The Wireless Revolution in Medical Devices

Part I

Task 1. Discuss the following statement and answer the question

(Обсудите следующее утверждение и ответьте на вопрос)   

Wireless medicine improves healthcare.

Which areas of medicine are the recent improvements in wireless technologies used in?

Task 2. Read the text and do the tasks (Прочтите текст ивыполните задания)

The Wireless Revolution in Medical Devices

Wireless technologies are bringing about dramatic improvements in the quality of healthcare by allowing patients unprecedented mobility while providing healthcare professionals with easy access to patient data.

Over the last decade, there has been a radical shift from wired to wireless medical devices. Even in its early stages, this revolution is improving patient care and bringing innovative products to market. Plexus, the product realization company, provides both product development and manufacturing services to a wide variety of medical device OEMs. Plexus plays an integral role in helping its customers bring these new products to market and then manufacture them.

By incorporating wireless technologies into medical products, many products that were once tethered to patients, positioned next to hospital beds and located at a nurses' station are now transportable. This has allowed two major healthcare improvements.

First, it has increased patient mobility, both at the hospital and at home. By incorporating a wireless protocol such as 802.11b into a patient monitor, a patient can leave their hospital bed while still having their vital signs, including blood pressure, electrocardiogram and temperature, continuously monitored through the hospital's access points. As an added benefit, a patient can be tracked through the hospital.

The development of less invasive monitoring and treatment methods for common diseases has also improved patient mobility. Innovations have allowed at-home patient monitoring, minimizing patient trips to the hospital and saving valuable hospital space. The continuous monitoring of patient data at home improves compliance by operating independently of the patient's efforts. For example, there are now implantable devices that monitor glucose levels without a patient having to puncture themselves with needles several times a day. The resulting data can be transmitted to a networked computer in the patient's home, allowing a healthcare professional to monitor the patient data without the patient having to set foot in a hospital.

The second improvement is that healthcare professionals now have real-time access to patient data throughout hospitals. Caregivers can monitor their patients and retrieve patient data on handheld devices at the patient's bedside. Timely access to patient data allows doctors to make immediate critical care decisions and perform administrative tasks such as gathering patient notes and writing prescriptions. Even critical life-sustaining devices, such as pacemakers, can now be checked by doctors using wireless telemetry. Quicker diagnosis via telemetry reduces the time a patient spends in hospital undergoing regular checkups and allows the doctor to react more rapidly to any patient problems.

Task 3.  Match the English words and word combinations with the Russian Equivalents (Сопоставьте слова и словосочетания с русскими эквивалентами)

1. transportable devices	a. основные показатели состояния организма
2.vital signs	b. повышать мобильность пациента
3.life-sustained device	c. реаниматология
4. increase patient mobility	d. непрерывный контроль
5. critical care medicine	e. уколоть иглой
6. puncture with a needle	f. переносное оборудование
7. treatment methods	g. кардиостимулятор
8. support security features	h. методы лечения
9. pacemaker	i. поддерживать безопасность
10. continuous monitoring	k. основные показатели состояния здоровья

 

Task 6. Summarize the text

(Составьте краткое содержание текста)

Part II

How Exoskeletons Will Work

If you're a fan of the "Iron Man" comic books and movies, you're probably fascinated with the powered, flight-capable suit of armor that fictional industrialist Tony Stark puts on when he goes out to battle evildoers. Wouldn't it be great to have one of those around?

You might be surprised to learn that, someday soon, an only slightly less incredible version of Iron Man's suit may enable U.S. soldiers to run faster, carry heavier weapons and leap over obstacles on the battlefield. And at the same time, it'll shield them from the effects of bullets and bombs. The military has been working on the concept of the powered exoskeleton, a technology designed to augment the human body and its capabilities, since the 1960s. But recent advances in electronics and material science are finally making this idea seem practical.

In 2010, defense contractor Raytheon demonstrated the experimental XOS 2 - essentially, a wearable robot guided by the human brain -- that can lift two to three times as much weight as an unassisted human, with no effort required by the user. Another company, Trek Aerospace, is developing the Exoskeleton Flying Vehicle, an exoskeleton frame with a jetpack built in, which could be capable of flying up to 70 miles per hour and hovering motionlessly thousands of feet above the ground, as well.

But others besides the military may benefit from the advent. It's possible that someday people with spinal injuries or muscle-wasting diseases may get around as easily as fully-abled people do, thanks to full-body devices -- essentially, wearable robots -- that enable them to do what their own muscles and nerves can't. Early versions of such powered exoskeletons, like Argo Medical Technologies' $150,000 ReWalk device, are already on the market.

