How to Check Your Heart Rate Using Your Own EKG Monitor

Posted on by
Doctor holding a digital tablet with a live recorded ecg on it. On the desk in the background is a stethoscope.

The healthy lub-dub sound of your heart valves is one that many people take for granted until they experience or are diagnosed with a heart condition. Things like arrhythmia (irregular heart rate), valvular disease (damage or defects in one of your heart valves), or a history of heart attacks can cause you to become concerned about your cardiac health. As a result, you may want to become more proactive about monitoring your heart rate. Thanks to medical technology, you no longer have to go to the doctor to have an electrocardiogram. You can purchase your own EKG monitor and use it in your own home at your convenience.

What is an At-Home EKG monitor?

An at-home EKG monitor is a portable monitor that you can easily use at home. Sometimes, you can just hold your fingers on the device’s sensors to check your heart rate. Depending on the model you choose, your device may be able to send results to your doctor via Wi-Fi, or transfer the results over the telephone. EKG monitors offer convenience and flexibility, allowing you to deliver your results to your doctor without leaving your home.

Popular At-Home EKG Monitors

There are many at-home EKG monitors available on the market today. They vary based on technological complexity, cost, and the way in which they deliver information to medical professionals. Here are a few inexpensive EKG monitors that you can use in your own home:

  • EMAY portable EKG: This EKG is very inexpensive at $99, and it doesn’t require a smartphone for use. However, it does have smart capabilities to connect with your electronic devices and share with your doctor. One physician indicated that a wonderful feature of this device was clear guidelines as to which readings mean a person needs to get to the emergency room. 
  • AliveCor Kardia Mobile: AliveCor’s model is even less expensive than EMAY’s at $89. It also uses finger/hand sensors for easy, medical-grade readings. The company advertises FDA-approved algorithms. Some customers complain that there is an eventual requirement to pay for a monthly service to fully use the device. 
  • SonoHealth Portable EKG: This portable EKG is much more complex and includes finger sensors and chest leads, which can detect a greater number of abnormalities. 
  • ViATOM’s ECG Monitor: ViATOM’s portable electrocardiogram may be useful for some, but others indicated that it picked up a lot of “noise” that interfered with readings. Other positive reviews indicated it was very simple to use. 
  • Vive Precision EKG Monitor: This EKG is also small, portable, rechargeable, and easy-to-use. It’s the least expensive at $79.99 and connects to smart devices. Some reviewers reported inaccurate readings, but others stated it worked as intended. 

When to Go to the Emergency Room

Talk to your doctor about your specific heart condition, and which symptoms or indicators on the EKG monitor will tell you that you need to get to the emergency room immediately. In many cases, a healthcare professional from the doctor’s office will call you and tell you to get to the ER, after receiving an important medical alert reading from your at-home EKG. That is why it is so important to keep a portable EKG at home, so you can monitor your heart rate, and your doctor can monitor your heart rate, anytime day or night, without you having to schedule a doctor’s appointment.

For more informative articles on healthcare, follow the Avidity Medical Design Blog. To take an online healthcare course, visit the Avidity Medical Design Academy website.

What You Need to Know About Continuous Glucose Monitoring Systems If You Are a Diabetic

Posted on by
person's hand holding phone with glucose graph near continuous glucose monitoring sensor placed in upper arm

If you are a diabetic, trying to manage your diabetes doesn’t have to be hard.

Finger prick monitoring shows accurate in-the-moment insulin levels but continuous glucose monitors (CGM) allow you to see trends and observe the impacts of your diet and activities on your levels. Choosing the right continuous glucose monitor (CGM) can be overwhelming, though. Have you found the right one for you? Let’s go over the options so you can reach an informed decision. 

Many of the basic features of CGMs are the same. Let’s review what those are before looking at what’s unique about the most popular options on the market. They all come with a subcutaneous sensor and transmitter which connects wirelessly to a receiver. Receivers have trend graphs, direction and rate-of-change arrows, as well as the ability to log extra data. Sensors are inserted with a device and may be re-usable. Data is sent to the receiver whenever it’s in range. 

