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A close-up look at the No Touch Breast Scan, developed by UE LifeSciences, Inc.
create simulations on the Decision Simulation platform, it takes a sharp educator to plot out how to use the technology in order to improve the areas of knowledge and care most important to the organization using the tools. “The value is we’ve taken away the need for a tech person but you need a good educator with medical knowledge to make it realistic,” Mr. Yayac said, with emphasis on creating good clinical content to train doctors.
Changing the Way We Screen for Breast Cancer
Anyone with a mother, a sister or a female friend over the age of 40 knows about the mammograms they are supposed to get once a year to test for breast cancer tumors. This method of testing uses x-rays to identify dense tumorous tissue, which shows up white on the x-rays, but mammography has its weaknesses. The same way that dense tumorous tissue shows white on the x-rays, so does dense breast tissue; tumors get camouflaged by dense breasts, which are especially common among women under 40. UE LifeSciences, Inc. developed an adjunctive breast cancer screening method called the No Touch Breast Scan. This 4-6 minute screening blows cool air at a woman’s breasts while taking a series of infrared pictures that are compiled and used to judge breast symmetry and look for tumors. This screening method is particularly useful for women with dense breasts, and can be used as an early testing method among young women (54 percent of tumors are found in women younger than 40). The No Touch Breast Scan is also proving pretty useful in developing countries, where women have little access to mammography. There’s another scanning method in the works at UE LifeSciences. Soon, the company will produce the first prototype of Intelligent Breast Scan, an ultraportable, wireless, handheld scanning device for early tumor detection. This technology earned UE LifeSciences an $878,422 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, awarded in August 2012. “It can truly revolutionize early breast cancer detection,” said Mihir Shah, founder and CEO of UE LifeSciences. The Intelligent Breast Exam device could replace breast exams done by hand, a procedure any woman who has
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been to the gynecologist has experienced, and maybe done on herself. With tiny sensors, it can detect tumors doctors can’t feel with their hands. “It’s kind of a clinical breast exam on steroids,” Mr. Shah said. While clinicians and doctors will need to test the device first, the end-goal is to take the device to the consumer market.
Using the Cloud and Mobile Tech to Manage Wounds
Chronic wounds affected roughly 6.5 million Americans, according to a 2009 report from the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Diabetics are in particular risk of developing and suffering continuously from chronic wounds. That same report claims that $25 billion is spent on care for chronic wounds in the U.S. One of the factors affecting the amount spent on care for these painful open wounds is the need to return to the doctor for frequent care. WoundMatrix, established in 2001, is the first to offer a state-of-the-art comprehensive wound management software solution. Originally, the program was available as a back-end system to doctors and required nurses to visit patients’ homes to take photos with a digital camera they had to connect to the doctor’s computer. With the proliferation of mobile technology, WoundMatrix has revamped its software solution into a web-based mobile technology that allows patients to take photos of their wounds and upload the photos in real time, using a smartphone app, to a central database. In this centralized database, their doctor can access the photos and measure the surface area of the wound site more accurately than previous calculations allowed. As wound site surface area measurements must be reported for Medicare patients and play an important role in the ongoing care and management of chronic wounds, WoundMatrix’s ability to reduce measurement variability is big part of the company’s value proposition, said Sean Geary, president and CEO of the company. The other important feature of his product is the doctor’s ability to centrally read several patients’ wounds in real time, which “allows the patients to receive better care,” Mr. Geary said. The company’s feedback from caregivers is positive. “Caregivers say being able to centrally view the wound, they can monitor and determine whether onsite or in-home care is needed,” Mr. Geary said.