offers commonly required measurements
that are built-in, with no user setup necessary for typical use (ECG, SpO2, NBP,
invasive pressures and temperature, and
CO2 monitoring). The Dynamic Wave
area features waves that automatically
adjust in size depending on the number
of waves configured, and capture and
review diagnostic 12-lead ECGs at the
monitor before submission. It even prints
cardiograph-type diagnostic 12-lead ECG
reports from the bedside, with both wired
and wireless networking regardless of
patient location.
“The monitor is highly personalized,”
says Ziese. “We connect to the patient the
minute they are signed into a hospital,
with the knowledge of any and all specific
needs of that patient. This adds data as
the patient moves through the system,
and most importantly, if a problem does
arise, it will let the physician not only
know immediately, but will also record
what the issue was, exactly when it
occurred, and what the patient was expe-
riencing at the time of the event.”
Ziese adds that the response from
hospitals is much higher than they ever
anticipated. While the technology is still
in the early stages of introduction, the
acceptance has been so good that the
company is predicting a bright future
for the product in the next five to eight
years. “We will definitely be adding more
measurement capabilities,” says Ziese.
“These additions are already coming in as
requests from the customer side.”
More patient-centric devices
There are hundreds of new patient-centric
innovative devices on the market today,
many in development and even more on
the drawing board. The following are examples of patient-centric technologies that
have met the goal of being both a benefit to
patient care and comfort, while simultaneously helping address what the medical side
needs for better integrated patient care.
Leuko, a startup company that focuses
on improving lives for chemotherapy
patients, has two locations in Massachusetts, USA and Madrid, Spain. Carlos
Castro-Gonzalez, PhD, co-founder and
CEO of Leuko, received his doctoral
education in Madrid and brought his
vision of developing a novel way to help
fight the negative effects of chemotherapy
to the USA.
“Doctors desperately needed a way to
screen for severe neutropenia, which is a
dangerous depression of white blood cells
in chemo patients,” says Castro-Gonzalez.
“Patients already weakened by cancer are
left exposed to other illnesses. Our mis-
sion was to develop a device that could
monitor for this condition.”
PointCheck, a small microscope on
a camera that captures high-resolution,
high-frame rate videos through the skin
on a patient’s finger (Figure 3), was Cas-
tro-Gonzalez’s answer.
“White blood cells can be observed
flowing in real-time by the camera. The
data is sent to a laptop, but the goal is to
have all data sent to the cloud where all
verified users can access it,” says Cas-
tro-Gonzalez. “All the computing will
happen in the cloud, along with transmis-
sion to the doctor and the patient.”
Figure 3: Leuko’s PointCheck will enable chemotherapy patients to test their white cell
levels frequently and from home, timely alerting their physician if they drop to dangerously
low levels.
Figure 4: Andreas Fouras, CEO of 4DX, developed imaging technology for analyzing air flow
dynamics in wind tunnels. He later applied the same idea to lung imaging after speaking
to various physicians.