Here are the top 4 continuous glucose monitoring systems that you might want to consider if you are a diabetic:

1. Senseonics Eversense CGM

The Senseonics Eversense CGM has the least medical waste, as the transmitter can be changed without removing the sensor, which is guaranteed for 90 days. The sensor needs to be changed at a physician’s office, though and has 24 hours before it is warmed up. It also needs calibration twice daily. There are great functions that keep you informed such as vibrate or audio real-time alerts for out of range, high, low, rate of change, or predictive low. It is also not impacted by acetaminophen. 

2. Freestyle Libre 14-hour CGM

The Freestyle Libre 14-hour CGM doesn’t need daily calibration, is the most inexpensive, and has the shortest warm-up of one hour. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have real-time high/low alerts and without that calibration, is the most inaccurate in low glucose range. The sensor can store up to 8 hours of data and the reader can store notes and events but they must be entered at the time. The low profile transmitter has an adhesive that may not last the 14 days of the sensor life. It can also be impacted by vitamin C and aspirin. 

3. Medtronic Guardian3 – 670G or Guardian Connect CGM

The Medtronic Guardian3 – 670G or Guardian Connect CGM has a reusable sensor with a life of 7 days. It has a single button insertion with a 2-hour warm-up time but can cause skin issues with complicated multiple tapes. There are customizable alerts for different times and days with vibrate and audio limited only by your phone’s options. There are real-time alerts for high, low, rate of change, or predictive low/high. It needs calibration every twelve hours to continue data generation. Guardian Connect only works with Apple apps but has real-time sharable data as well as an app that generates reports. It’s also impacted by acetaminophen. 

4. Dexcom G6 CGM

The Dexcom G6 CGM does not need calibration but it is available to improve accuracy. The sensor has a single push button insertion and is good for 10 days. It has customizable alerts including an “always on” feature for if your phone is on silent. It has a high level of waste from the costly sensors and transmitters, and reusing the sensor can be difficult. 

For more information on different healthcare topics, follow the Avidity Medical Design Blog. To take a healthcare course, visit Avidity Medical Design Academy.

The Early Days of Ebola vs. HIV: Similarities and Differences

Posted on by

In the early 1980’s a new disease entered the U.S. that had doctors scrambling to find answers. A number of gay men in both New York and California were experiencing treatment resistant diseases and cancers that were extremely uncommon. Luckily, doctors were able to relate the diverse presentations of the new disease fairly quickly. In the early days, this disease didn’t have a name. Today, we know it as Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV. To put U.S. cases of HIV in perspective, currently the CDC  estimates that “1,144,500 persons aged 13 years and older are living with HIV infection, including 180,900 (15.8%) who are unaware of their infection1.”

Lab technician examining lab work. From the Avidity Medical Design Blog.With new cases of Ebola presenting in the U.S., it is important to compare our handling of patients to that of the early days of the HIV outbreak. When we look at Ebola vs. HIV: similarities and differences, we can find ways to improve our initial response thereby gaining better control of the spread of diseases with no currently known cure and high death rates.

Misinformation in the early days of HIV caused many to believe that only gay men need fear the infection. Since then, we have learned differently. Many of the early cases of HIV could have been prevented had we known about the danger to our blood supply and had a more complete understanding of how HIV spreads. Currently Ebola is on the tipping point between those who want to believe it is “someone else’s disease” and those who fear contracting it from any stranger they meet. This combination of fear and denial is the perfect atmosphere to create larger spread of the infection. Although Ebola does not hide in a person’s system creating the risk of invisible carriers, its early symptoms are flu-like. We live in a country that is very used to going to work when they are ill. Ebola becomes contagious once symptoms present so denial is a dangerous attitude. Until real, truthful information on prevention is widely understood, diseases are far harder to contain.

bunch of white oval medication tablets and white medication capsules

Early treatment is also very important. Luckily, we have known options for the treatment of Ebola. We have been developing medications to battle the outbreak in Africa for some time and feel that we understand how to fight the illness. Advances in these treatments are already in development. This differs greatly from early treatment of HIV where doctors were forced to try options based on best guesses pulled from incomplete evidence. Had we been studying the HIV virus for as long as we have been studying Ebola, we would have had much better chances to minimize its effects on our population.

