Using an App as Prescribed

From: The New York Times - 08/19/2012
By: Joshua Brustein

Before long, your doctor may be telling you to download two apps and call her
in the morning.

Smartphone apps already fill the roles of television remotes, bike
speedometers and flashlights. Soon they may also act as medical devices,
helping patients monitor their heart rate or manage their diabetes, and be
paid for by insurance.

The idea of medically prescribed apps excites some people in the health care
industry, who see them as a starting point for even more sophisticated
applications that might otherwise never be built.

Read the entire article at:http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/20/technology/coming-next-doctors-prescribing-apps-to-patients.html

Links:
Happtiquehttp://www.happtique.com/

WellDochttp://www.welldoc.com/

New Mobile App Aims to Monitor Diabeteshttp://www.welldoc.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=BIlRqU6iupU%3d&tabid=104

Continua Health Alliancehttp://www.continuaalliance.org/index.html

Coming Soon: Artificial Limbs Controlled by Thoughts

From: Scientific American - 08/21/2012
By: Miguel A. Nicolelis

The idea that paralyzed people might one day control their limbs just by
thinking is no longer a Hollywood-style fantasy

Brain waves can now control the functioning of computer cursors, robotic arms
and, soon, an entire suit: an exoskeleton that will allow a paraplegic to
walk and maybe even move gracefully.

Sending signals from the brain's outer rindlike cortex to initiate movement
in the exoskeleton represents the state of the art for a number of
bioelectrical technologies perfected in recent years.

The 2014 World Cup in Brazil will serve as a proving ground for a
brain-controlled exoskeleton if, as expected, a handicapped teenager delivers
the ceremonial opening kick.

Read the entire article at:http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=artificial-limbs-controlled-by-thought

Links:
First Steps toward a Robotic Leg Suit for Paraplegics (with video 3:08)http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=exoskeleton-first-steps-towards-robotic-leg-suit-for-paraplegics

Mind Out of Body: Controlling Machines with Thoughthttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mind-out-of-body

NicolelisLabhttp://www.nicolelislab.net/

Computing with Neural Ensembleshttp://www.neuro.duke.edu/faculty/nicolelis/

New study uncovers brain's code for pronouncing vowels

August 21, 2012 in Neuroscience Scientists have unraveled how our brain cells encode the pronunciation of individual vowels in speech. The discovery could lead to new technology that verbalizes the unspoken words of people paralyzed by injury or disease.

Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-uncovers-brain-code-pronouncing-vowels.html#jCp

Diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease at 21, British physicist Stephen Hawking, now 70, relies on a computerized device to speak. Engineers are investigating the use of brainwaves to create a new form of communication for Hawking and other people suffering from paralysis. -

Daily Mail Scientists at UCLA and the Technion, Israel's Institute of Technology, have unraveled how our brain cells encode the pronunciation of individual vowels in speech. Published in the Aug. 21 edition of Nature Communications, the discovery could lead to new technology that verbalizes the unspoken words of people paralyzed by injury or disease. "We know that brain cells fire in a predictable way before we move our bodies," explained Dr. Itzhak Fried, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "We hypothesized that neurons would also react differently when we pronounce specific sounds. If so, we may one day be able to decode these unique patterns of activity in the brain and translate them into speech."

Fried and Technion's Ariel Tankus, formerly a postdoctoral researcher in Fried's lab, followed 11 UCLA epilepsy patients who had electrodes implanted in their brains to pinpoint the origin of their seizures. The researchers recorded neuron activity as the patients uttered one of five vowels or syllables containing the vowels.

With Technion's Shy Shoham, the team studied how the neurons encoded vowel articulation at both the single-cell and collective level. The scientists found two areas—the superior temporal gyrus and a region in the medial frontal lobe—that housed neurons related to speech and attuned to vowels. The encoding in these sites, however, unfolded very differently.

Neurons in the superior temporal gyrus responded to all vowels, although at different rates of firing. In contrast, neurons that fired exclusively for only one or two vowels were located in the medial frontal region. "Single neuron activity in the medial frontal lobe corresponded to the encoding of specific vowels," said Fried. "The neuron would fire only when a particular vowel was spoken, but not other vowels."

