Other device news:

• An “animal on a chip” under
  development for 13 years may soon achieve a holy grail of the pharmaceutical
  industry: to predict toxicity from a cell culture. 

   

• As tests of RFID tags for tracking
  inventory in Wal-Mart stores get underway, an MIT group launches an initiative
  to help the healthcare industry adopt the technology, and a club in Spain tags
  its members. 

   

• In the cut-throat market for athletic shoes, Adidas sees innovation as
  critical to its survival, and has designed a computerized running shoe. 

   

• Wired‘s predictions for popular
  gadgets over the next ten years include two “lifeblogging” devices under
  development at BMW and Motorola. They join Microsoft, IBM, and others in
  pursuing this goal, so you just know there is really something going on here. 

Nanotechnology is behind the development of a “breakthrough” long-life power
source for use in implanted medical devices, such as pacemakers, defibrillators,
neurostimulators, and drug pumps. The technology uses thin-film thermoelectric
nanomaterials to convert thermal energy produced naturally by the human body
into electrical energy, which is then used to “trickle charge” implant batteries
for medium-power devices such as defibrillators, or directly power low-energy
devices like pacemakers.

An implantable power system under development that uses this technology could
last 30 years — five times longer than existing systems — and can be implanted
in young patients. It would equally dramatically extend the service life of
neurostimulators and drug pumps used for treatment of tremors, diabetes, and
chronic pain. The result would be a reduction in the number of replacement
implants needed throughout a patient’s life. Given that a rapidly aging
population and rapidly growing device market is increasing the use of electronic
implants worldwide, this could mean a massive reduction in healthcare costs over
what they would otherwise be.

Reference: Unknown (2004). “Biophan
Announces Development of Breakthrough Long-Life Biothermal Battery.” Press
release via Centre for Energy, May 14.

Continuous Glucose Monitor

Today’s glucose monitors take “snapshots” of a diabetic patient’s blood-sugar
levels at a given moment. The next generation will provide continuous readings,
and not require multiple daily pinpricks, reports Leila Abboud in the Wall
Street Journal. That will be a major advance, since a majority of patients
only monitor their levels twice a day — half the recommended frequency — yet
diabetics who maintain steady blood-sugar levels are less likely to develop
complications such as blindness, nerve damage, and early death.

Two continuous-monitoring devices already on the market are inconvenient,
costly, not very accurate, not FDA-approved except as a supplement to standard
methods, and not widely adopted. Abbott Labs is now seeking FDA approval for a
device that wirelessly transmits blood-sugar readings from the fluid under the
skin to a pager-sized gadget. It gives readings every minute and must be worn
all the time. It could be on the market in 12 to 18 months. A new probe is
inserted every three days, eliminating the daily discomfort of multiple
pinpricks and reducing demand for the profitable test strips used with current
pinprick monitors.

Reference: Abboud, Leila (2004). “Abbott Labs
Awaits Approval For Nonstop Glucose Monitor.” Wall Street Journal, May 4.

Animal on a Chip

Testing in animals is slow, expensive, often inaccurate, and objectionable to
many, while cell cultures grown in petri dishes and exposed to experimental drug
compounds are extremely coarse and unreliable predictors of toxicity. A few
researchers are developing microfluidic chips that mimic some of the functions
of specific organs (a liver chip and a vascular chip are under development, for
example) but one combines “replicas of multiple animal organs on a single chip,
creating a rough stand-in for an entire mammal,” writes David Freeman in the
Wall Street Journal.

To build one of the microfluidic devices, faint scratches (deep trenches, at
microlevel) are carved into a thumbnail-sized silicon chip, to serve as blood
vessels (the blood used is actually a nutrient solution.) The sizes, lengths,
and layout of all the trenches closely duplicate the fluid flows and chemical
exposures that cells experience as they travel through a real body. The chip’s
organs are trenches “tightly spiraled or snaked into dense clots roughly half a
centimeter wide.” Thousands of living cells are then fixed to the floor of each
organ’s trenches, and an external pump circulates the blood substitute through
the chip.

As a test compound is then introduced. As it circulates through the chip over
a period of several hours, the various cells are monitored via microscope and
embedded sensors that test for oxygen and other indicators. A “target” tissue —
a tumor, for instance — can be included, so the effect of the drug on the
target can be examined directly.

