use, efficient, and painless application of biologicals. We plan to start a number of clinical studies looking at a variety of applications in the coming months including trials looking at the more efficient delivery of small molecule drugs.”

P.L.E.A.S.E. stands for Painless Laser Epidermal System and it's aportable benchtop device with a diode pumped Er:YAG fractional ablative laser. They say it can be used in both cosmetic and generaldermatology medicine and that it is a more cost-efficient apparatus than other lamp pumped systems already available out there. This medical device can be easily used without the assistance of clinicians. If employed by specialized personnel, it doesn't require time-costing maintenance, thanks to its one-laser architecture.

P.L.E.A.S.E. Professional is also capable of pore properties' fine tuning, a useful feature for specific drug doses. While clinicians receive a very useful tool, the people in need of constant treatment through shots will also have a powerful ally that will save them from trips to the hospital and even from the fear of needles. Being a painless system, I find it very comfortable for anyone to use.

Toshiba Rx Medical Tablet concept has promise

Cooper envisages medical staff wandering the hospital halls with these tablets, using voice and handwriting recognition – together with on-screen keyboards – to interact with digital patient records.  Rather than have a number of stationary desktop PCs, instead the hospital would have a number of keyboard base-stations which would wirelessly recharge the tablet together with offering a traditional QWERTY ‘board for speedier note entry.

We’re particularly enamoured by the integrated hand-strap on the back of the Rx Medical Tablet, which looks like it would also work as a pretty decent carry handle.  Unfortunately Cooper doesn’t appear to have any official connection to Toshiba, so we’ll have to wait a little longer to see this in production.

Diabetes: There's an App (and iPhone/iPod Accessory) for That

It's extremely interesting to watch just how the iPhone and iPod are changing the world as we know it, especially via their App store and various accessories, which can turn Apple's handhelds into just about anything one might think of, from a mobile payment terminal to ablood glucose monitoring solution.Yeah, that's actually pretty impressive, since there are a lot of people suffering from diabetes out there, many of whom have to constantly check the level of sugar in their blood.

For this reason, Sanofi-Aventis, a very well-known healthcare company, has just released the iBGStar, the first available blood glucose meter that seamlessly connects to the Apple iPhone and iPod touch.

The device is described as an innovative blood glucose meter with a compact, stylish body that can be used on its own or connected to an Apple iPhone or iPod touch to easily display, manage and communicate your diabetes information.

Plus, using it is extremely simple, since it only requires the patient to insert the test strip in order to begin the analysis.

The samples are analysed using Dynamic Electrochemistry, an intelligent technology that delivers very accurate results.

Naturally, all of this is possible via the iBGStar Diabetes Manager App, that has to be downloaded and installed the first time the iBGStar is connected to the iPhone.

The iBGStar will automatically sync data each time it is connected to an iPhone or iPod touch and the iBGStar Diabetes Manager App is launched.

The glucose meter from Sanofi-Aventis will probably retail for somewhere in the vicinity of $80,which makes it an extremely interesting solution, all things considered.  

New Generation of Digital Stethoscopes

The ultimate in stethoscope sound quality.
Adjust volume for faint heart sounds, obese patients, noisy work environments, etc.

It will greatly improve the diagnosis of sublte murmurs, or taking blood pressure.

Suitable for students or academic research recordings, the ds32a sets new standards in electronic stethoscope audio quality and ease-of-use.

ECG device connects to your iPhone to keep track of heart

We always see some crazy gadgets at CES and sometimes the ones that sound really odd can be the most help to a few out there. Take this new gadget for the iPhone that will be showing up at CES next month. It comes from a company called Alivecor and it is an ECG system for the iPhone made in partnership with Oregon Scientific.

Each of the iPhone ECG units is expected to be about $100 and can take accurate readings of the heart that a medical professional can look at to determine if there is a serious heart issue that needs to be addressed in the hospital.

Something like this could save a user with heart problems a lot of time and money on trips to the doctor or emergency room if they think their heart might be acting up. Check out the video below to see the thing in action.

Witlings Blood Pressure monitors plugs into your iPhone

This gadget is just what it sounds like, a blood pressure system that works with the iPhone. You connect the cuff device to the iPhone charge and sync port and then an app on the iPhone gives you the BP readouts and your pulse. The app can also store the readings to compare over time and share with a doctor for managing your blood pressure.

