Health tech

I need to reprioritize the items in my Hurricane Irene Go Bag. How do I know this? Because this a.m. I found myself struggling to decide which toy my cat would prefer should we be forced to evacuate our home early tomorrow morning.

Before you go planning a disaster movie marathon this weekend, be sure to check out the NYC Hurricane Evacuation Zone map or enter your address in the Zone Finder to see if you live in an evacuation area.

And if you do live in one of the affected areas, you can download apps for both iOS and Android devices that show Doppler radar info, detailed maps, and ongoing weather warnings and satellite images for up-to-date news on the storm. But what should you pack in your emergency "Go Bag"? … Read more

A professor of civil and environmental engineering at Michigan State University has unveiled a device that, in conjunction with an iPod Touch or Android-based tablet, analyzes microRNAs to detect cancer quickly and affordably.

Syed Hashsham says his Gene-Z device, which he demonstrated this week at the National Institutes of Health's first Cancer Detection and Diagnostics Conference, in Bethesda, Md., could dramatically improve early cancer detection in developing nations that have few, if any, cancer screenings services.

"Until now, little effort has been concentrated on moving cancer detection to global health settings in resource-poor countries," Reza Nassiri, the … Read more

As anyone who has broken a bone knows, keeping up with physical therapy post-injury can be painful and annoying, and without a clear way to gauge progress, the regimen is as tempting to avoid as a bland diet.

Recent Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design graduate Pedro Nakazato Andrade hopes to keep people motivated--and thus improve recovery time--via a prototype cast that employs electromyographic sensors, which measure the electrical activity produced by a muscle when it moves.

Called "Bones," his cast prototype can keep a running tally of how much the injured area is being exercised.

The idea behind the design is rooted in the idea behind weight loss programs such as Weight Watchers: people who can track their progress using real, hard data are more likely to stay motivated and keep doing what they have been told to do.… Read more

Yesterday started like so many others, with me standing in the back of a noisy, sweltering bus that smelled of urine. But unlike previous mornings, this time I was able to use my phone to quantify my stress level as it mounted with each jarring pothole.

Armed with a new app called Stress Check on my iPhone, I could verify that the stress I was feeling was real--when I woke up my level was 1 percent, but on the bus it topped 100. And while a number of apps require an external attachment to take health measurements, Stress Check required just me and my phone.

Released a couple of weeks ago, Stress Check is one of several apps from Palo Alto, Calif. start-up Azumio, which recently received $2.5 million in series A funding. The company's first health-oriented app, Instant Heart Rate (also available for Android), has generated 8 million downloads since its release in January. The company has more apps in the pipeline.

If it's easy, and fun, to collect personal health data, more people will likely be inclined to do so--and take action, reasons Azumio co-founder Bojan Bostjancic, who stopped by CNET headquarters last week to demo the company's health apps. … Read more

As Monty Python reminds us, every sperm is sacred. So why are guys putting potentially hazardous objects so close to the family jewels?

I'm talking about cell phones. This week, we told you about a recent report in the Journal of Andrology that suggested cell phone radiation can reduce sperm count and damage sperm quality.

The report reviewed the existing medical literature about phone radiation on the male reproductive system, and found that men who use cell phones have decreased sperm concentration and motility.

"These abnormalities seem to be directly related with the length of mobile phone use," the authors from Italy's University of Catania noted.

The researchers also considered a study in which rats were put in special Plexiglas cages with cell phones just 0.2 inch underneath the cage bottom. The animals were exposed to to cell phone emissions for six hours per day for more than four months.

The researchers found a 25 percent drop in the rats' live sperm. The cells also tended to adhere to one another, which would reducing their chances of fertilizing an egg. … Read more

A passive prosthetic leg, says 23-year-old amputee Craig Hutto, is always a step behind. But a new leg built by researchers at Vanderbilt University "is only a split-second behind."

Hutto, who is 6 feet 4 inches, has been testing the bionic leg for a good chunk of the seven-year research project at the school's Center for Intelligent Mechatronics. (Check out his crazy story about how a shark nearly tore off his leg when he was fishing in Florida at age 16.)

What sets the Vanderbilt leg apart from its predecessors is its use of recent advances in computer, sensor, electric motor, and battery tech to enable the prosthetic to be the first ever that powers knee and ankle joints in unison.

"We have validated our hypothesis that the right technology was available to make a lower-limb prosthetic with powered knee and ankle joints," says research head Michael Goldfarb, a professor of mechanical engineering, in a news release. "Our device illustrates the progress we are making in integrating man and machine."

The device weighs in at 9 pounds, which is actually less than most human lower legs. On one charge, it can operate at normal levels of activity for roughly three days. And it features an "anti-stumble" routine; if the leg senses that its user is starting to stumble, the leg lifts to avoid obstruction and plants on the floor to optimize balance.… Read more

Jose Gomez-Marquez is like the MacGyver of medical devices, hacking toys and turning them into gadgets that can be used to diagnose conditions such as diabetes and dengue fever. By taking everyday items like Legos and bike pumps and turning them into replacements for expensive medical devices, he's attempting to save lives on the cheap.

"Most of the devices that get donated to developing countries fail because they were not designed to be used in these environments," Gomez-Marquez said during a visit to CNET this week to show some of his creations. "We need to make the Land Rover version of medical devices for these countries. Right now we are sending the Ferrari versions and they fail."

Gomez-Marquez is program director for MIT's Innovations in International Health initiative, which aims to teach medical professionals in the developing world how to hack ordinary objects to make their own medical devices. With a degree in mechanical engineering and a love of design, Gomez-Marquez wants to level the playing field in health care.

"One of the ways to empower better designs is by empowering users who are everyday users of the devices," he said. "So we made these kits to do that."

… Read more

Wearable, connected fitness monitors are a dime a dozen these days. But developers of NewYu, a monitor that will be available in September, claim they've got an edge on their competition.

The device, which is meant to clip to clothing on the torso or to a pocket, is purported to provide a more accurate view of calories burned by tracking, and differentiating between, all movements throughout the day.

In other words, NewYu knows if you've been running or walking, cooking or cleaning, shopping, or (presumably) mating...You get the idea. Actually, Van Krueger, CEO of parent company Wellcore, tells me they decided to steer clear of the "mating" category, but that it will register as low-, medium-, or high-impact aerobics, depending of course on the intensity of the, shall we say, heat of the moment.

Krueger says the fitness monitor is able to differentiate among activities by using advanced pattern recognition technology. This works much the way voice recognition does;… Read more

What do you do if you want to upgrade your pathetic meatsack of a body and become a cyborg? If you're Matthew James, a 14-year-old from Britain's Berkshire, you write a letter and end up with a bionic hand.

Born without a left hand, James became enamored of the i-Limb Pulse from Scotland's Touch Bionics, but his family couldn't afford the roughly $48,000 price tag.

After the head of Formula One racing team Mercedes GP Petronas visited his school, James got up the chutzpah to write a letter to the organization's Ross Brawn asking for help in getting an i-Limb Pulse. He suggested the team sponsor what would be a cybernetic part of his body.

Brawn agreed to help, but struck a technology-sharing deal with Touch Bionics in which most of the fee would be waived. Now James has a new hand. … Read more