By: Nidhi Subbaraman
Via: Fast Company


Professional racing is an extreme sport. Drivers battle super-hot temperatures and G-forces for hours. To survive a race, let alone win one, a driver needs to be in top physical health.

A startup called MC10 based in Cambridge, Mass., is making wearable electronics that could change the way drivers train and stay on track during races. In the future, they hope to help all kinds of athletes up their game.

Through the thin plastic sensors worn on the arm like a transluscent [sic] patch, a driver’s team can monitor the driver continously [sic] during a race, keeping tabs on their level of energy and hydration, fixing both car and driver at break points in the race. “Think about it as a pit stop for the driver,” Ben Schlatka, MC10′s cofounder [sic] and VP of business development, says. The sensors will be designed to be specific to their use, but can detect temperature, electrical signals to pick up heart, brain, and muscle activity, measure hydration levels, and even detect motion.

MC10′s sensors are made of the same materials that regular electronics are–a combination of semiconducting silicon and metal electrodes. The difference here is that these sensors have been engineered to be bendable, stretchable, light, and extremely sensitive. This makes wearing them a dramatically different experience than wearing conventional electrodes and monitors that are rigid and tough.

“[They're] truly a soft, thin, almost skin-like device that integrates seamless with the athlete,” says Schlatka. They are also built for roughness. “G-forces, temperatures–our technology will survive all of these things,” he tells Fast Company. Though only about an inch long each way, the sensors can pick up hydration levels, heart rate, even motion cues.

This past weekend, MC10′s sensors took their first spin in a NASCAR race, pasted to the arm of 22-year-old driver Paulie Harraka during the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on the Martinsville Speedway track in Ridgeway, Virginia. Early on in the race, plans veered slightly off course when the car’s cooling system failed. “I was hotter than I normally am and the adhesive of the MC10 patch worked just great,” Harraka tells Fast Company.


“You’re on the edge all the time,” Harraka continues. “The temperature in these vehicles get up to 140 degrees. The race lasts for hours.”

MC10 was spun out of materials scientist John Roger’s lab at the University of Illinois, where Rogers and his team have been designing bendable, stretchable electronics that can be unobtrusively connected to the body. Members of the lab have designed sensors on flexible catheters to aid heart surgeries, eyeball cameras that augment vision, and channeled their expertise in skinny, flexible electronics into stick-on skin sensors for monitoring daily health signs.

The company has collaborations for sophisticated medical tools underway, with partners like Massachusetts General Hospital. There they’re testing out sensors attached to catheters that pick up vital signs of a patient during heart surgery. While those hi-tech medical tools make their slow journey through the FDA’s regulatory process, MC10 is targeting an early adopter athlete market in parallel, racing ahead with this first collaboration with Wauter Motorsports, Harraka’s team. Military applications are in the pipeline through project collaborations MC10 has in place with the U.S. government and Department of Defense.

“Athletes are an early market segment for us because they appreciate tech that allows for performance optimization,” Schlatka says. “There’s no regulation, it’s faster to the market.” In fact, speed fiend Harraka only met the MC10 team for the first time this March, at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston. Less than a month later, he was revving up his engine with a custom-designed sensor stuck on his forearm. To Harraka, the deal made instant sense. “At NASCAR we’re such a technology and numbers-driven sport,” Harraka says, “it’s totally natural they’d want to be using and testing cutting edge-tech.”

The race on Sunday was a demonstration that the sensors (currently inactive) were durable and would stay on during real race conditions, without distracting the driver. In the coming months, MC10 and Harraka’s team will be testing multiple sensors to pick up health readings during practice runs and other races.

[Images: Ronda Greer]

By: Mark Green
Via: The Lane Report

State program matches federal grants received by Kentucky firms

FRANKFORT, Ky. (March 19, 2012) – Governor Steve Beshear today announced 17 high-tech Kentucky companies will share $6.2 million in state funds as part of a program to support and attract technology-based small businesses.

Through the state’s competitive Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Matching Funds program, Kentucky matches all or part of federal SBIR-STTR awards received by Kentucky-based companies or those willing to relocate operations to Kentucky.

“These 17 companies are developing some of the nation’s most promising new technologies, as recognized by experts on both the federal and state levels,” said Gov. Beshear. “From finding cancer treatments, to combating Alzheimer’s disease, to helping develop long-lasting batteries for electric vehicles, Kentucky is proud to help support these innovators and entrepreneurs who are helping create high-tech businesses and high-paying jobs throughout the Commonwealth.”