At the collective level, neurons' encoding of vowels in the superior temporal gyrus reflected the anatomy that made speech possible–specifically, the tongue's position inside the mouth. "Once we understand the neuronal code underlying speech, we can work backwards from brain-cell activity to decipher speech," said Fried. "This suggests an exciting possibility for people who are physically unable to speak. In the future, we may be able to construct neuro-prosthetic devices or brain-machine interfaces that decode a person's neuronal firing patterns and enable the person to communicate."

Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-uncovers-brain-code-pronouncing-vowels.html#jCp

I Think, Therefore I Spell

From: Scientific American - 09/2012 - page 28
By: Ferris Jabr

Researchers are developing new ways to help the paralyzed communicate with
their thoughts alone. Many of the new techniques rely on computers that
analyze patients' brain activity and translate it into letters or other
symbols. In a study published online in June in Current Biology, Bettina
Sorger of Maastricht University in the Netherlands and her colleagues taught
six healthy adults to answer questions by selecting letters on a computer
screen with their thoughts.

Read the preview (omits last two paragraphs) at:
http://www.sciamdigital.com/index.cfm?fa=Products.ViewIssuePreview&ARTICLEID_CHAR=11595E82-237D-9F22-E82489D23CAAFDF3

Links:
New Brain-Machine Spelling Device Could Help the Paralyzed Communicate
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fmri-spelling-device

Bettina Sorger
http://www.psychology.unimaas.nl/Base/Medewerkerspersonal/Bettinasorger_extended.htm

Neuronal ensemble control of prosthetic devices by a human with tetraplegia
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7099/abs/nature04970.html

Mind Reading Computer System May Help People with Locked-in Syndrome
http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/brainmachine.jsp

With mind-reading speller, free-for-all conversations that are silent and still

Researchers have come up with a device that may enable people who are completely unable to speak or move at all to nevertheless manage unscripted back-and-forth conversation. The key to such silent and still communication is the first real-time, brain-scanning speller.

 
The new technology builds on groundbreaking earlier uses of fMRI brain scans to assess consciousness in people described as being in an unconscious, vegetative state and to enable them to answer yes and no questions. fMRI (or functional magnetic resonance imaging) is typically used for clinical and research purposes to track brain activity by measuring blood flow.

"The work of Adrian Owen and colleagues led me to wonder whether it might even become possible to use fMRI, mental tasks, and appropriate experimental designs to freely encode thoughts, letter-by-letter, and therewith enable back-and-forth communication in the absence of motor behavior," said Bettina Sorger of Maastricht University in The Netherlands.

The new evidence shows that the answer to that thought question is yes. Sorger's team came up with a letter-encoding technique that requires almost no pre-training. Participants in their study voluntarily selected letters on a screen, which guided the letter encoding; for each specific character, participants were asked to perform a particular mental task for a set period of time. That produced 27 distinct brain patterns corresponding to each letter of the alphabet and the equivalent of a space bar, which could be automatically decoded in real-time using newly developed data analysis methods.

In each communication experiment, participants held a mini-conversation consisting of two open questions and answers. Everyone the researchers tested was able to successfully produce answers within a single one-hour session.

The results substantially extend earlier uses of fMRI, which allowed individuals to answer the equivalent of multiple-choice questions having four or fewer possible answers, by enabling free-letter spelling. That could make all the difference for people who are completely paralyzed and unable to benefit from other means of alternative communication, Sorger says.

Ultimately, she says their goal is to transfer the fMRI technology they've developed to a more portable and affordable method for measuring blood flow, such as functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).

Links:

Neuroscience: The mind reader

http://www.nature.com/news/neuroscience-the-mind-reader-1.10816

Adrian Owen

http://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/directory/profile.php?adrian

