Low-cost Anemia Screener Connects to Health Workers’ Cell Phones

Concept: To display test results, the HemoGlobe anemia screening device is slipped onto a patient’s finger and connected with a health worker’s cell phone. [Credit: JHU]

It’s estimated that 600,000 newborns and 100,000 mothers in developing countries die of anemia each year. Biomedical engineering undergraduates at Johns Hopkins have developed a low-cost screening device that works with health workers’ cell phones to help combat this devastating disease.

“This device has the potential to be a game-changer. It will equip millions of health care workers across the globe to quickly and safely detect and report this debilitating condition in pregnant women and newborns. The team members realized that every community health worker already carries a powerful computer in their pocket — their cell phone. So we didn’t have to build a computer for our screening device, and we didn’t have to build a display.”

— Soumyadipta Acharya, assistant research professor, Johns Hopkins’ Department of Biomedical Engineering

The noninvasive, “prick-free” device, which goes by the name HemoGlobe, is able to detect and report anemia at the community level. To measure blood hemoglobin levels, the HemoGlobe sensor shines various wavelengths of light through the skin on a patient’s fingertip. The color-coded test results are then displayed on a cell phone’s screen.

The results are also used to create a real-time map that shows the prevalence of anemia, which helps health workers follow-up and distribute additional resources.

How is technology changing your life for the better?

Learn more at http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/jhu-uic072412.php

© Tony Leininger and IT for Good 2012. See sidebar for full copyright notice.

Related articles

• Cell Phone Screener To Combat Anemia In Developing World Invented By Undergrads (medicalnewstoday.com)
• John Hopkins Students Win Grant for Saving Lives at Birth (medgadget.com)
• Frontline health workers WORK. So let’s train more! (one.org)

Eye-writing Tech May Help People with Limiting Conditions Communicate Freely

Researchers at Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris have made a new discovery that may help people use eye movements to draw and write in cursive. The technology is described in a paper published recently in the online publication Current Biology.

“Contrary to the current belief, we show that one can gain complete, voluntary control over smooth pursuit eye movements. The discovery also provides a tool to use smooth pursuit eye movements as a pencil to draw, write, or generate a signature.”

—Jean Lorenceau, Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris

Detail: Examples of drawings generated by projecting one’s visual imagery. (Credit: Lorenceau et al., Current Biology)

According to the researchers, the eye-writing technology could make communication easier for people with Lou Gehrig’s disease or other conditions where arm and leg movement capabilities have been lost.

The technology may also help to improve eye movement for those with conditions such as ADHD or dyslexia, the researchers say. In addition, it could prove useful for helping surgeons or athletes to strengthen eye-based skills needed in such professions.

How is technology changing your life for the better?

Learn more at http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/cp-wic071912.php

© Tony Leininger and IT for Good 2012. See sidebar for full copyright notice.

Related articles

• You: Writing in cursive with your eyes only (cyberneticsnews.com)
• WATCH: New Technology Could Help Paralyzed People Communicate (huffingtonpost.com)
• With Your Eyes Only… Eye Writer Communication Technology (medicalnewstoday.com)
• New research enables cursive writing with your eyes (gizmag.com)
• Write to Me Only With Thine Eyes (news.sciencemag.org)

3D Cold Virus Model Gives Researchers New Angles for Defense

This is a surface rendering of the common cold virus. [Credit: Mike Kuiper, VLSCI].

With the help of Australia’s fastest supercomputer, researchers are using 3D simulation technologies to better understand the most frequent cause of the common cold. Their work is helping to pave the way for the development of new drug therapies.

Supercomputer technology enables us to delve deeper in the mechanisms at play inside a human cell, particularly how drugs work at a molecular level. This work offers exciting opportunities for speeding up the discovery and development of new antiviral treatments and hopefully save many lives around the world.”

— Professor Michael Parker, SVI

The team includes researchers from St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research (SVI) and the University of Melbourne as well as computational biologists from IBM and the Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative (VLSCI).

The supercomputer being used by the team, the IBM Blue Gene/Q, is ranked currently as Australia’s fastest. It is also, according to the release, “the most powerful supercomputer dedicated to life sciences research in the Southern Hemisphere.”

How is technology changing your life for the better?

Learn more at http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/uom-3mo071612.php

© Tony Leininger and IT for Good 2012. See sidebar for full copyright notice.

Related articles

• 3-D tumor models improve drug discovery success rate (coloradocancerblogs.org)
• First images of the common cold virus (thesciencebulletin.wordpress.com)
• Scientists using supercomputer to study common cold virus (rawstory.com)
• 3-D motion of cold virus offers hope for improved drugs using Australia’s fastest supercomputer (sciencedaily.com)
• Researchers closer to understanding the common cold (theage.com.au)