Warriors have been wearing armor on their bodies since ancient times, but the idea of a body with mechanical muscles appeared in science fiction back in 1868, when Edward Sylvester Ellis published a dime novel, "The Steam Man of the Prairies." The book depicted a giant humanoid-shaped steam engine that towed its inventor, the ingenious Johnny Brainerd, behind it in a cart at speeds of 60 miles an hour, while it chased buffaloes and terrorized Indians.

By 1961, two years before the fictional Iron Man was created by Marvel Comics, the Pentagon had actually invited proposals for real-life wearable robots. An Associated Press article reported on the quest to develop the "servo soldier," which it described as "a human tank equipped with power steering and power brakes" that would be able to run faster and lift heavy objects, and which would be immune to germ warfare, poison gas and even heat and radiation from nuclear blasts.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon's incubator for exotic, cutting-edge technology, came up with the funding for a $75 million program, Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation, to speed things along. DARPA's wish list for a powered armored suit was pretty ambitious: It wanted a machine that would allow a soldier to carry hundreds of pounds of gear for days tirelessly, handle big heavy weapons and be able to carry other wounded soldiers off the field on its back. It also wanted the machine to be invulnerable to gunfire. A company called Sarcos -- led by robot-maker Steve Jacobsen, whose previous projects included a mechanized dinosaur -- came up with an innovative system in which sensors detect contractions of a human user's muscles and use them to operate a series of valves, which in turn regulate the flow of high-pressure hydraulic fluid to the joints. Those mechanical joints then move cylinders with cables attached to them to simulate the tendons that attach human muscle. The result was an experimental prototype called the XOS, which looked something like a human-insect hybrid out of a sci-fi movie.

Near the end of the decade, a Japanese company called Cyberdyne developed the Robot Suit HAL, an even more ingenious concept. Instead of relying on a human operator's muscle contractions to move the limbs, HAL incorporated sensors that picked up the electrical messages sent by the operator's brain.

By 2010, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) exoskeleton project had produced some promising technology. Network World reports that current systems, which weigh about 55 pounds, can enable human operators to carry 200 pounds of weight with little or no effort and dramatically less fatigue. Additionally, the latest exoskeletons are quieter than the typical office printer, and can run at speeds of 10 miles per hour and perform squats and crawls.

 These exoskeletal machines would also be equipped with sensors and Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. Soldiers could use this technology to obtain information about the terrain they're crossing and how to navigate their way to specific locations. DARPA is also developing computerized fabrics that could be used with the exoskeletons to monitor heart and breathing rates.

If the U.S. military has its way, it will have a lot of  super soldiers that can jump higher, run faster and lift enormous weight by strapping these exoskeletons to them. Even so, it may be a few years at least before real-life Iron Man makes his way onto a battlefield.

Meanwhile, powered exoskeletons may also provide a huge benefit in peacetime as well, since eventually the technology may enable people with spinal injuries or disabling neuromuscular diseases to lead fuller lives. Berkeley Bionics, for example, is testing eLegs, an exoskeleton powered by a rechargeable battery, which is designed to enable a disabled person to walk, to get up from a sitting position without assistance, and to stand for an extended period of time.

Task 4. Read the text again and select the most important information. Make up the summary of the text in writing (Прочтите текст снова и выберите самую важную информацию. Напишите краткое содержание текста).

Part III

Part VI

Bionic Vision

The eye is going bionic, and companies are competing fiercely to develop the best technologies that can restore vision to the blind. In this article we profile the two companies - Second Sight and Retina Implant AG - which have just brought their retina implants to market in Europe.

Both companies' devices are intended for patients with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disease that, in its most severe form, gradually robs people of their vision. The disease causes the retina's photoreceptor cells (the cells that respond to light) to die off, but it leaves the rest of the retina, the optic nerve, and the brain's vision centers perfectly intact. So companies are developing various types of implants that can take the place of those photoreceptor cells and send the visual data onward to the brain.

These devices don't come close to matching natural vision, but the rough black-and-white images they provide definitely help users navigate in the world.

While the two companies have the same basic idea, there are very interesting differences in their technical approaches.

The first major difference is in the image-capture process. Second Sight uses an external camera (mounted on a pair of sunglasses) to capture visual information, routes the info to a visual processing unit worn on a belt, and then sends the processed image to two antennae implanted around the eyes, where it's forwarded on to a 60-electrode array that stimulates the remaining retinal cells.

Brian Mech, a spokesman for Second Sight, says this approach allows them to "take advantage of the rapid evolution in camera and electronics technology." He says the company can upgrade the camera and the software inside the visual processing unit long after the surgery is over, and can keep improving the user's experience.

