Bovine Colostrum

Flash for Medical Applications?

Health-care software maker Mitem Corp. has built a user interface for busy physicians in hospital settings, giving them patient information they need from a variety of sources without forcing them to learn a variety of "green screen" computer systems. Interestingly enough, the system is made from Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004, which was introduced this week.

The system is called Blue Iris and reportedly has ways of presenting more information on a single screen, with the capability of expanding the area of the screen that has the information that the doctor is interested in. Traditionally, Flash has been animation based and not generally considered for business applications. This new enterprise version is form based and has enabled developers to deliver rich applications that you expect on a desktop, but now they can cast them in a Web browser.

Features of this release of Blue Iris include:

• Single view of patient information in a True SOAP progress note format
• Real-time data access
• Dynamic views of data that allow physicians to see ranges of data from hours or even weeks with the simple click of a button
• Remote access that provides physicians with the ability to access patient data from anywhere as long as they have a secure connection to their organization
• Imaging integration that allows physicians to see imaging data, such as X-rays, in context with the rest of the patient data
  
  According to Mitem, Blue Iris has been painstakingly designed to match the way physicians and clinical staff work. Our goal was to create a product that is very intuitive and easy-to-use. We challenged the team to develop an application that clinical staff can learn to use within 5 minutes without training or documentation.
  
  Mitem
  Macromedia

Brain Atlas Launched

A decade in the making, a new brain atlas has been unveiled recently at UCLA. Researchers are trying to better understand what constitutes a "normal" brain by studying a newly compiled atlas that contains digitally mapped images of 7,000 brains. This atlas is freely available to registered users over the Internet.

In addition to mapping the brain in multiple dimensions, it also charts brain activity, with the goal of pinpointing the seat of functions such as speech, memory, emotion and language and highlighting how those locations can vary among individuals and populations. The sources of the brain images are individuals living in seven nations on four continents. Most are between the ages of 20 and 40, but some are as young as 7 and as old as 90.

In addition to normal brain images, there are those of people with Alzheimer's, autism, schizophrenia and other disorders. It is a work in progress as it is continually updated. All of the images have been manipulated to fit a standard reference so researchers can easily perform comparisons.

Part of the research goals of the project states that "we are currently focusing on the study of human cerebral white matter tracts, cerebral vasculature, chemoanatomy, and connectivity in the human brain using fMRI-transcranial magnetic stimulation-PET. We also have expanded our neuroinformatics tools for data sharing and have created a "Conforming Site System" that allows laboratories worldwide to contribute data to our evolving atlas.

UCLA Laboratory of NeuroImaging

Wi-Fi: As Free As The Foliage

There are increasing number of people who set up wireless Internet networks in their homes and businesses and -- sometimes unwittingly -- leave them open for anyone to share. Many colleges, geeks and city officials are making Wi-Fi as free as the foliage in public plazas. And now you can use Wi-Fi gratis in New York if you're a Verizon Internet subscriber or eating an Extra Value Meal at some McDonald's restaurants. There is a significant number of places where people with a properly outfitted laptop or handheld computer can get wireless Internet access without reaching for a credit card.

In addition to Wi-Fi use in homes and offices, the United States has some 5,000 public hot spots. That includes 2,700 operated by wireless phone carrier T-Mobile, mainly in Starbucks coffee shops and Borders bookstores. T-Mobile charges 10 cents a minute (the minimum cost is $6, however), $40 a month or $360 a year, though existing T-Mobile customers can sign up for $20 a month.

Nine businesses along Boston's Newbury Street have shelled out $350 each to share a high-speed data line that feeds their stores so they can transmit free Wi-Fi. The network has been running for more than a year, and no store has dropped out in disappointment.

It is predicted that similar models eventually will dominate. In that scenario, an Internet company like America Online would buy wholesale hot spot access for its customers from a provider like Cometa Networks Inc., a joint venture backed by Intel, AT&T Corp. and IBM Corp. Businesses point out that there's much more money to be had in selling more books, more coffee, many more bottles of wine, rather than trying to sell (Wi-Fi) access. The traditional payment plan of by the hour, or by the month, is eventually going to go away.

Because it uses unlicensed radio frequencies, Wi-Fi is relatively easy and inexpensive to operate. Many new laptop computers automatically detect Wi-Fi networks, while others easily can be made to do so by plugging in a wireless card. Many of the major cities such as New York or San Francisco have websites to help in getting WiFi access.