We are living at one of the most exciting moments in the history of healthcare. Technological developments that are beginning to be experienced will, without doubt, produce extraordinary changes in the concept of medicine. This article considers the medical impact of new languages and technologies in wireless Internet, broadband/high speed ...

Autologous tissue-engineering technology uses the body's own regenerative capacity to solve clinical problems. Human cellular- and tissue-based products include an array of medical products for repair, reproduction, replacement and other therapeutic purposes. However, the lack of European Union regulation for these products is putting the future of the technology at ...

Raman spectroscopy has recently been applied ex vivo and in vivo to address various biomedical issues such as the early detection of cancers, monitoring of the effect of various agents on the skin, determination of atherosclerotic plaque composition, and rapid identification of pathogenic microorganisms. This leap in the number of ...

The development of medical applications is driven in the context of steadily growing needs and the requirement of lowering the overall costs. Microsystems will have an extremely important impact on medical technology in the future. The great challenges for the wider usage of microstructures in health application are biocompatibility and ...

The practice of medicine is inherently dependent upon health technology. Clinicians use a wide variety of technologies in diagnosing, treating, and assessing the care of their patients. In this book, The Future of Health Technology, many different aspects of health technology are discussed in detail. Considering this breadth of coverage, ...

Video is a medium that has passed through a progression of technical advances including the invention of videotape, the incremental refinements to laser videodisc technologies, and the arrival of digital imaging technologies such as CD-ROM, DVD, and the Web's video streaming. Today, video is firmly established as a convenient and ...

This contribution focuses on the medical applications of new information and communication technologies (NICTs). We discuss the paradoxical nature of the spread of these technologies, related to the discrepancy between the promises held out by their use in a healthcare system searching for new mechanisms of coordination and their actual ...

Medical technologies move from research and development through manufacturing and marketing into the healthcare delivery system. Within the healthcare delivery system, hospitals rely heavily on medical technologies (and the medical devices they enable) to provide diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring in patient care. Managing these devices from acquisition through application in ...

The use of stereoscopy to enhance the immersive experience obtained from a virtual environment is well known, and many medical applications can benefit from this technology. The stereoscopic projection sessions at the last two MMVR conferences contain many excellent examples. Stereoscopy need not be expensive to implement, and can easily ...

Physicians, hospitals and medical schools have been exploring the uses of telemedicine since 1964, primarily in the area of medical education. While the explosion of interest in telemedicine over the past five or six years has seen an increase in the use of telecommunications technology. At present, telemedicine is utilised ...

Miniaturised chemosensors and biosensors for applications in clinical diagnostics and biomedical fields can be fabricated in silicon with high reproducibility using the containment technology. They are characterised by excellent durability of the sensitive membranes. Meanwhile, there are sensors available for a variety of relevant medically parameters such as pH, the ...

The foray of solid-state technology in the medical field has yielded an arsenal of sophisticated healthcare tools. Personal, portable computing power coupled with the information superhighway open up the possibility of sophisticated healthcare management that will impact the medical field just as much. The full synergistic potential of three interwoven ...

Throughout history, medical theories that have undergirded medical thinking and practice at any given time have been tied to the then current knowledge of human physiology. This knowledge has, in turn, always been predicated on the latest technology available to researchers. As modern investigational tools come on stream, it is ...

Changes in health care are a fundamental part of social and intellectual evolution. The modern practice of scientific medicine depends on the existence of the written and printed word to store medical information. Because computers can transform information as well as store it, new digital tools cannot only record clinical ...

OBJECTIVES: To discuss application areas of information technology in medicine and health care on the occasion of the opening of the Private Universität für Medizinische Informatik und Technik Tirol/University for Health Informatics and Technology Tyrol (UMIT) at Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Important application areas of information technology in ...

The evolution in information and telecommunication technologies has allowed the development of systems that use the Internet infrastructure and Web technology to remotely access a hospital's picture archiving and communication system (PACS). However, one of the main problems in the construction of this type of system is the development of ...

The decision on how to sterilise a medical device is dependant on many factors and as a result requires detailed investigation early in a project. The key factors are which processes are compatible with the materials and packaging used for the product. Other critical factors are cost, speed, the availability ...

