Technology

The stethoscope, invented in 1816, is getting an update with the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the Eko Core — a digital device that attaches to a conventional stethoscope and allows it to record, amplify, and wirelessly send audio and sound wave images to a smart phone. The patient’s heart sounds can be visualized, recorded, saved, and shared using the Eko iPhone and iPad App. It also has the ability to store the heart sounds in a patient’s electronic medical record so doctors can compare sounds from a recent visit with ones from a year or two earlier. With FDA approval, Eko Health, a startup led by three recent University of California graduates, can now market its Littmann® CORE digital stethoscope. Cardiologists at the Mayo Clinic, Stanford, and the University of California, San Francisco who have sampled the new technology have been impressed. “This is probably one of the most important innovations in the plain old stethoscope in recent years” according to Dr. Charanjit Rihal, chairman of the department of cardiovascular disease at the Mayo Clinic.

Source: “With New Stethoscope, Take a Deep Breath, Then Consult Your Phone” by Steve Lohr, The New York Times, September 3, 2015.

This article is an update of a previous post.

The internet of things (IoT) is the interconnection via the internet of physical devices, buildings, and other items — embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data. It is also a hot topic in the healthcare industry today. For example, hospitals take advantage of the technology for real-time location services with badges that can track patients, staff, and medical devices along with asset management. Such assets include infusion pumps, wheelchairs, defibrillators, scales and other items that employees tend to tuck into out-of-sight corners yet are needed frequently for treating patients. In addition to real-time location services, IoT devices also help with environmental monitoring such as checking the temperatures of refrigerators or hand hygiene compliance. Sensors can also be deployed to track how often spaces are used.

Companies like Kaa (www.kaaproject.org) have created an open-source IoT platform which allows original equipment manufacturers and healthcare system integrators to establish cross-device connectivity and implement smart features into medical devices and related software systems.

With the Medisana ThermoDock® a healthcare provider is one step closer to having a medical toolkit like Dr. McCoy on Star Trek. The ThermoDock provides reliable and accurate measurement of body temperature with non-contact infrared technology and plugs into an iPhone®, iPod touch® or iPad® — at a safe distance from flu germs, grumpy children, and steaming coffee mugs. Although a certified medical device and typically pointed at a forehead, this gadget can also be used to check the ambient temperature of a room or the great outdoors and has a memory for storing multiple user profiles. The ThermoDock works with the free VitaDock® app to track data and the hardware component costs less than $100.

Hospitals are increasingly using radiofrequency identification (RFID) technology to optimize equipment and supply management, improve patient flow, streamline hospital operations, and improve patient safety. RFID uses radio waves to automatically identify and track the movement of items or people. The basic hardware includes an RFID tag (consisting of a microchip with an antenna) and a reader or receiver. RFID can be either passive or active. With passive RFID, the small RFID tags must be within a close range of a reader — making it a good choice for inventory management. Active RFID tags transmit at higher power levels and have wider ranges with an extended battery life. Transmitting a constant signal, they can provide continuous tracking of people or items that move frequently and over large distances throughout the hospital.

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At the Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH), in the center of their campus in Baltimore, Maryland, is a room with walls made of 22 high-resolution screens. Numbers, charts and live video flash across them as about 24 staff members from different departments scan the screens and make quick decisions to prevent or resolve bottlenecks, reduce patient wait time, coordinate services and reduce risk. During a typical afternoon, the system receives about 500 messages per minute from 14 different Johns Hopkins IT systems generating real-time data to trigger action throughout the hospital.

The technology in the Capacity Command Center — designed and built by GE Healthcare Partners — keeps staff members informed 24/7 about when there is an influx of patients coming into the hospital, which hospital units need additional staff members, the status of how many patients are being treated, the need for and availability of beds across the hospital, the highest-priority admissions and discharges, and other information essential for ensuring high-quality patient care. Since it opened earlier this year, representatives from 50 health systems across the US and from four countries have visited the new Capacity Command Center.