CleveMed Blogs

Last week, I wrote about the new GSR sensor that will expand BioRadio’s applications, and now it’s time to discuss, yet another new accessory that CleveMed is offering for the BioRadio: the skin temperature sensor.

In 1833 Michael Faraday noticed the resistance of silver sulfide decreased dramatically as temperature increased. This was the first documented observation of a compound that could be used as a thermistor. However, thermistors were difficult to produce and therefore commercial production did not begin until the 1930s with the technology vastly improving since then. The second new accessory integrated into the BioRadio is a skin/surface probe that can detect temperatures in the range of 70°F through 110°F. This probe, which is a thermistor, derives measurements based on a resistor whose resistance varies with changing temperature.

Thermistors can be used in a variety of applications relating to skin temperature measurements. First, it could be used to monitor dangerous physiological reactions, such as heat stroke in applications such as athletics and emergency workers. Next, thermistors could be used in a research setting involving the skin temperature of first responders, such as firefighters. If a new or improved material is developed for safety gear, the thermistor could be used to demonstrate the gear’s efficacy at shielding firefighters from heat. Similarly, thermistors could be used in the military to examine potential safety gear for personnel who are fighting in a war. Thermistors could also be used in sports medicine measurements, such as exploring the body’s ability to thermoregulate while performing a variety of strenuous activities for an extended period of time. Additionally, similar strategic experimental sensor placements could be executed in order to determine if and how certain behaviors, experiences, and actions affect body temperature. Such findings could provide a deeper understanding of mental and physiological processes that could ultimately be used for a variety of therapeutic and pharmacological interventions.

This post is an adaptation from “New GSR & Skin Temp Sensors Expand BioRadio Applications” as seen in BioRadio Research & Education Quarterly, Summer 2010.

CleveMed will soon be offering two new accessories for the BioRadio — galvanic skin response (GSR) and skin temperature sensors. These accessories further expand the possibilities of the BioRadio for research and educational applications. Ranging from psychology-related fields, in exploring connections between behavior and emotion, to sports medicine fields, in exploring the correlations between exercise and physiological response, these new accessories can provide valuable information for a broad range of applications. (This week, I will be writing about the new GSR sensor, and we’ll discuss the skin temperature sensor next week.)

In ancient China, a suspect would hold rice in the mouth during a prosecutor’s speech. If at the end the suspect could not successfully spit out all the rice, they were considered guilty. It was believed a lack of salivation was attributed to anxiety and therefore guilt. With today’s technology, there is no need for rice! Biomedical sensors can measure skin conductivity from the fingers and/or palms to provide a modern mechanism to measure emotions. The GSR sensor is highly sensitive to emotions in some people and can be used as a polygraph, or lie detector test. GSR has also been used as an index for those who need some measurable parameter of a person’s internal “state”. Physiologically, GSR quantifies sweat gland activity and changes in the sympathetic nervous system. Measured from the palm or fingertips, there are changes in relative conductance of a small electrical current between the electrodes. The activity of sweat glands in response to sympathetic nervous stimulation (increased sympathetic activation) results in an increase in conductance. There is a relationship between sympathetic activity and emotional arousal, although one cannot identify the specific emotion being elicited. Fear, anger, startle response, orienting response and sexual feelings are all among emotions which may produce similar GSR responses. This new accessory offers research labs and schools a new interface to use to provide insightful information about emotional response in a variety of applications.

This post is an adaptation from “New GSR & Skin Temp Sensors Expand BioRadio Applications” as seen in BioRadio Research & Education Quarterly, Summer 2010.