For more information on healthcare, follow the Avidity Medical Design Blog. To learn more about our online healthcare courses, visit Avidity Medical Design Academy. To purchase scented soaps and candles inspired by healthcare, visit Avidity Medical Scentations.

Brain-Computer Interfaces: What They Mean for the Future Students of Healthcare Education

Posted on by

Do you remember the old sci-fi movies and TV shows that we grew up with? Do you remember how you felt when you saw Luke Skywalker, William Shatner and Arnold Schwarzenegger using out of this world technology that you thought was the creation of movie magic. What if I told you that the future is already here?

Technology has grown and matured over the last 25 years to a point where man and machine are slowly becoming one. A new and exciting area of tech that is receiving a lot of buzz right now is brain-computer interface technology.

brain computer interfaces

What is Brain-Computer Technology?

A brain-computer interface is a direct communication pathway between the brain and an electrical device. The neurons of the brain are measured with electrodes, which then sends an electronic signal to a device such as a prosthetic leg or arm to simulate human movements.

There are currently two approaches that are yielding results in field studies. The non-invasive brain-computer interface measure activity from large groups of neurons with electrodes placed on the surface of the scalp (EEG). Invasive brain-computer interface measure activity from single neurons with miniature wires placed inside the brain.

Who Is Using Brain-Computer Interface Today?

The United States military has always been on the cutting edge of developing and using new emerging technology in all branches of the services.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of California, San Francisco, contracts worth $56 million to create electrical brain implants capable of treating seven psychiatric conditions, including addiction, depression, and borderline personality disorder.

The military is trying to overcome an epidemic of mental illness among veterans, including suicide rates three or four times that of the general public due to long combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. This is why the military is turning to neurological devices.

The Brain Chip

Doctors in Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and researchers from Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio have helped a quadriplegic man move his hand for the first time with a brain chip.

Ian Burkhart, the man who was injured in a driving accident was the first patient to use Neurobridge. The Neuobridge system is made of a computer chip implanted in the brain, a brain-computer interface and a sleeve able to send electric signals to the forearm and hand of the patient.

This groundbreaking technology proves the brain-computer interface is more than just a fantasy it is a reality.

person holding string lights photo

What Does This Mean For The Future Of Healthcare Education?

What this means for the future of healthcare education is that learning is going to have to be more cross categorical than ever before.

It won’t be enough for a student to know about basic brain functions and muscle interaction. They will need to understand mechanics, engineering, and software development just to name a few categories.

The healthcare system and healthcare technology are rapidly evolving. Healthcare education must evolve with it to meet the demands of today. For curriculum development and other instructional design services, visit Avidity Medical Design Consultants, LLC for more information.

How to Reduce Prescription Errors in 21st Century Pharmacies

Posted on by

It may seem like a contradiction but the pharmacy of the 21st century will feature both robotic automation and greater interaction between pharmacists and patients.

prescription pharmacyPharmacy automation has been steadily making its way into many pharmacies throughout the country. Robotic systems from companies like Aesynt, Parata Systems and RxMedic sort and dispense pills, which spares pharmacists from work that takes a lot of time and can lead to human error. It’s hard to put a firm number on presciption errors but the Food and Drug Administration says it has received close to 30,000 reports of medication errors since 1992. With many pills looking alike and many drug names sounding similar, automated systems offer a better way of checking and verifying that patients receive only drug they were prescribed.

Another technology development that will change the pharmacy of the 21st century is the adoption of electronic prescribing, which gives doctors the ability to send prescriptions electronically to a pharmacy. E-prescribing reduces the chances for error that can come from misreading a doctor’s handwriting.

As for the pharmacists themselves, the evolution of pharmacist training is changing the profession. Compared to decades ago, today’s pharmacists can be more specialized and they enter the field with more specialized training, pharmacy consultant Ernest Gates tells Drug Topics. Some of these pharmacists will work in specialty pharmacies in areas such as oncology, geriatrics and diabetes among other areas of specialization.

