Reality TV moves on: Webcast Your Brain Surgery?

New York Times has an article about new hospital trends in the US. Methodist University Hospital in Memphis also sees an opportunity to promote the hospital to prospective patients by webcasting neurosurgery. A video Webcast of an awake patient during craniotomy, in which the patient remains conscious and talking while surgeons prod and cut inside her brain, was promoted with infomercials and newspaper advertisements featuring a photograph of a beautiful model, not the real (not so beatutiful) Ms. Mullins.

This time, Methodist did not use billboards as it has with other operations, deeming this procedure too sensitive. But its marketing department monitors how many people have watched the Webcast (2,212), seen a preview on YouTube (21,555) and requested appointments (3).

“The goal is to further our reputation as well as to educate the community, who will ask their physicians about our care,” said Jill Fazakerly, Methodist’s marketing director.

Faced with economic pressures and patients with abundant choices, hospitals are using unconventional, even audacious, ways of connecting directly with the public. Seeking to attract or educate patients, entice donors, gain recognition and recruit or retain top doctors, hospitals are using Twitter from operating rooms, showing surgery on YouTube and having patients blog about their procedures.

They consider the methods inexpensive ways to stand out in an era of reality TV and voluminous medical information available online.

Sensors tweet to Twitter

A Contiki Developer has made an API to Twitter enabling a twitterfeed from a TMote Sky to Tempkontiki. The Contiki sensortweets auoto-posts temperature and humidity data from a location in Stockholm. Read more about this on FreakLabs Blog and Contiki Developers.

Open Cloud Manifesto

The Open Cloud Manifesto is an culmination of may technologies including grid computing, SOA and WEB 2.0. The Cloud is still in the starting phase, and many issues related to Cloud Computing are still unsolved. How this technology will change ICT and Health IT is still to be seen. The linkage to uHealth is certainly interesting, and will have to be followed closely by those of us interested in body sensor networks.
See also the Open Cloud Manifesto Google Group and the Open Cloud Manifesto LikedIn Group for more information.

Multiplatform router by Libelium

Libelium provides Meshlium, a multitech router allowing use of ZigBee, Bluetooth, WiFi or GPRS. The company invites sensor producers to integrate on their Wasp mote platform: http://www.libelium.com/

ZigBee Health Care Public Application Profile

ZigBee Health Care provides a global standard for interoperable wireless devices enabling secure and reliable monitoring and management of noncritical, low-acuity healthcare services targeted at chronic disease management, obesity and ageing. ZigBee Health Care is designed for use in homes, fitness centers, retirement communities, nursing homes and a variety of medical care facilities. Products using ZigBee Health Care may be wearable, portable or fixed, depending on needs. ZigBee Health Care is designed to meet the requirements of a diverse and global ecosystem of consumers, service providers, care providers, payers, product manufacturers and policymakers. In addition, ZigBee Health Care products can interact with the broader ecosystem of ZigBee wireless technology devices that may be found in typical home and commercial settings.

 ZigBee Health Care

Sensor in a pill

 The WSN Blog reports from Wired Magazine about their countdown of what rocked our world in 2008; Edible Chips are featured #9 in the list.

Proteus, a Redwood City, California, company, has created tiny chips out of silicon grains that, once swallowed, activate in the stomach. The chips send a signal to an external patch that monitors vital parameters such as heart rate, temperature, state of wakefulness or body angle." This technology is truly interesting, and can be applied in a broad range of scenarios. Among central issues to scrutinize further are power supply, bandwidth, stability.

WSN Blog

A group of researchers have established the WSN Blog with the objective to create: "- a blog on Wireless Sensor Networks. We will cover new products, the latest papers, new books, applications of wsn, conferences". The WSN Blog is recommended for those interested, and a RSS feed is made available from the uHealth Blog.