The app also interfaces with the Withings API that allows it to upload those BP readings to the Microsoft HealthVault or Google Health. The gadget will also work with the iPad or the iPod touch 

Baby Care Timer

Perhaps the most practical of the latest nursing gadgets out there are the ones that help new (sleep-deprived) parents keep track of their baby's schedule. When you're running on four hours of broken sleep, especially after an exhausting labor, it can be easy to forget just how long it's been since your baby's last feeding or which side you nursed on. When your baby is crying, how should you know whether it's time for another feeding? The creators of Itzbeen thought the same thing, which is why they invented a Baby Care Timer. This digital gadget keeps track of not just how long it's been since your baby's last feeding, but also which side the feeding was on, when you last changed your baby's diaper, when your baby last napped, and when you last gave your baby medicine (if applicable). No more crunching numbers with your exhausted baby brain, right?
Unfortunately, some consumers have been unhappy with this product's quality, complaining that the screen breaks easily, the battery lasts a few minutes before the device powers off, and there is no memory for parents to draw on when calculating how many diapers the baby has used or how many feedings she has had. And of course, there are detractors who say that you should look at your baby's signs rather than relying on a strict schedule.

Nursing Central !

Nursing Central is the complete mobile solution for nurses and students. Look up detailed information on diseases, tests, and procedures; then consult the comprehensive database of 5,000 drugs or refer to more than 60,000 dictionary terms whenever you have a question. Search MEDLINE or keep up with your favorite nursing journals by having tables of contents delivered directly to your mobile device.

What’s New in Nursing Central?

• Grasp™ – a study system using a proven learning method that helps you master unfamiliar concepts or prepare for an exam
• Glimpse™ – an in-text disease, drug, and definition lookup tool
• Nursing Central website – a complete redesign for easier navigation
• Alerts – an improved feature for content searching in MEDLINE. Access the results each day on your mobile device or the web.

Save 32% when you purchase your favorite nursing references in this all-in-one resource! With Nursing Central you get Unbound Medicine’s award-winning functionality as well as twelve months of web and mobile web access.

Nursing Central includes:

Davis’s Drug Guide

The best-selling drug reference produced by F.A. Davis provides need-to-know information on thousands of brand name and generic drugs.

• 1,700 monographs covering 5,000 trade and generic drugs
• Regular updates with the latest FDA-approved medications
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• High-alert notices and patient safety information
• Drug-drug, drug-natural, and drug-food interaction

Authors: Judith H. Deglin, PharmD; April H. Vallerand, PhD, RN, FAAN; Cynthia A. Sanoski, BS, PharmD, FCCP, BCPS

Taber’s Medical Dictionary, 21st edition

Taber’s Medical Dictionary is a comprehensive health science dictionary featuring over 60,000 terms, 9,000 of which are new and revised. Taber’s also includes:

• 1,000 full color photos and illustrations
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Author: Donald Venes, MD, MSJ

Diseases and Disorders

Diseases and Disorders, fourth edition is a must-have reference for every nurse. With complete, updated coverage of more than 250 medical conditions encountered in nursing practice, you can quickly find the information you need to plan and deliver patient care. Practical recommendations are supported by concise descriptions of how the human body is altered by disease and clear rationales for medications and tests.

Editor: Marilyn Sawyer Sommers, RN, PhD, FAAN

Davis’s Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests

Davis’s Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests is an easy-to-consult manual with over 400 entries. With the experience of nursing, clinical laboratory, and radiology specialists at your fingertips you can quickly check pre-test requirements, intra-test procedures and monitoring, and post-test care.

Authors: Anne M. Van Leeuwen, MA, BS, MT(ASCP); Debra J. Poelhuis-Leth, MS, RT (R) (M); Mickey Lynn Bladh, RN, MSN

MEDLINE Journals

MEDLINE Journals delivers citations and abstracts from your choice of trusted medical journals to your mobile device. Link directly to the fully-integrated Unbound MEDLINE service to find related articles and view full text provided by the journal publisher.

Note: MEDLINE Journals provides links to full text articles only when available from PubMed; to view full journal text online you may need a separate subscription.

http://www.nursing-informatics.com/
http://www.himss.org/ASP/topics_nursingInformatics.asp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq4n8u6H-WM