Pharmacists who aren’t specialists can still expect to take on more responsibilities as a consequence of the Affordable Care Act. With the law’s expansion of Medicaid, Daniel Brown, a pharmacist and professor at the pharmacy school at Palm Beach Atlantic University, tells Medscape that he expects community pharmacies to see more Medicaid prescriptions. He also sees the increase in this patient traffic presenting additional opportunities for pharmacists to talk to patients about preventive services. Here’s where pharmacy automation is important. Automation doesn’t replace pharmacists. Instead, it provides a remedy to busy pharmacists – these systems free pharmacists to spend more of their time counseling patients instead of sorting pills. If the expected increase in patient traffic to pharmacies holds true, time savings found with automation will become very valuable.

For more information about emerging pharmacy trends, please contact us.

Star Trek Comes to Your Classroom: How to Use the Screenless Display to Train Your Students

Posted on by

screenless displaysScreenless display technology has been used in science fiction for decades, but this advanced display system has also been worked into a usable format over the last few years.The development of Google Glass in 2012 brought this technology to the forefront. It also created a wide range of possibilities in terms of how this technology could be used.

So how can you use the screenless display to train your students? From the standpoint of healthcare, how can you use screenless displays to train medical personnel and safeguard patient information? A few benefits to the healthcare field have already been realized, but many more may still be on the horizon.

How Screenless Displays Work

There are three main categories of screenless displays that come in the form of a wearable device. The first is the light guide optical element (LOE) device. This looks like a pair of glasses that enables users to view a see-through display imported from their phones or other digital device. The image is projected onto the thin glass of the device.

The retinal scanning device (RSD) and the virtual retinal display (VRD) work in almost the same way as each other, but using different equipment. In these cases, an image is projected directly onto the retina. VRD has been developing for over two decades, but more compact and easily accessible forms with better quality display are now being developed.

There is another type of screenless display that does not require a wearable device to view the object—hologram technology. The way this works is through a precise setup of lasers, mirrors and film. The laser light is guided by mirrors, going through a beam splitter, and each branch of the split beam goes through a diverging lens, which widens the beams. One beam goes straight to a photographic emulsion, while the other hits the object then is guided to the emulsion. The disruption caused by the difference in the two beams creates a viewable hologram.

How to Use Screenless Displays for Healthcare Training

All forms of screenless displays can be used for healthcare training. Each one can provide a large display of germs, cells, anatomy, or anything else that’s not easily seen with the naked eye. The case of holograms is especially helpful over screen displays because students and instructors can view a 3D image together and address any questions by interacting with the display.

How Screenless Display Improve Security

Wearable screenless devices may be best for protecting patients’ privacy. Healthcare information needs to be safeguarded and there are HIPPA rules that employees should follow, but mistakes do happen. Wearable screenless displays would cut down on the risk because the information would only be seen by the person wearing the device. No one could look over their should at their screen, they wouldn’t have to remember to lock their computer while stepping away. Patient information would only be available to the people meant to see it.

To learn more about advances in healthcare training or how Avidity Medical Design is striving to innovate healthcare education platforms, feel free to contact us.

The Latest Trends in Cancer Treatment: Targeted Cancer Drugs

Posted on by
the latest trends in cancer treatment 2014

One of the latest trends in cancer treatment for 2014 is the use of targeted drugs that attack the genetic “on switch” for cancer. According to recent story on CBS News, one of these new approaches to fighting cancer is a type of targeted cancer therapy that could one day eliminate conventional chemotherapy as we know it.

Chemotherapy, as it is currently practiced, involves delivering powerful cancer-fighting drugs intravenously to the site of a tumor. While this type of treatment can reduce or even eliminate a tumor, it also wreaks havoc on surrounding healthy tissue. This makes cancer patients ill and weak. Conventional chemotherapy is like World War II era carpet bombing: a powerful attack but with a lot of collateral damage remaining.

medications on white surface

Targeted drugs are more like smart bombs. A recent research project describes a new treatment that uses the tumors own genetic sequence to attack it. Researchers sequenced 10 genes in lung cancer patients and in two thirds of them found the “on switch” that causes cancers to manifest and grow. The new drug, an oral medication that is selected according to the results of the genetic sequencing of the tumors, turns that switch to “off,” keeping the cancer under control for a significant period of time.

