MIT develops thin-film 'micro pharmacy'

I always love seeing innovations pour out of my alma mater. A new thin-film coating developed at MIT can deliver controlled drug doses to specific targets in the body following implantation, essentially serving as a "micro pharmacy."

The film, which is typically about 150 nanometers (billionths of a meter) thick, can be implanted in specific parts of the body.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/drug-delivery-0211.html

Reducing Junk E-mail and Spam

Healthcare professionals get bombarded with junk e-mail and spam.

Did you know that if you open an e-mail message and display images, you may be setting yourself up to receive more junk e-mail and spam?

Some spammers have a way of "tracking" which e-mail messages get opened by inserting an image into the body of the e-mail message. When you open the e-mail, if the image also shows up, that alerts the spammer that your e-mail address is valid and active.

So, there's a reason why e-mail programs by default do not let you open images in the body of an e-mail. Be careful and add those trusted e-mail addresses to your address book. Do not open e-mail in your junk/spam folder if you know that the message is junk.

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) in healthcare

Where are we regarding electromagnetic interference (EMI) in the healthcare setting?

Healthcare professionals can't survive without mobile devices. Pagers, mobile phones, and now data-transmitting Blackberry-type devices are frequently utilized by physicians, nurses, and pharmacists. Many hospitals now allow the use of most wireless devices and even have Wi-Fi networks.

However, in the Netherlands, researchers found that phones with data-transmitting capabilities could cause some serious EMI in the critical care units:
http://ccforum.com/content/11/5/R98/abstract
They found: A total of 61 medical devices in 17 categories (27 different manufacturers) were tested and demonstrated 48 incidents in 26 devices (43%); 16 (33%) were classified as hazardous, 20 (42%) as significant and 12 (25%) as light. The GPRS-1 signal induced the most EMI incidents (41%), the GRPS-2 signal induced fewer (25%) and the UMTS signal induced the least (13%; P < 0.001). The median distance between antenna and medical device for EMI incidents was 3 cm (range 0.1 to 500 cm). One hazardous incident occurred beyond 100 cm (in a ventilator with GRPS-1 signal at 300 cm).

More recently, the attention has turned to the use of iPods in patients who have implanted cardiac devices. An early study found that iPods can cause interference in 50% of patients wearing pacemakers: http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Arrhythmias/tb/5634

A more recent study says there are no interference effects with iPods:
http://www.biomedical-engineering-online.com/content/7/1/7/abstract

The FDA seems to think that iPods are safe, but we will have to continue to monitor safety issues as manufacturers build Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other communication technologies into the devices.

Want to read about RFID solutions for healthcare?
http://www.rfidhealthcare.com/