This article reviews an approach in medical anthropology that commenced in the early 1980s and that continues to the present day in which biomedical knowledge and practices are systematically incorporated into anthropological analyses. Discussion then focuses on contributions made by feminists and medical anthropologists to the literature on medicalization and ...

A discussion of digital radiographs. Shows how the digital radiograph is formed and its many uses. Lists and explains the advantages, that is, it is instantaneous, fewer problems with quality, and can mesh with the computer in the office. The disadvantages are described as well and may include cost, medical ...

BACKGROUND: The NASA Haughton-Mars Project Base Camp on Devon Island, Canada (approximately 75 degrees north) was the site for transmission of vital signs from two "terranauts" (individuals who acted as Earthbound astronauts) back to the United States in (artificially delayed) real-time. METHODS: The subjects became "physiologic ciphers" for status monitoring ...

In summary, the use of laser technology in the airway for the treatment of benign lesions has become a standard therapeutic modality for the airway endoscopist. It is extremely important that endoscopists be well acquainted with the laser soft tissue interactions of the laser being used and the safety precautions ...

The Executive Board of the Medical Council of Thailand has set up an ad hoc committee to establish the regulations of practising of assisted reproductive technology. The committee assigned the Royal Thai College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to supervise and take charge of the administration and formulate an annual report ...

CONTEXT: The aim of the national "IT Culture in Medical Education" project in Finland is to enhance the opportunities new technology may provide for medical education. The project focuses on attitudes towards information technology (IT) and on its current use among teachers and students. METHOD: This survey was part of ...

BACKGROUND: Medication errors are common, costly, and injurious to patients. OBJECTIVE: To review the role of information technology in decreasing pediatric medication errors in both inpatient and outpatient settings. DESIGN: We performed a literature review of current information technology interventions. RESULTS: Several types of information technology will likely reduce the ...

Many health plans apply evidence-based approaches to coverage decisions. The foundation of such approaches is the systematic review of information about the effectiveness of medical interventions. This paper discusses the principles underlying evidence-based coverage policy and how they are applied by two major programs: the Technology Evaluation Center of the ...

We can count on two things when we receive a call as part of an air medical transport team--the patient is in critical condition, and time is of the essence. Whether the patient has experienced trauma from a motor vehicle crash, has fallen, or has suffered an insult as a ...

Because most deaths during the early years of the 20th century occurred in the home, many people had direct and personal experiences with dying. That's no longer the case. Two and a half million people die in this country every year, most in hospitals, where keeping terminally ill people alive ...

Fecal incontinence is an inability to defer release of gas or stool from the anus and rectum by mechanisms of voluntary control. It is an important medical disorder affecting the quality of life of more than 2% of the US population. The most common contributing factors include previous vaginal deliveries, ...

OBJECTIVES: To construct Perceptibility Curves (PCs) for contrast-enhanced digital intraoral radiographs. METHODS: Radiographs of a test object having holes of increasing depths were exposed using three digital systems, the CDR (Schick Technologies, Long Island, NY, USA), the Dixel (J Morita MFG, Kyoto, Japan) and the Sens-A-Ray (Regam Medical Systems, Sundsvall, ...

The frequency of multifetal pregnancies has increased dramatically in recent years with the advent of assisted reproductive technologies. In an effort to ensure a successful outcome for both the fetus(es) and the mother, multifetal reduction is often medically recommended. Multifetal reduction may present a challenge to Orthodox Jewish law, as ...

We applied medical and scientific methodology in a study of the mummies in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, New York, by computed tomographic scanning and other radiographic methods. These noninvasive procedures allow us to "unwrap" these mummies without unwrapping them. This is, in effect, technology transfer of ...

BACKGROUND: The Internet has become an important new tool for the delivery and acquisition of medical information. METHODS: A 13-item questionnaire designed to collect information on the attitudes and practices of surgeons regarding the use of the Internet as a medical resource was posted on the World Wide Web and ...

Speech recognition software for the personal or office computer is a relatively new area of technology. As the number of these products has increased so has use of this software. Some individuals will employ speech recognition systems due to difficulty with the conventional keyboard and mouse interface: others will use ...

