The MDMouse system is the first suite of tools being developed by CalHealth.  These tools are the combination of pre-existing medical devices into conventional computer control mice, creating devices that are easier to use and more efficacious than stand-alone units.

The principal advantages incorporated into the devices will lead to an overall increase in compliance from patients, which in turn, will lead to better data collection.  In addition, the process of borrowing computational power from the computer should also lead to improved results of any test or measurement taken with the device.

The first tool is designed to measure blood pressure outside of the medical environment, and to provide that information for use by the individual, clinical evaluation companies (CROs), healthcare providers and healthcare payers.  It consists of an innovative mouse device which includes a blood pressure monitor and an application software package that resides on a PC where the blood pressure readings are displayed.  The software application for the MDMouse system will display the blood pressure readings to the user and it will also provide a means to maintain records and allow the user to access past readings at any time.  In addition, the software will allow the user to direct his/her records to a third party, such as a physician or insurance company, or in the event of use for clinical studies, the data can go directly to the study sponsor.  Other features of the system include the ability to set alarms reminding the user to take their blood pressure or medications and set appointments with the doctor.

The MDMouse system is easy to use and readily available to the patient.  In today’s world, patients are in front of their computer regularly and will have the mouse in their hands where it is convenient to take a blood pressure reading without leaving their chair.  And, there is significantly greater accuracy in machine-to-machine communication, as used by the MDMouse system, than relying on patients to write down their readings and then consolidate them on a monthly basis.  The blood pressure readings go directly from the MDMouse system sensor to the computer for recording on the hard drive – there is no human interaction required and none allowed.  This information can be easily inserted into an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system.  Once EHR systems are fully implemented in the U.S., it will be imperative that the all blood pressure monitors do what the MDMouse system already accomplishes…automatically move the data collected remotely into those EHR systems.

Inside a standard-sized computer mouse is a blood pressure finger cuff that is placed over the index finger to allow blood pressure measurement.  Additional components include a pneumatic pump to inflate and deflate the cuff and a pressure sensor to identify the pulse during cuff deflation, thus allowing for measurement of blood pressure by a standard method (the “oscillometric” method).  These components, and the electrical power source and processing capabilities of the computer to which the MDMouse hardware is attached, comprise a highly accurate “sphygmomanometer”.  The PC, using the installed MDMouse software, along with the MDMouse device, will perform the calculations necessary to turn the digital data obtained by the sensor into useful information for display on the PC.

By: CalHealth

The first organism able to substitute one of the six chemical elements crucial to life has been found.

The bacterium, found in a California lake, uses the usually poisonous element arsenic in place of phosphorus.

The bacteria slowly incorporated arsenic into their innermost workings

The find, described in Science, gives weight to the long-standing idea that life on other planets may have a radically different chemical makeup.

It also has implications for the way life arose on Earth – and how many times it may have done so.

The “extremophile” bacteria were found in a briny lake in eastern California in the US.

While bacteria have been found in inhospitable environments and can consume what other life finds poisonous, this bacterial strain has actually taken arsenic on board in its cellular machinery.

Until now, the idea has been that life on Earth must be composed of at least the six elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus – no example had ever been found that violates this golden rule of biochemistry.

The bacteria were found as part of a hunt for life forms radically different from those we know.

“At the moment we have no idea if life is just a freak, bizarre accident which is confined to Earth or whether it is a natural part of a fundamentally biofriendly universe in which life pops up wherever there are Earth-like conditions,” explained Paul Davies, the Arizona State University and Nasa Astrobiology Institute researcher who co-authored the research.

“Although it is fashionable to support the latter view, we have zero evidence in favour of it,” he told BBC News.

“If that is the case then life should’ve started many times on Earth – so perhaps there’s a ‘shadow biosphere’ all around us and we’ve overlooked it because it doesn’t look terribly remarkable.”

As unexpected

Proof of that idea could come in the form of organisms on Earth that break the “golden rules” of biochemistry – in effect, finding life that evolved separately from our own lineage.

Study lead author Felisa Wolfe-Simon and her colleagues Professor Davies and Ariel Anbar of Arizona State University initially suggested in a paper an alternative scheme to life as we know it.

Their idea was that there might be life in which the normally poisonous element arsenic (in particular as chemical groups known as arsenates) could work in place of phosphorus and phosphates.

Putting it to the test, the three authors teamed up with a number of collaborators and began to study the bacteria that live in Mono Lake in California, home to arsenic-rich waters.

The researchers began to grow the bacteria in a laboratory on a diet of increasing levels of arsenic, finding to their surprise that the microbes eventually fully took up the element, even incorporating it into the phosphate groups that cling to the bacteria’s DNA.

Notably, the research found that the bacteria thrived best in a phosphorus environment.

That probably means that the bacteria, while a striking first for science, are not a sign of a “second genesis” of life on Earth, adapted specifically to work best with arsenic in place of phosphorus.

Read more

By Jason Palmer

Science and technology reporter, BBC News

The length of a man’s fingers can provide clues to his risk of prostate cancer, according to new research.

A British Journal of Cancer study found men whose index finger was longer than their ring finger were significantly less likely to develop the disease.

Researchers made the discovery after comparing the hands of 1,500 prostate cancer patients with 3,000 healthy men.

The length of the fingers is fixed before birth and is thought to relate to sex hormone levels in the womb.

Being exposed to less testosterone before birth results in a longer index finger and may protect against prostate cancer later in life, say researchers at the University of Warwick and the Institute of Cancer Research.

One of the report authors, Professor Ros Eeles, said more studies would be needed, but if these confirmed the findings it could be used a simple test for prostate cancer risk.

She said: “This exciting finding means that finger pattern could potentially be used to select at-risk men for ongoing screening, perhaps in combination with other factors such as family history or genetic testing.”

The study was funded by the charities Prostate Action and Cancer Research UK.

Emma Halls, chief executive of Prostate Action, said: “This research brings us another step closer to helping determine risk factors for prostate cancer, which is possibly the biggest issue in current thinking about preventing and treating the disease.

“However, we are still a long way from reducing the number of men who die of prostate cancer every year and need more research and education in all areas to achieve this.”

Dr Helen Rippon, head of research at The prostate Cancer Charity, said the research added to growing evidence that the balance of hormones we are exposed to before birth influences our health for the rest of our lives.

But she said men with shorter index fingers should not be “unduly worried”.

“They share this trait with more than half of all men and it does not mean they will definitely develop prostate cancer in later life.”

By Fergus Walsh

Medical correspondent, BBC News