The researchers behind Retina Implant have taken a different approach. Instead of an external camera, they essentially built a camera into the eye itself, by constructing an implant that contains light-receiving photodiodes, amplifiers, and electrodes. The array of 1500 tiny photodiodes on the implant turn the light signals they receive into electric signals, and an attached electrodes then send the signal up the optic nerve to the brain.

After surgery, this system can't easily be upgraded. But Dr. Eberhart Zrenner, the founder of Retina Implant and a professor of ophthalmology, says his system has other advantages. With Second Sight's external camera, a user who wants to find an object has to move the camera lens around by moving the entire head, says Zrenner. "Our image receiver is right in the eye so that the patient can naturally gaze with his or her eyes, and find an object simply through eye movements," he says. "Vision therefore is very natural."

Another difference between the two companies arises in the surgical procedure for the implant, and the placement of all the parts. With Second Sight's system, all the implanted gear (the antennas that receive the external signal and power, as well as the electrode array) are implanted around the eye.

With Retina Implant's system, the photodiode and electrode component is in the eye, but it's attached by a thin cable to a coil in a ceramic housing that's implanted under the skin behind the ear. That component, which is about the size of a silver dollar, receives power from a primary coil that sits outside the skin behind the ear, and which stays in place magnetically.

Retina Implant recently started a new round of clinical trials involving 25 patients, with hospitals in Germany, England, Hungary, and the United States taking part. Zrenner says the company hopes to get approval to sell its devices in Europe once the clinical results are in.

Of course both companies think their specific technology will give them an edge in the market. If they both get the regulatory approvals they're seeking, they'll soon get to battle it out.

Part I

Task 1. Discuss the following statement and answer the question

(Обсудите следующее утверждение и ответьте на вопрос)   

Wireless medicine improves healthcare.

Which areas of medicine are the recent improvements in wireless technologies used in?

Task 2. Read the text and do the tasks (Прочтите текст ивыполните задания)

The Wireless Revolution in Medical Devices

Wireless technologies are bringing about dramatic improvements in the quality of healthcare by allowing patients unprecedented mobility while providing healthcare professionals with easy access to patient data.

Over the last decade, there has been a radical shift from wired to wireless medical devices. Even in its early stages, this revolution is improving patient care and bringing innovative products to market. Plexus, the product realization company, provides both product development and manufacturing services to a wide variety of medical device OEMs. Plexus plays an integral role in helping its customers bring these new products to market and then manufacture them.

By incorporating wireless technologies into medical products, many products that were once tethered to patients, positioned next to hospital beds and located at a nurses' station are now transportable. This has allowed two major healthcare improvements.

First, it has increased patient mobility, both at the hospital and at home. By incorporating a wireless protocol such as 802.11b into a patient monitor, a patient can leave their hospital bed while still having their vital signs, including blood pressure, electrocardiogram and temperature, continuously monitored through the hospital's access points. As an added benefit, a patient can be tracked through the hospital.

The development of less invasive monitoring and treatment methods for common diseases has also improved patient mobility. Innovations have allowed at-home patient monitoring, minimizing patient trips to the hospital and saving valuable hospital space. The continuous monitoring of patient data at home improves compliance by operating independently of the patient's efforts. For example, there are now implantable devices that monitor glucose levels without a patient having to puncture themselves with needles several times a day. The resulting data can be transmitted to a networked computer in the patient's home, allowing a healthcare professional to monitor the patient data without the patient having to set foot in a hospital.

The second improvement is that healthcare professionals now have real-time access to patient data throughout hospitals. Caregivers can monitor their patients and retrieve patient data on handheld devices at the patient's bedside. Timely access to patient data allows doctors to make immediate critical care decisions and perform administrative tasks such as gathering patient notes and writing prescriptions. Even critical life-sustaining devices, such as pacemakers, can now be checked by doctors using wireless telemetry. Quicker diagnosis via telemetry reduces the time a patient spends in hospital undergoing regular checkups and allows the doctor to react more rapidly to any patient problems.

Task 3.  Match the English words and word combinations with the Russian Equivalents (Сопоставьте слова и словосочетания с русскими эквивалентами)

1. transportable devices	a. основные показатели состояния организма
2.vital signs	b. повышать мобильность пациента
3.life-sustained device	c. реаниматология
4. increase patient mobility	d. непрерывный контроль
5. critical care medicine	e. уколоть иглой
6. puncture with a needle	f. переносное оборудование
7. treatment methods	g. кардиостимулятор
8. support security features	h. методы лечения
9. pacemaker	i. поддерживать безопасность
10. continuous monitoring	k. основные показатели состояния здоровья