Remapping the telemedicine landscape
How WPI aims to attract VC's and investors with remote technology
A soldier in an underground tunnel in downtown Baghdad searches for an injured member of his company. By hooking up with a secure wireless network via his personal data assistant, he picks up the signal of a wireless sensor on the soldier’s body. Once located, the searcher switches over to a portable ultrasound, allowing him to scan for injuries and send the results to a clinic before the injured soldier arrives.Consider this a preview to what Worcester Polytechnic Institute researchers hope will become a reality. While WPI’s Bioengineering Institute (BEI) is busy establishing its new headquarters in Gateway Park, the Institute’s Center for Untethered Healthcare and Center for Neuroprosthetics and BioMEMS have been winning grants to bring their products closer to market.
Last month, the BEI’s two centers received a grant worth $2 million through a U.S. Senate Defense Appropriations Bill. Researchers all agree that this latest round of funding will help bring their concepts closer to crucial testing phases that will allow researchers to log time using human test subjects. Even more important, however, is developing devices that could be mass-manufactured for purchase."We need to take these research dollars and commercialize them," says Kevin O’Sullivan, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives.
Growing the brain trust with high-tech gadgets
Yitzhak Mendelson and his team of student aides developed wireless physiological sensors, knowing full well the device could transform the way soldiers and other emergency technicians such as firefighters respond to the injured. When placed on an individual’s forehead, the palm-sized sensor sends vital information to a PDA, such as pulse rate and blood oxygenation. Mendelson’s goal is to develop the technology to such a level that a medic tending several wounded can evaluate multiple patients at the same time. By using the data feed on the PDA’s screen to determine which of the injured is most need of attention, or worst case scenario, has already passed, users of the wireless devices can prioritize who gets helped when dealing with more than one person.
Within a year, he hopes to see field-testing with student volunteers in simulated combat conditions underway at WPI. In that time, the team will also transition to second-generation hardware, incorporating upgrades to the device’s signal processor in order to ensure clear reception in the less-than-ideal conditions presented by the battlefield. Should the final product find a commercial vendor, Mendelson wants to see production of the device stay local.
Bill Michalson, the developer charged with designing an ad-hoc wireless network, says that the new technology could revolutionize the way in which injured soldiers are located and rescued. His efforts tie in closely with Mendelson’s, as the technology behind the network allows medics to locate with meter accuracy where an injured soldier lies. But since a PDA that might be used in conjunction with Mendelson’s wireless sensors can’t rely on a GPS signal or tower when a soldier goes underground, a need arises for a highly-secure, unique network allowing the soldiers to communicate wherever they go.
"Think of it like a trail of bread crumbs," says Michalson. "The soldiers carry transponders, and when they walk into the network, it self-configures."
The next chapter in prosthesis |
Just as important as the work ongoing in the Center for Untethered Healthcare is the research that aims to change the way prosthetic limbs work.
The Center for Neuroprosthetics and BioMEMS, the other recipient in the $2 million grant shared with the Center for Untethered Healthcare, is developing ways to control artificial arms and legs with impulses from the brain to enhance both the functionality and the comfort of prosthetics for amputees.
Unlike the drive to commercialize the research stemming from the sister center, the Center for Neuroprosthetics is focusing solely on young men and women who have lost their limbs on the battlefield.
With an emphasis on bringing amputees back to the lifestyle they had before becoming amputees, the Center plans to create a man-machine interface that isn’t prone to infection and doesn’t interfere with tissue growth.
"The main goal is to improve the quality of life for people who make sacrifices for us," says Grant McGimpsey, director of the BEI.
J.T.L.
By studying different algorithms for communication and navigation purposes, Michalson aims to find one that is virtually undetectable by enemy forces, an essential characteristic when transferring information about a soldier’s whereabouts or the extent of the injuries.
Echoing Mendelson, Michalson says that grants such as the one most recently received help to bring more students on board to continue testing, but corporate sponsorship remains a wish. Due to most companies wanting perfect alignment with any start-up they capitalize, opportunities are limited for partnerships. Despite the challenges of finding the right investor, the Center for Untethered Healthcare has a wealth of marketable ideas. "We’ve got a fair amount of technology that may be of interest to businesses in the Commonwealth," says Michalson.
While the technology developed by Michalson and Mendelson allows for soldiers to communicate and to conduct remote triage to gauge soldier injury, a third piece of this hi-tech puzzle comes in the form of a portable ultrasound device developed by Peder Pedersen, professor of electrical and computer engineering. When medics arrive on the scene, vital statistics such as heart rate are measured by Mendelson’s device, but Pedersen’s allows for technicians to evaluate precise details, such as whether an internal organ was punctured or merely grazed by shrapnel.
Pedersen’s device features a wearable display that allows users to instantly see beneath the skin as the transducer glides over the body. It also eliminates the need for a keyboard, thanks to a voice activation feature. A 3D-ultrasound image is captured and sent to a remote facility via the wireless network so as to prepare a medical team for a soldier’s arrival, eliminating the need for further evaluation — a crucial time saver for those on the verge of succumbing to their injuries.
For Pedersen, the university setting creates a unique synergy between research and innovation. However, he took it one step further in an effort to attract investors in his device — he formed his own start-up. Imagisonix, Inc. was necessary to getting the right kind of attention for the portable device.
"It’s all well and good to do research in the lab," says Pedersen, "but if you want to have impact, it needs to move from the lab to the marketplace."
The business allows Pedersen and his business partner to stay connected with WPI while using Imagisonix as a means to "decentralize ultrasound" and showcase the many ways it can be used, says Pedersen. By basing his company in Central Mass., Pedersen says he can take advantage of the emerging workforce in Gateway Park and save a few bucks, too. "This is the perfect environment," he says. "We don’t have the expense of being in Boston."
Send me an angel
Positioning WPI as a viable source of innovative products worthy of being capitalized and commercially produced falls squarely on the shoulders of Grant McGimpsey, director of the Bioengineering Institute. Bridging the gap between research and development in the medical field is nothing new to the school, however. After the manufacturing industry downsized in the region, WPI reinvented itself so as to continue to contribute, says McGimpsey.
"It’s a matter of making sure research is going on, and that the research leads to products the public can use," says McGimpsey. "We very much see that as our strength."
If only it were that easy. McGimpsey notes that many of the venture capitalists and angel investors that the Center for Untethered Healthcare hopes to attract are shopping for bigger players, not a $2 to $3 million investment. Likewise, corporate sponsorships depend on if the research matches precisely with a market that a company is looking to enter, and government agencies are largely interested in financing a solution, not the work that goes into it. "There’s a huge gap between the laboratory to the factory to the store shelf," McGimpsey says.
The larger goal is to do everything possible to keep the technology in Worcester. McGimpsey says the potential to contribute to the regional economy is huge, leading to the creation of jobs and tax revenue if the manufacturing is done locally, and support from Rep. James McGovern has kept WPI the local centerpiece of biotech development. If the products are licensed out, however, there is no obligation on the part of the licensee to manufacture the devices in the region. Perhaps the strongest case for keeping the technology local, however, is because that’s where the brains are.
"We’re the technology developers," says McGimpsey. "I don’t plan to fly to Singapore to address a manufacturing problem."
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