A Medical Device Daily
VivoMetrics (Ventura, California), developer of the LifeShirt – described as “the first real-time physiologic monitoring system” – has partnered with RAE Systems (San Jose, California) to integrate the LifeShirt 300 with the AreaRAE wireless networks.
The partnership brings together responder life-sign data and environmental hazardous material detection in real-time, on the same incident command display. That is expected to “contribute significantly” to increased safety for both first responders and the people they protect, the companies said.
Specifically designed for first responders, hazmat workers, firefighters and military personnel, the LifeShirt 300 is a lightweight chest strap that monitors breath rate, heart rate, activity, posture and skin temperature continuously and in real-time.
The AreaRAE Network System detects hazardous gases and radiation in the environment giving incident commanders instantaneous information to respond accordingly.
Data collected by the LifeShirt will be transmitted in real-time using a RAELink2 wireless modem to a remote command center up to two miles away, where first responders and their working conditions are monitored. Real-time information is displayed using ProRAE Remote, PC-based software that continuously displays sensor and physiological data, enabling commanders to intervene if first responders appear to be in danger. ProRAE Remote also supports individual alarms based on each responder's physical fitness.
In other agreements:
• NeuroMetrix (Waltham, Massachusetts), focused on the development of products used to diagnose neuropathies, including diabetic peripheral neuropathy, has signed a mutually exclusive agreement with Parlex (Methuen, Massachusetts), a division of Johnson Electric , for the manufacturing of biosensors sold by NeuroMetrix.
Shai Gozani, MD, PhD, president and CEO, said, “Parlex has been the sole manufacturer of our biosensors since the launch of the NC-stat System in 1999. . . . This agreement formalizes what has been a very successful collaboration between our companies and we look forward to further leveraging this relationship as we expand our business.”
The NC-stat System, the company's neuropathy diagnostic system, has been on the market since May 1999 and is used in over 4,000 physician's offices and clinics in the U.S. The company holds utility patents covering a number of important aspects of the NC-stat System.
• Advanced BioPhotonics (Bohemia, New York), a developer of medical imaging using infrared technology, reported entering into a one-year agreement with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC; Boston), a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School (Boston). BIDMC will participate in the company's multi-center clinical trial investigating the use of Advanced BioPhotonics' DIRI method of dynamic infrared imaging in mapping vascular perforator blood vessels in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery procedures.
To conduct the study, which is scheduled to begin within two weeks, BIDMC will use the company's patented BioScanIR System, using infrared imaging, providing a non-invasive, radiation-free method for detecting diseases that affect perfusion, and reperfusion in human tissue.
Loren Borud, MD, a plastic surgeon and principal investigator at BIDMC, said, “We believe this technology could become a major tool for us in planning and safely executing a broad range of flap procedures, from breast reconstruction to body contouring.”
The company said it expects to conclude the trial in September in preparation for commercial release of a reconstructive surgery application in Q406.
“We are working with four very prestigious medical institutions, with leading surgeons in the field of reconstructive surgery” said Denis O'Connor, CEO of Advanced BioPhotonics. He said that with completion of the clinical trial the reconstructive surgery application could be debuted at the annual conference. “We are looking forward to completing this clinical trial and to debut our reconstructive surgery application” at the conference of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (Arlington Heights, Illinois), Oct. 6-11 in San Francisco.