Oil spills have a catastrophic effect on marine wildlife, and a controversial effect on human health. Recently, it has been determined that leaking oil is about 40% methane gas, compared to 5% found in typical oil deposits. Such high levels of methane can suffocate marine life and create “dead zones” where oxygen is so depleted nothing in those areas can survive. While humans do not face nearly the same exposure risk as animals, the most common oil exposure mechanism is inhalation of oil-related fumes. In addition, fumes of chemical dispersants often used to contain the spill, as well as the risk of inhaling the methane gas, may be hazardous. Exposure to high levels of methane gas depletes oxygen levels, causing difficulty breathing and leading to suffocation if left untreated. Nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headache, and heart palpitations are also symptoms of methane gas poisoning. In addition to inhalation exposure, people also face the potential of ingesting contaminated food products, as well as physical contact if walking or swimming along a contaminated beach. The effect of oil exposure in humans is not entirely known, but recently the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have noticed some complaints of throat irritation, eye irritation, nausea, headache, and cough in Gulf area residents, all of which could be attributed to a variety of causes. So far, about 60 exposure-related complaints have been filed with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals by individuals who are working to clean up the spill.

While containment and oil clean up is critical, there is also a need for health clean up, where biomedical engineering can play an important role. Bioinstrumentation can be critical in addressing health concerns for animals and humans. Since air exposure is the most common way humans may be affected, monitoring blood oxygen levels, lung capacity, and breathing patterns can determine respiratory effects. Furthermore, monitoring cardiac characteristics could demonstrate methane poisoning based on presence of a heart beating rapidly, abnormally, and any arrhythmias. Additionally, examining electrical characteristics of the heart could determine if any symptoms, such as shortness of breath, are a result of cardiac conduction problems. Bioinstrumentation allows researchers and medical personnel to collect physiological data to determine when these types of symptoms are occurring and differentiate underlying causes as well as the potential need for immediate medical treatment. The proper bioinstrumentation tools such as wireless physiological monitors are crucial in situations such as an oil spill because they can rapidly provide health information necessary for treating exposure related illnesses.

Typically, bioinstrumentation is large and bulky, often mounted on carts, and tethered to a wall power supply. These systems are extremely limited because of their inability for use in remote or rugged locations. Remote and compact bioinstrumentation can have significant benefits in situations such as the Gulf oil spill. CleveMed’s BioRadio could be used to research physiological effects on individuals who are working with oil spill clean up without hindering the effort. It could also be used to explore whether or not individuals working directly with the oil (for instance, scooping tar balls out of the water) have different physiological characteristics than those working indirectly with the oil, such as washing off animals, and provide insight as to whether or not certain cleaning locations are more dangerous than others. Such data could be used to try to develop a theoretical “map” of the breadth of spill-related fumes and their effect on a variety of populations. The BioRadio is a wireless, 12-channel, lightweight, programmable physiological monitor for viewing and recording any combination of physiological signals, such as ECG, EEG, EOG and EMG, respiration, spirometry, oximetry and more. The BioRadio has a transmission range of approximately 100 feet and battery life up to 12 hours continuous.

This post is an adaptation from “Can Biomedical Engineering Clean Gulf Oil Spill Effects?” as seen in BioRadio Research & Education Quarterly, Summer 2010.

Hello! My name is Danielle Madere, a recent graduate from Illinois Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering. In the past month, I was lucky to join the CleveMed family as their newest biomedical engineer.

My first two weeks on the job consisted of gaining familiarity with some of our devices: Kinesia, KinetiSense, and the BioRadio. There was also much training, many meetings, and assisting with grant writing.

In the coming months, I will be focusing a lot of my time on clinical studies for several movement disorder monitoring products that we are currently focusing on, specifically ETSense, ParkinStep, and PDRemote. I will be organizing meetings with patients, collecting symptom data, and performing some preliminary analysis to ensure the data we are collecting is valid.

I am very excited to work with CleveMed’s Movement team because I truly believe that our devices, such as Kinesia HomeView, will revolutionize the way clinicians treat movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Presently, Parkinson’s disease symptoms are rated by the clinician, based solely on the clinician’s subjective opinion of the severity (UPDRS). Additionally, clinicians only see the patient for a very limited window of time in their office, which does not provide significant insight into the symptoms a patient faces at home, where treatment really matters. Kinesia HomeView will allow clinicians to observe the quality of life of a patient throughout the course of a day in the comfort of their own home, and adjust medication doses and frequency accordingly.

The more closely I interact with Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor patients, the more desperately I want to help improve their quality of life, and CleveMed gives me that opportunity, which I am eternally grateful for.