CIMIT conference displays reach of healthcare technology

Old and new converged at the CIMIT Innovation Congress Exploratorium yesterday, where medical devices were pitched for use from the battlefield to the hospital to the retirement home.

In a conference presented by the Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology that continues today at the Back Bay Events Center, the technology was new -- or sometimes a new interpretation of an old idea. But many of the products were aimed at oldsters. The offerings included remote sensors to detect falls to customized treadmills to prevent what can be life-threatening injuries.

A vital signs monitor that uses light to measure muscle oxygen, muscle pH, and red blood cell levels offers better information on an injured or ill patient than traditional pulse oximeter and blood pressure readings alone, Babs R. Soller of University of Massachusetts Medical School and Reflectance Medical said at her display.

"Pulse oximeters tell us someone is sick. This tells us how sick someone is," she said.

That's important for emergency rooms and intensive care units as well as military medical personnel who need to be alerted when someone might go into shock. Her research was funded by both the US Army and NASA, which is interested in what happens to muscles during exercise.

In the next booth, battlefield and athletic fields merged when a Simbex representative thwacked two helmets together, sending impact measures spiking on the laptop they were connected to. Football and prototype military helmets contain gauges to measure damage that might lead to concussions or other traumatic brain injury.

Company president Richard M Greenwald, also an adjunct professor at Dartmouth, said data is being gathered from 15 universities and high schools using the helmets to learn about head injuries. Not yet a diagnostic tool, the helmets do send a page to let coaches or potentially, military leaders, know when a player or a soldier has taken a hit.

"Sports is a great laboratory to study this," Greenwald said. His initial funding came from the National Institutes of Health.

Next to the helmets was a Simbex treadmill designed to train people how to avoid falls. Suited up in a harness that would not let him fall, a volunteer had to react quickly when the treadmill sped up and an obstacle forced him to hop over it. That's good training for amputees and older people, said Greenwald.

Shelley Amira, a geriatrics administrator at Massachusetts General Hospital, wasn't pitching technologies at her booth. Instead visitors were invited to try on an older person's version of 3D glasses to see what they can't when their vision declines. Try moving your feet on a cushion with your eyes closed, she urged, or take a crack at opening pill bottle with thick rubber gloves. And then think about how hard it is for a patient to comply with advice to get exercise or take medicine faithfully.

Some new products do address older people's needs, such as automated pill dispensers, cell phones that are easier to operate, and fashionable Lifeline or Medic Alert jewelry. But their cost can put them out of reach, she said.

A mock-up living room -- with no price tag -- was equipped with a fall detector and remote monitoring for older people. It also had a fluffy white therapeutic robot on the couch that beeped when someone came close. Nobody petted it, at least in the early going.

Dr. Barry Zuckerman, a pediatrician at Boston Medical Center, had a new use for an old technology. He has invested in the Norwegian company Med-Storm Innovation, makers of a device to measure pain that improves on standard methods for people who cannot speak for themselves. That could mean a baby or an adult under anesthesia.

"This uses a very old, long-standing technology. It's like a lie detector that picks up stress," he said. "This device can at least reassure you that, for you or your child, someone will know whether you're in pain or not."

Already in use in Europe and Asia, the device is awaiting US Food and Drug Administration approval. It works by measuring chemical activity between neurons.

"It's like the old-fashioned galvanized skin test," he said.

The Exploratorium continues until 3:30 p.m. today.