Early tests have been encouraging. In one experiment using naphthalene as the
“experimental drug,” the chip’s liver did what a real liver would do — it broke
the naphthalene down into its two constituent and highly toxic components — and
the chip’s fat cells then absorbed much of the toxic compounds and safely
removed them out of the system, as would happen in a human (within limits). No
petri dish experiment could have revealed these effects.

The chips are ready for some limited real-world applications right now, and
“six large companies” are currently considering adopting them. Meanwhile, the
researchers continue to refine the chips. They aim to produce a
sheet-of-paper-sized bank of 96 chips that plugs into a robotic lab that rapidly
adds test drugs and monitors the results. A test that would take months with
animals can be run on the chips in a day or two, at a projected price of about
US$50 per chip complete with cells. As Freeman points out, that’s a whole lot
less than it costs to maintain an animal lab.

The next goal is a human-on-a-chip. It would not only further refine the work
of experimental drug testing, but also enable complex multidrug cocktails to be
tested.

Reference: Freedman, David H. (2004). “The Silicon
Guinea Pig.” Wall Street Journal, May 21.

RFID Developments

Wal-Mart’s plan to adopt radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging of
goods is going “full speed ahead.” It expects 137 of its top suppliers to be
attaching RFID tags to cases and pallets of goods delivered to stores in Texas
by January 2005. In fact, some are already doing so and a pilot is already
underway at a small group of stores and distribution centers in the Dallas area.
Wal-Mart aims to be using the technology with all of its domestic suppliers by
2006.

Meanwhile, the MIT group that helped develop RFID technology has created a
“Healthcare Research Initiative” to study the use of RFID, mass serialization,
and sensing technology in healthcare, and a club in Spain is offering members
the choice of a regular membership card or an RFID implant — the US-made
VeriChip. The RFID doubles as an in-house debit card. A member orders a
drink, the barman scans him, and the transaction is done. A medically trained
person injects the chip under the skin in the upper left arm, by the triceps. As
of mid-May nine members had opted for the implant.

Reference: Kaiser, Emily (2004). “Wal-Mart
Says Radio Tracking Technology on Pace.” Reuters, May 18.

Reference: Unknown (2004). “Wal-Mart:
‘Smart’ Tags Test Goes Well.” Associated Press via Yahoo News, May 18.

Reference: Unknown (2004). “MIT
Lab to Study RFID in Health Care.” iHealthBeat, May 6.

Reference: Graham-Rowe, Duncan (2004). “Clubbers choose
chip implants to jump queues.” New Scientist, May 21.

Wearable Computing Reaches Footwear

German footwear maker Adidas is building a computerized running shoe able to
sense the hardness with which it is hitting the ground and adjust the amount of
cushioning accordingly, on the fly. It is “Sleek and lightweight despite its
battery-powered sensor, microprocessor and electric motor,” writes Michel
Marriott in the New York Times. A sensor in the heel takes sends
thousands of readings a second to an embedded microchip that controls a tiny
electric motor that alters the tension on a stainless steel cord attached to a
hollow plastic cushion in the heel.

Reference: Marriott, Michel (2004). “The
Bionic Running Shoe.” New York Times, May 6.

Wired Picks

Wired‘s
predictions for “Dream Machines” arriving within the next ten years include:A flexible, foldable “Charm Bracelet” that incorporates a screen, microphone,
multipurpose camera, biometric thumbprint scanner, tactile control panel, the
wearer’s digital ID and account access codes, and remote control of nearby
devices.

A PDA called [EYE]D from Nike Design geared for the athlete, fitness
fanatic, or sports fan. It monitors vital signs and body movement collected by
sensors embedded in clothing and equipment and makes adjustment suggestions in
real time. It could also enable sports fans and others to monitor players in
action, and it would have obvious application in healthcare.

BMW’s SensEye, which records your every activity and conversation for
recall at any time.

o2m2, an ultra thin touch screen that can be folded into the shape of
a working cell phone or videogame machine, or used full-screen to watch DVD
movies. The device automatically adjusts to the appropriate function based on
how it is folded.

CanCam, Motorola’s version of a “LifeBlogger.”

Reference: Scanlon, Jessie (2004). “NextFest:
The Shape of Things to Come.” Wired, Issue 12.05, May.