The companies and research initiatives receiving the awards include the following:

3H Company LLC, of Lexington, was awarded $232,212 to support the development of technology to capture and store carbon dioxide underground that can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants. The company’s novel absorbent also helps reduce energy loss during the coal capture process. www.3hcompany.com

Advanced Genomic Technologies LLC, of Louisville, was awarded $500,000 to help develop laboratory animal models that can be used to pattern sporadic Alzheimer’s disease in humans. www.advancedgenomictechnology.com

AllTranz Inc., of Lexington, was awarded $150,000 to develop innovative pharmaceutical products delivered via unique dermal solutions to treat a variety of neurological disorders. www.alltranz.com

Amelgo LLC, of Covington, was awarded $100,000 to support the development of effective non-antibiotic dry-off agents for the dairy industry to help reduce the number and severity of disease outbreaks in cows.

AMT nano LLC, of Lexington, was awarded $90,000 to assist in developing multi-functional micro robots, using a common manufacturing platform, for use in medical devices and aerospace and defense applications, as well as other micro-electrical mechanical system projects. www.amtnano.com

ATI Inc., of Lexington, was awarded $98,748 to help develop aluminum alloy weld wire that could be used in products ranging from armored military vehicles to commercial lightweight bikes. The company specializes in aluminum alloys and products for aerospace and defense applications.

Bexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Covington, was awarded $500,000 to support further development of BXQ-350 for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), one of the most common and aggressive brain cancers in humans. BXQ-350 has shown to be effective against GBM in preclinical trials, as well as against pancreatic cancer and neuroblastomas. www.bexionpharma.com

customKYnetics Inc., of Versailles, was awarded $494,458 to help develop an electrical stimulation device for use by individuals undergoing orthopedic rehabilitation and those with neuromotor disorders due to spinal cord injury or stroke. www.customkynetics.com

Invenio Therapeutics Inc., of Lexington, was awarded $434,480 to facilitate the development of a therapy for patients who have acute myeloid leukemia that offers higher potency, lower toxicity and fewer side effects than current treatments.

NaugaNeedles LLC, of Louisville, was awarded $500,000 to support the development of high-aspect-ratio atomic force microscopy probes that could advance and accelerate the pace of research and discovery in areas including nanomanipulation, biophysical probing, nanomechanics, nanoelectronics and metrology. www.nauganeedles.com

nGimat, of Lexington, won two awards totaling $750,754 to help develop advanced energy storage nanomaterials for use in advanced lithium-ion automotive batteries for electric vehicles, as well as in energy storage components for the emerging electrical smart-grid. www.ngimat.com

Orthopeutics LP, of Lexington, was awarded $359,400 to develop and commercialize nonsurgical solutions for common orthopedic problems via injection to treat degenerative disc disease and repair damaged tendons and ligaments. www.orthopeutics.com

ParaTechs Corporation, of Lexington, was awarded $459,478 to further develop and commercialize a non-surgical assisted-reproductive technology for mice used in biotechnology discovery and development. www.paratechs.com

Regenerex, of Louisville, was awarded $500,000 for further development of a well-defined bone marrow cell processing procedure to help induce patient tolerance following kidney transplantation. www.regenerex.com

Tier1 Performance Solutions Inc., of Covington, was awarded $396,000 to assist in the development of human factors analysis software that will support a variety of NASA design projects such as space vehicles, mission control centers and flight deck systems. www.tier1performance.com

Transposagen Biopharmaceuticals Inc., of Lexington, was awarded $500,000 to help develop a method to create mutations in the genome of laboratory rats that can produce models that mimic human diseases in studies to develop new therapies. www.transposagenbio.com

W-Z BioTech LLC, of Lexington, was awarded $150,000 to support the development of a minimally invasive double lumen cannula apparatus (a non-surgical medical device) to manage heart failure in congenital heart defect patients.

The Cabinet for Economic Development manages the Kentucky SBIR-STTR Matching Funds program, which is administered under contract by the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation (KSTC).

Applications for each round of the program are accepted by KSTC on a regular basis. A link to the online guidelines and application form for the Kentucky program are posted at www.ThinkKentucky.com/dci/SBIR.

Information on Kentucky’s economic development efforts and programs is available at www.ThinkKentucky.com. Fans of the Cabinet for Economic Development can also join the discussion on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ThinkKentucky or follow on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/ThinkKentucky.

By Peggy Lowe
via npr.org


Recruiting doctors to live and work in rural America is a chronic problem. Most health centers try to attract workers with big salaries and expensive homes.

Shots previously reported that one center in Maine was trying to lure medical students to the countryside for their final two years with the hope that they stick around.

The Ashland Health Clinic, a tiny hospital in southwest Kansas, is trying a different tack — a reverse-recruitment model. It’s called mission-focused medicine, and it’s based on serving problems most commonly found in third-world countries.