New and proposed medical technologies continually challenge our vision of what constitutes appropriate medical treatment. As scholars and consumers grapple with the meaning of innovation, one common critical theme to surface is that it constitutes undesirable medicalization. But we are embodied creatures who can often benefit from medical knowledge; in ...

Progress in several types of artificial organs in the cardiovascular field has significantly contributed to advancements in cardiac surgery. Due to the progress of high technology in fields other than medicine, both cardiac surgery and artificial organs have shown rapid and remarkable advances. In recent years, several types of blood ...

Telemedicine has been shown to have a considerable impact in medical education, conferencing and consultation. As a result, the People's Republic of China has been keen to develop telemedicine. In her attempts to further the development of telemedicine, China has looked to the progress of medical services in Western countries ...

BACKGROUND: Electrogastrography (EGG) is the non-invasive measurement of gastric electrical activity. With the development of modern technology, improved recording and automated analysis, it is a reliable and accurate technique for the measurement of gastric myoelectrical activity providing information about the frequency and regularity of the gastric slow wave. AIM: The ...

Neuropathy may bring about changes in form and function of the foot, which may lead to ulceration and progressive deformity. These manifestations often require specially adapted footwear. A comprehensive concept of the medical, functional, and technical requirements for this type of footwear is still lacking to date. In this article, ...

Over the last decade a large number of weapon systems have appeared that use blast as their primary damage mechanism. This is a notable trend; until recently very few warheads relied on blast as their primary output. Most warheads in service use explosives to drive metal such as fragments and ...

OBJECTIVE: To describe all medical patents granted in the United States to Australian-resident inventors between 1984 and 1999. DATA SOURCES: All patent data originated from the US Patent and Trademark Office. Data for 1984-1994 were compiled by CHI Research Inc, and data for 1995-1999 were obtained from the Community of ...

In this paper we describe a pilot architecture aiming at protecting Web-based medical applications through the development of a virtual private medical network. The basic technology, which is utilized by this integrated architecture, is the Trusted Third Party (TTP). In specific, a TTP is used to generate, distribute, and revoke ...

This article presents further developments of photoultrasonic medical technology. It also analyzes its major effects and considers the most promising application of this combined technology in medicine, with particular emphasis given to the bactericidal treatment of infectious wounds. Moreover, this article describes the preliminary experimental results of the aforementioned technology.

It is obvious that medical practice needs to sustain a radical quality change due the fast penetration of information technologies in medicine and healthcare. One of the major problems of this change is the adequate education of the medical specialists to use these information and communication technologies, including Hospital information ...

Advancements in diagnostic technologies have revolutionized the field of neurology. The use of these tools in the course of neurological evaluations is driven by a strong version of the diagnostic imperative, with the goal of precisely identifying the locus and extent of disease processes. Because of the discrepancy between the ...

Nowadays a great number of applications are used to compile and transmit casualties and disasters information but there are many troubles associated with the technology as can be the communications reliability and the size and weight of the devices medical staff has to carry with. Telecommunication infrastructures support information movement ...

We have proposed applying MIDI technology to coding of biomedical acoustic signals such as heart sounds used in medical diagnosis for constructing medical audio databases. According to our several experiments, we could correspond encoded MIDI event data or musical notes with heart sound components used for clinical diagnosis. However, precise ...

Physicians are under a lot of pressure to perform. The power of the computer can be used to reduce the cognitive stresses. The use of an intelligent graphical interface can tailor the information that is presented to the physician. The user can be assured that all the information is presented ...

To provide easy retrieval, integration and evaluation of multimodal medical images and data in a web browser environment, distributed application technologies and Java programming were used to develop a client-server architecture based on software agents. The server side manages secure connections and queries to heterogeneous remote databases and file systems ...

Changes in medical practice that limit patient availability and instructors' time have resulted in poor physical diagnosis skills by learners at all levels. Advanced simulation technology, including the use of sophisticated multimedia computer systems, helps to address this problem. For many years 'Harvey', the Cardiology Patient Simulator, and the UMedic ...

This article presents the medical indications and contemporary technological capabilities in the orthotic treatment of the upper limb. The devices that today constitute an integral part of therapeutic procedures are presented, as well as the potential created by the application of low-temperature thermoplastic materials. Therapeutic success is conditioned by professional ...