FDA Works Toward Regulating Medical Apps

June 26, 2012 | by

In recent years, people are turning more and more to the Internet for health information and to “self-diagnose.” With an increasing variety of medical apps available for the iPhone, iPad, Android, and other mobile platforms, self-diagnosis has become even more accessible. Unfortunately, however, checking the boxes next to a variety of symptoms and waiting for a mobile device to spew forth a litany of potential ailments lacks the sensitivity and accuracy of a human diagnostician. Further, those who are not trained in medicine may misinterpret symptoms as erroneously relevant or erroneously irrelevant, leading to misdiagnosis.

Medical apps

Thought for the Future: Cognitive Computing

June 21, 2012 | by

For more than fifty years, computers have essentially been calculators with storage systems and programmable memory. Researchers at IBM are aiming to improve up that. They have been working on a cognitive computing project called Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE). By reproducing the structure and architecture of the brain — the way various regions receive sensory input, connect to each other, and transmit motor output — the SyNAPSE project models computing systems that emulate the brain’s computing efficiency, size and power usage without being programmed.

The multi-year cognitive computing initiative to build cool, compact, cognitive computing chips that rival the functionality of the human brain while meeting extremely low power and space of the human brain combines principles from nanoscience, neuroscience and supercomputing.

The multi-dimensional research team consists of IBM researchers and collaborators from Columbia University; Cornell University; University of California, Merced; and University of Wisconsin-Madison. Now in phase 2, the project is being funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The SyNAPSE project was developed out of the Almaden Institute, an annual invitation-only forum held at IBM Research – Almaden in San Jose, California. The Almaden Institute brings together prominent, innovative thinkers from academia, government, industry, research labs and the media. The event promotes an intellectually charged, stimulating and vigorous discussion that addresses fundamental challenges at the very edge of science and technology, such as privacy, the future of work, cognitive computing, complexity, and energy storage. Partnerships born out of the Almaden Institute range from university and national laboratory collaborations to connections among IBM research labs and with industry experts, all forming a dynamic, multi-disciplinary team that focuses on unique aspects of the project.

Source: IBM

New Brain Implant Fuel Cell Runs On Sugar

June 19, 2012 | by

MIT researchers have developed a new fuel cell that could be used to power brain implants in coming years [1]. Just like human cells, the fuel cells run on glucose, which is the most common sugar in nature and in the human body. Human cells derive energy from glucose through a process called oxidation — a part of metabolism — that takes electrons from the glucose and passes those electrons from enzyme to enzyme in the cell, generating the energy molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

Fuel cell

Brain Awareness Week 2012 at Highlight HEALTH

March 12, 2012 | by

Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is an annual celebration, coordinated by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and the European Dana Alliance for the Brain, dedicated to raising public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research. Every March, BAW unites the efforts of organizations around the world to bring the excitement of science and communicate the progress and benefits of brain research to the general public.

Brain Awareness Week

The Best of Highlight HEALTH 2011 – The Year in Review

December 30, 2011 | by

This December (in fact just four days ago) Highlight HEALTH celebrated its fifth year promoting advances in biomedical research. To observe the event, for the next two months we’re holding prize pack giveaways.

Would you like to win two free books, two magazine subscriptions and a Webicina T-shirt? To enter the giveaway, simply subscribe to the Highlight HEALTH Network email updates.

As the year draws to a close, let’s take a look back at the top stories readers were interested in for 2011. We’ve compiled two top ten lists of the most-viewed stories for the year, one as measured by the absolute number of page views and the other as measured by the average number of page views per day posted.

2011 top 10 on Highlight HEALTH