Ashland, population 855, sits about a five-hour drive south of Kansas City. It’s one of the last outposts on the Kansas open range, where buffalo still really roam along the rolling, dusty plains. There’s no gas station, unless you count the pump at the farmer’s co-op that uses dial-up for credit card approval. The nearest Starbucks is 160 miles away.

The Ashland clinic has 24 beds. The next closest center is 50 miles north, in Dodge City. (Yeah, the same one from those old cowboy movies.)

So when Benjamin Anderson interviewed for the clinic’s CEO job in 2009, he says the board chairman was exceedingly blunt.

Anderson says the chairman told him, “Ben, our facilities are 55 years old. Our finances are challenged. Our morale is low. Turnover is up. We’ve been without an administrator for six months. We’ve been without a doctor for seven or eight months. We really need this facility in this community. And if we don’t have this facility, we’ll lose our school. And if we don’t have our hospital and our school, this will become a ghost town very quickly.”

That pitch clicked for Anderson. He gave up his physician recruiter job in Dallas and moved with his wife out here to become Ashland’s new CEO.

“I’ve always had to have a job that matters,” he says. “I have to have a position that I know it’s not just a paycheck.”

Anderson is now well known on Ashland’s Main Street. But he knew he needed doctors for the hospital to succeed, and he knew he had to offer something different than the thousands of small towns he was competing with.

So he came up with a novel plan. He offers potential candidates eight weeks off to do missionary work overseas. Because he’s found that a doctor who is willing to sleep on a cot in the Amazon or treat earthquake victims in Haiti is ready to serve in rural Kansas. He calls it mission-focused medicine.

“When you recruit a mission-focused provider, they want to see the ghettos,” he says. “They want to know that there’s no Spanish-speaking provider in more than a one-hour drive. They want to see houses that are falling down, widows that are uncared for. They want to know that there’s need and that by them coming there, they would fill a disparity that would otherwise not be filled. So we reversed it.”

It worked. Last July, Dr. Dan Shuman and his family moved here from the Austin, Texas, area. The difference between here and all the other needy areas was his ability to continue his missionary work in Haiti and Mexico during his eight weeks off. But Shuman says Ashland’s own challenges were equally attractive.

“When you’re primary focus is sort of a mission-based focus, when you get into things in order to try to relieve suffering or work toward eliminating disparities,” Shuman says, “then you want to know about those things. It’s appealing to see opportunities.”

Studies suggest that finding primary care providers in rural areas is at crisis levels. More medical students are specializing, so general practitioners are very hard to find. And those who can deal with the lower pay and isolation in rural areas? Even harder. So Anderson raised the bar by shooting for a higher cause. At every staff meeting, he’s part cheerleader, part chaplain.

Indeed, things are looking up for Ashland. In addition to Shuman, Anderson has recruited a nursing director. And that doc who slept on the cot in the Amazon was recently in Ashland for interviews.

Peggy Lowe is a reporter for Harvest Public Media.

via The Baltimore Sun


Baltimore Inner Harbor from Federal Hill – photo by ktylerconk on Flickr

Frustrated by Maryland’s high rate of health disparities, state leaders are proposing a new attack — one more commonly associated with economic development. Gov. Martin O’Malley’s 2012-2013 budget will include funding to create Health Enterprise Zones, where doctors and community groups in areas with large health disparities, such as Baltimore, could add medical and support services for minorities. Tax credits and other financial incentives would be available to spur interest.

The plan is designed to save lives and healthcare dollars, according to Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, who last summer formed a work group on disparities led by Dr. E. Albert Reece, dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

“Maryland has world-class hospitals, top medical schools and one of the highest rates of primary-care physicians per capita, and yet we continue to see disparities in health care and outcomes among Maryland’s racial and ethnic communities. It’s clear that a lack of access to primary care in many communities is a significant factor driving these disparities,” Brown said, adding that funding is in the governor’s budget proposal, which has yet to be released.

According to state and national data, the disparities are many: In Maryland, the infant mortality rate among blacks is almost three times that for whites, the incidence of new HIV infections among blacks is almost 12 times that of whites, and Hispanics are more than four times as likely not to have health insurance as whites. Moreover, nearly twice as many African-Americans suffer from diabetes as whites, and hospital admission rates were three times higher for blacks with asthma and 41/2 times as high for blacks with hypertension. Treating such illnesses is costly, according to the work group, which cited data showing nearly $230 billion in direct medical costs could have been saved from 2003 to 2006 if there were no racial and ethnic health disparities.

The proposed program would work something like economic enterprise zones, where businesses receive subsidies to create jobs and activity in certain areas. The health zones program would be a pilot, available in two or three geographic areas. New and existing primary-care practitioners could receive loan assistance repayment; income, property or hiring tax credits; and assistance in installing health information and other technology. Subsidies would be capped, likely in the tens of thousands of dollars. Local health departments might get involved in recruiting participants.

