[Technology Report]
Electronics Helps Foster Decentralized Healthcare
To stem the tide of escalating healthcare costs, patients are becoming more self-sufficient thanks to the latest medical electronics advances.
Rising healthcare costs, a stretched-thin number of medical providers, longer life expectancies, and a growing number of elderly and disabled patients are transforming the face of medical care. Decentralization—moving healthcare away from medical facilities and into the patient’s home—is fast becoming the new model.
In 2008, Medicaid spending for long-term care cost $99.5 billion, according the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The steady trend of lower-cost ICs and electronic subsystems has helped significantly in this emerging crisis.
“There’s a fundamental shift in bringing medical care to the patient’s home, thanks to high-performance and low-power ICs that are enabling portable medical devices,” says Rajesh Verma, business development manager for microcontroller units (MCUs) for Texas Instruments. “Our MSP430 mixed-signal microprocessor platform of ultra-low-power 16-bit RISC processors provides the ultimate solution for a wide range of low-power and portable applications.”
One of the latest TI MCUs for medical applications, the MSP430FG47x, extends battery life (for portable battery-operated units) to 20 years or more. It offers on-chip integration of the complete signal chain for medical applications, with two configurable op amps, a 12-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC), a comparator, a 16-bit analog-todigital converter (ADC), a 16-bit sigmadelta ADC, and a 128-segment LCD driver. Multiple memory options are available: up to 60 kbytes of flash memory and 2 kbytes of RAM for easy programmability.
SENSORS AND IMPLANTS Bio-chemical sensors, sensors within swallowable pills, lab-on-a-chip devices, and neural implants are paving the way for a new era in healthcare diagnostics, therapy, and maintenance. Just around the corner lie even tinier and more accurate sensing devices based on carbon-nanotube (CNT) technology.
For example, the medical staff at the United Kingdom’s Southampton General Hospital uses sensors placed on the stomach to measure the impact of exercise on glucose levels for Type 1 diabetics. Patients also wear a watch-like armband to monitor their activity. The sensor can take 300 readings a day, and it’s connected to a transmitter that’s attached to the skin with an adhesive patch.
Lab-on-a-chip devices look more promising for improving healthcare. Some commercial products are available, though more development is needed to lower their costs. Still, the Caliper Life Sciences Lab Chip GX and other products offer performance advantages that mitigate their higher initial costs.
The Lab Chip GX is an advanced nucleic acid separations system that dramatically reduces the time it takes to deliver test results. It allows detection of separations at high resolution in 30 to 80 seconds, compared with hours using conventional techniques that often yield lower-quality results.
Abbott Point of Care’s i-STAT handheld diagnostic tool provides real-time laboratory-quality results for patient point-of-care monitoring within minutes. “The i-STAT results got to the doctor an average of 45 minutes faster than the lab results, and that’s a lot of time when heart muscle is dying,” points out Christopher J. Lindsell of the University of Cincinnati, an investigator who took part in a study on the benefits of patient point-of-care monitoring using the i-STAT.
Deep-brain stimulation is opening up avenues for designers of medical implants that can be used to understand and treat brain disorders. IMEC has shown that semiconductor technology helps to produce multi-electrode prototype probes with 10-µm electrodes and various electrode topologies (Fig. 1).
ADVANCED COMPUTING AT THE CORE Digital signal processing (DSP) will play a crucial role in medical diagnostics. Powerful DSP engines are already proving their mettle in advanced medical imaging, allowing providers to better identify and pinpoint maladies and ailments. With even greater processing power, future DSPs will open up new windows on the diagnosis of impending diseases. Researchers at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Maryland are developing what they consider “a paradigm shift” in cancer diagnosis by using DSPs at the genomic/proteomic levels. Their ensemble dependence model allows for the accurate classification of a cancer type, as its site transitions from a normal stage to a cancerous stage. These researchers hope digital testing can supplement traditional biological testing as a reliable second opinion to improve the cancer- detection accuracy rate as well as reduce false alarms.
At the University of Michigan, researchers are using SiCortex high-productivity computing (HPC) systems to predict heart arrhythmias and prevent fibrillation, ultimately saving lives. “This important initiative demonstrates HPC’s far-reaching power to solve a wide array of problems, including those directly linked to medical conditions and treatments,” says Chris Stone, president and CEO of SiCortex.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is tapping computer simulation technology to help identify potential issues with the safety and effectiveness of experimental medications before the start of drug late-stage clinical trials. For example, the Cardiovascular PhysioLab developed by Entelos uses a mathematical model to simulate the function of cholesterol in the body and the development of plaque on artery walls.
GROWTH IN MEDICAL IMAGING Medical imaging is a leading tool for diagnostics and treatment of a whole range of diseases and maladies. X-rays, ultrasound, computerized tomography (CT) scans, radionuclide imaging, and magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI) aren’t just improving in performance, they’re also being joined by many new techniques that promise to vastly boost their effectiveness. Enhanced CMOS/CCD (charge-coupled device) sensor cameras, more powerful DSPs, and sophisticated software algorithms are enabling more accurate diagnostics, treatments, and therapeutics.
InMedica, the medical research division of IMS Research, forecasts a greater than $22 billion market for medical imaging by 2012. It says that the strongest growing market segment will be hand-carried equipment, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.4% between 2007 and 2012.
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