Norrköping Visualization Centre and the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization in Sweden have developed a Virtual Autopsy Table. The table makes use of high resolution MRIs to create incredible 3D images that can be manipulated on the table via multi-touch technology.
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Category: Cool Technology
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How to perform an autopsy without getting dirty.
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Cool Technology for Pharmacy
The Xcelodose 600 S System , manufactured by Capsugel, a division of Pfizer, is a precision powder micro-doser and automated encapsulator designed for pharmaceutical research and development. The system has the ability to fill formulations or active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) directly into capsules with a remarkable level of accuracy. The Xcelodose can weigh doses as low as 100 micrograms from a variety of powders, including free flowing, sticky, granular and blended. In addition, the Xcelodose can dispense API in capsule sizes ranging from 00 to 4.Simply poor the ingredients into the hopper, select the proper capsule size and hit the “go” button. Nothing could be simpler. The Xcelodose 600 can generate up to 600 capsules per hour while keeping detailed records of individual, as well as batch, capsule weight. Capsules not meeting strict control standards, typically 2% tolerance, are automatically jettisoned by the machine. By encapsulating API directly into capsules without the need for excipients, the Xcelodose System can reduce the amount of ingredient required and reduce overall development time by simplifying the process.
The entire process is controlled via a computer terminal with a graphical user interface written in Visual Basic. While not designed for individual pharmacy use, it’s still one heck of a machine.
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Using a “micro shuttle†to control drug delivery
Queen Mary University of London: “The capsules, which have a diameter of two micrometers (about the size of a bacterium), are built by wrapping strands of a metabolism-resistant material around spherical particles, which are then dissolved in acid, leaving behind an empty container. To fill the capsules, the scientists heat them in a solution that contains the desired drug compound. This makes them shrink and traps some of the solution and compound inside. The loaded capsules are introduced into live cells by a technique known as electroporation – a tiny electric shock – which makes the cell walls permeable for micrometer-sized particles. The cells are unharmed by this treatment and retain the capsules.†– The article refers to the capsules as “micro shuttles†and states that the release of medication could also be controlled “by a biological trigger like a drop in blood sugar levels, or activated manually with a pulse of light.†– I worked on something similar as an undergrad. We applied various currents to polyaniline, forcing the polymer to take up and hold certain molecules. Reversing the current resulted in the polyaniline dropping the substance. Crazy technology! It makes me want to get into R&D. -
Cool Technology for Pharmacy
Proteus Biomedical: “Proteus ingestible event markers (IEMs) are tiny, digestible sensors made from food ingredients, which are activated by stomach fluids after swallowing. Once activated, the IEM sends an ultra low-power, private, digital signal through the body to a microelectronic receiver that is either a small bandage style skin patch or a tiny device insert under the skin. The receiver date- and time-stamps, decodes, and records information such as the type of drug, the dose, and the place of manufacture, as well as measures and reports physiologic measures such as heart rate, activity, and respiratory rate. The IEM is the cornerstone of the company’s Raisinâ„¢ System, which is currently in clinical development. The Raisinâ„¢ System measures the body’s response to medications and is intended to improve the management of chronic diseases like heart failure, infectious disease and psychiatric disorders.â€The Financial Times is reporting that the pharmaceutical company Novartis is partnering with Proteus Biomedical to implant these IEMs into oral blood pressure medications. The IEMs are designed to send reminders to patients, in the form of a text message, when non-compliant with their medication regimens.
No word on what blood pressure medication they’re using, but Novartis is the maker of Lotrel, Tekturna and Diovan.
Remember, Big Brother is watching.
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Thoughts on speech recognition in pharmacy
I still work in the pharmacy on occasion. It keeps me up to date with changes that I’ve made to various pharmacy systems and gives me the opportunity to make sure my pharmacist skills haven’t evaporated. One thing it doesn’t do is get me away from my current technology related duties. In fact it puts me closer to the action and even more accessible to pretty much everyone, which means I spend a majority of my “staffing†time dealing with things related to our automation; carousel picks and loads, packager fills, compunder checking, labeler input and checking, minor troubleshooting, etc. It’s not that someone else can’t do it, but that’s the way it works out.
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Cool Technology for Pharmacy
The Capsule Machine
Capsule machines don’t exactly automate the process of filling capsules from scratch, but they sure do speed up the process. Anyone that has spent time punching capsules by hand will appreciate what a capsule machine can do for you. They are a real time saver.Devices like these are used almost exclusively by compounding pharmacies and typically make up to 100 capsules at a time. Sure there are bigger capsule machines out there, but they typically aren’t used in community based pharmacies. I spent many hours in just such a pharmacy using capsule machines to make all sorts of things for both human and animal consumption. I don’t know how many thousand capsules I made, but rest assured it was a lot.
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Cool Technology for Pharmacy
Maya from MedMinder looks like and ordinary medication organizer with 28 separate compartments representing a week’s supply of medication (7 columns = 7 days/week x 4 rows = AM/Noon/PM/HS). The device uses wireless technology to update MedMinder’s central database with the patient’s medication activity. Patients and caregivers can access this information via the web or receive emails and text messages with reminders and reports.
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Infusion catheter delivers medication with precision
Vascular Designs’ IsoFlowâ„¢ infusion catheter … is a dual balloon catheter designed for controlled and selective infusion of physician-specified fluids into selected vasculature by means of temporary occlusion of a target region of the vessel with simultaneous perfusion of blood past the isolated region. With this type of directed approach to fluid delivery, you can increase drug concentrations at targeted sites while reducing systemic exposure, thereby improving efficacy and patient outcomes. This makes IsoFlow ideal for battling diseases such as cancer for which treatment requires the direct infusion of chemotherapy drugs to a targeted region of the body like a tumor.
The IsoFlow catheter enables sideways perfusion, The IsoFlow catheter enables sideways perfusion, which gives you the ability to push specified fluids both into side branch and angiogenicly formed vessels, letting medications reach an isolated area in a highly targeted and concentrated fashion. With IsoFlow’s unique design, fluids can reach areas that could not previously be treated directly.
How cool is that.
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Anthropomimetic robot is just a tad bit creepy
Eccerobot (Embodied Cognition in a Compliantly Engineered Robot) is an anthropomimetic robot developed by a consortium of labs in Europe. An antrhopomimetic robot imitates not just the human form, but human biological structures and functions as well. This gives the robot the potential for human-like movements and interactions.From the website: “The ECCEROBOT project is a spin-off of the CRONOS1 project conducted at the University of Essex. The goal of this project was to investigate machine consciousness through internal modelling. For this purpose the first anthropomimetic robot torso was built. Within the ECCEROBOT project we will further enhance this torso, develop a controller for it, and investigate the development of human-like cognitive abilities.â€
Reminds me a little of the “terminators†in Terminator movies. Like I said, creepy.