Brown said he would push to expand the program statewide if it proves successful in a couple of years — not a given, considering the logistical and cultural complexity of the problems. For example, residents of some neighborhoods don’t have easy access to grocery stores that sell fresh fruit and vegetables, or don’t visit the doctor until there is an emergency. Reece said many groups have tackled disparities, but the work group wanted to focus its attention on chronic diseases responsible for 80 percent of health costs. They drilled down to a few key maladies that often have “ripple” effects. They include diabetes, hypertension and asthma.

“We decided to identify … areas where we thought we could make an effective impact within a reasonable time frame,” he said. The health enterprise zones approach is unique, he believes. Work group members got the idea from a similar program built around children’s needs in the community of Harlem in New York City. Program applicants are likely to come predominantly from rural and urban area where disparities are most pronounced.

In Baltimore, studies show a 20-year gap in life expectancy between upper-income, predominantly white neighborhoods and poorer, predominantly minority neighborhoods. Recently, city health department officials began working with community leaders in 55 neighborhoods to identify the most pressing health needs and develop plans to tackle them. The state’s zones would complement these efforts, Reece said. His work group also proposed other elements to promote health and track outcomes.

The group suggested Health Innovation Prizes with small financial rewards and public recognition for individuals and groups that improve health and well-being in their community. The group also recommended tracking disparity data for programs that already exist for primary care physicians and hospitals. Incentives and penalties assessed through these programs could eventually be linked to disparities.

Reece said the prize and the enterprise zones are two things Maryland can do now to help reduce disparities in a few key geographic and health areas. If legislation to create the zones is passed during the current legislative session, the details will be worked out by the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Already, Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, department secretary, supports the move: “The creation of Health Enterprise Zones will help communities target resources to have the most powerful impact.”

meredith.cohn@baltsun.com

via Sociological Images
by Gwen Sharp

If you’re looking for basic global demographic information, World Health Rankings provides a great overview, using World Health Organization, World Bank, UNESCO, and other data. The website allows you to select a country, then provides a detailed breakdown of many demographic details, such as population pyramids (you can select different years in the past, or look at predictions for the future), leading causes of death, etc. Here’s the 2010 population pyramid for the U.S.:


You can also easily access all the age pyramids here. The 2020 projections for Brazil show the changing demographics due to the dramatic decrease in the fertility rate, which Lisa posted about this weekend:


There’s an interactive map of the top 15 causes of death in the U.S., allowing you to look at variations by county. Here’s the map of deaths due to heart disease, with Clark County, Nevada, highlighted:


You can also look at life expectancy for different nations for every decade between 1960 and 20101 [sic], a “real-time” clock that tracks global deaths (you can look at how many have died in the last year or month, or you can click “now” and reset the clock and watch as the clock estimate how many people die of various causes of death worldwide), and maps showing the prevalence of various causes of death around the world. Lots of neat representations of rather depressing information.

Also, as I wrote this post I realized that now every time I see a population pyramid of the U.S., Community‘s song “Baby Boomer Santa” is going to play through my head.

via American Human Development Project


Click here to explore a set of interactive maps with data from 2008-2011. In the map above, I selected “High School Freshmen not Graduating after 4 Years” from the “dashboard of risks” menu, for all states, all ethnic groups, and the most recent data set. You can also view data by top 10 metropolitan areas, congressional districts, and so on.

Whites in Washington, DC, live, on average, twelve years longer than African Americans in the same city.

In the 2007–9 Great Recession, college graduates faced an un- and underemployment rate of 1 in 10; the rate for high school dropouts was greater than 1 in 3.

In no U.S. states do African Americans, Latinos, or Native Americans earn more than Asian Americans or whites.

These startling facts are just some of the issues covered in The Measure of America 2010-2011. With a foreword by Jeffrey D. Sachs, the second volume in The Measure of America series is an easy-to-understand guide to where different groups stand today, and why. The book contains American Human Development Index ranking for all 50 states, 435 congressional districts, major metropolitan areas, racial and ethnic groups, as well as men and women. It concludes with a set of recommendations for priority actions required to improve scores on the Index across the board and to close the stark gaps that separate groups.

The Measure of America 2010-2011 also shines a spotlight on risks to progress and opportunity, and identifies tested approaches to fostering resilience among different groups: Who is most at risk for obesity? How can workers secure better footholds in the job market? How important is early childhood education? This report provides the tools necessary to build upon past policy successes, protect the progress made over the last half century from emerging risks, and develop an infrastructure of opportunity that can serve a new generation of Americans.