Call for Proposals for Assistive and Accessible Mobile Applications for 2012-13

Image Source: Wireless RERC website The Wireless Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (Wireless RERC), creator of access to wireless technologies to people with disabilities, is inviting developers to submit proposals to obtain financial support for creating assistive and/or accessibility apps for popular mobile platforms like iOS, Android, Blackberry 10, and Windows Phone. The Wireless RERC's app development budget is approximately $90k, and the idea is to support the development of four new apps per grant year. The app will be released through every platform's appropriate channel (App Store, Google Play, etc.) or through Wireless RERC's App Factory. If the app is successful, the developer may be offered additional funding to add more features or to create the app for an additional platform. Proposals will be evaluated on the following parameters: § The app addresses an important accessibility or assistive technology need.  § The app is unlikely to be developed in the commercial marketplace.  § The app is technically feasible and the technical capacity required for development is readily demonstrable by the developer.  § The projected lifetime of the app justifies the investment.  § The projected lifetime of the app justifies the investment.The app complements and does not duplicate other apps in the marketplace or under development. For the 2012-13 grant year, proposals need to be submitted by 15 September, 2012, and the final apps need to be delivered by August 10, 2013. To read more details about the Call for Proposals, visit the website here. Full document

Interactive Webinars on the Health Care Law

The HHS Partnership Center continues to host a series of interactive webinars discussing the benefits and provisions of the health care law, the Affordable Care Act.

All webinars are open to the public and include a question and answer session where you can ask HHS staff any question you may have about the health care law. Please submit questions you would like to have answered on the webinar to ACA101@hhs.gov.

To participate in one of the webinars, please select your preferred dates from the list below and submit the necessary information.

National Webinars

August 21, 2:00 pm ET – Tour of www.HealthCare.gov

August 28, 2:00 pm ET – The Health Care Law 101 (in Spanish)

September 13, 12:30 pm ET - The Health Care Law 101 (in English)

September 25 at 2:00 pm ET - The Health Care Law 101 (in Spanish)

Regional Health Care Law 101 Webinars

August 8, 11:00 am ET – Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont (HHS Region 1)

August 8, 2:00 pm CT, 1:00 pm MT – Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas (HHS Region 6)

August 20, 2:00pm ET – Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands (HHS Region 2)

August 20, 3:00pm CT, 4:00pm ET – Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin (HHS Region 5)

Below are notices to advertise the webinars in each HHS Region.

You are invited to an:

To RSVP for the Webinar, please click here

To participate by conference call dial Toll-free: 1-877-568-4108
Access Code: 359-632-902, Pin #

Hosted by

HHS Regional Director, Dr. Jaime Torres

The HHS Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

Please send questions in advance to ACA101@hhs.gov

If you are in another state, please see our webinar schedule here:

http://www.hhs.gov/partnerships/resources/aca_101-invite.html

You are invited to an:

Interactive Webinar on the Health Care Law,

The Affordable Care Act

August 8 at 11:00 am Eastern Time

This webinar is designed for faith and community leaders in the following

States: (HHS Region 1)

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont

To RSVP for the Webinar, please click here

To participate by conference call dial, Toll-free: 1-877-568-4108
Access Code: 406-837-812, Pin #

Hosted by HHS Regional Director, Christie Hager

and the HHS Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

Please send questions in advance to ACA101@hhs.gov

If you are in another state, please see our webinar schedule here:

http://www.hhs.gov/partnerships/resources/aca_101-invite.html

You are invited to an:

Interactive Webinar on the Health Care Law,

The Affordable Care Act

August 8 at 2:00 pm Central Time, 1 pm Mountain Time

This webinar is designed for faith and community leaders in the following States: (HHS Region 6)

Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas

To RSVP for the Webinar, please click here

To participate by conference call dial Toll-free: 1-877-568-4108
Access Code: 726-605-865 , Pin #

Hosted by HHS Regional Director, Marjorie Petty

and the HHS Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

Please send questions in advance to ACA101@hhs.gov

If you are in another state, please see our webinar schedule here:

http://www.hhs.gov/partnerships/resources/aca_101-invite.html

You are invited to an:

Interactive Webinar on the Health Care Law,

The Affordable Care Act

August 20 at 3:00 pm Central Time/4:00 pm Eastern Time

This webinar is designed for faith and community leaders in the following

States: (HHS Region 5)

Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin

To RSVP for the Webinar, please click here

To participate by conference call dial 1-877-568-4108
Access Code: 925-066-778, Pin #

Hosted by HHS Regional Director, Kenneth Munson

and the HHS Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

Please send questions in advance to ACA101@hhs.gov

If you are in another state, please see our webinar schedule here:

http://www.hhs.gov/partnerships/resources/aca_101-invite.html