Targeted drugs that attack the genetic “on switch” for cancer do not currently represent a cure for cancer. What they may do, however, is to turn cancer into a chronic disease, rather than a fatal disease. Although there may still be some adverse health effects, these drugs may keep the cancer from metastasizing, or spreading to other areas of the body, thereby allowing patients to live longer and healthier lives. Targeted drugs may hopefully work for many different types of cancer, and may buy patients enough time to allow real cures to come through the pipeline.

young medical professional using clear tablet to study x-ray and other medical data

For more healthcare news, follow the Avidity Medical Design Blog. If you are interested in taking an online healthcare course, visit Avidity Medical Design Academy. If you like scented candles and soaps, visit Avidity Medical Scentations to purchase scented candles and soaps with a healthcare inspiration.

The Future of Electronic Medical Records: Sharing as Well as Storing

Posted on by

The Future of Electronic Medical RecordsWhat is the Future of Electronic Medical Records? Most healthcare providers are slowly but surely transitioning from the traditional hard copy paper record to the electronic medical record that is more easily entered, stored, and accessed. Tablets have replaced notepads for doctors dictating the patient’s medical history, review of systems, physical examination, and factors in medical decisionmaking. This has freed the healthcare provider from spending additional time entering data, and reduced the amount of time taken away from patient care. Tablets can also take visual images on the spot as needed.

The future, according to KERA, a north Texas public radio station, is tying all these records into a network that primary care physicians, specialists, and other healthcare providers can share. For example, it is still very common for patients to have to fill out the same forms over and over again when seeing other doctors, including specialists to whom he or she has been referred by the primary care physician. One reason is that various healthcare providers have different medical record software programs that do not necessarily communicate with one another over a network.

In the future, different specialists will be able to access medical information on a patient instantaneously, including notes from the primary care physician, and add data if necessary.  This would streamline the recordkeeping process that has been the bane of healthcare providers and free them up to spend more time taking care of patients.  As a bonus, the system could be geared to alert the primary care physician instantly when a patient has been admitted to the emergency room, or a record has been updated by another physician.

In the present, electronic medical records store patient information. In the future, healthcare professionals will find new ways to access and share patient information that goes beyond storing it in the patient record.

To learn more about how to read your own medical record, enroll in the course entitled, “How to Read Your Own Medical Record (Learn What is in YOUR Medical Files!)” offered by Avidity Medical Design Academy.

Watch two sample lectures below:

Lecture 15 from “How to Read Your Own Medical Records (Learn What is in YOUR Medical Files!)”
Lecture 16 from “How to Read Your Own Medical Records (Learn What is in YOUR Medical Files!)”

Click here to take the full course for only $29.99!

Monitoring Blood Glucose with Contact Lenses

Posted on by

One of the more onerous tasks that a person with diabetes has to perform is to constantly monitor his or her blood glucose levels by pricking their fingers and applying the blood drawn to a strip. Google is working on a special pair of contact lenses that has the potential to alleviate diabetics from that burden, according to an article in WebMD. Smart contact lenses can help monitor blood glucose levels for people with diabetes.

smart contact lensesThe lenses would have a tiny wireless chip and miniature blood-sugar sensor embedded between two layers of soft contact lens material. They would measure blood glucose levels in human tears once a second and flash a warning light if levels become dangerously high. This kind of real time monitoring would prove to be a boon to people with diabetes, lifting the anxiety of missing a blood sugar spike that might prove to be dangerous.

Diabetes occurs when the pancreas is unable to effectively process blood glucose, leading to a buildup in the blood. This can lead to nerve and blood vessel damage, blindness, comas, and possibly death. People with diabetes, besides monitoring their blood glucose levels, must take insulin and adhere to special diets to keep the condition under control.

According to the UK Guardian, the fact that blood sugar levels can be measured through human tears has been known since the 1950s. But it has taken decades until a 2011 experiment demonstrated how a wearable sensor would work. Google is currently seeking FDA approval of the blood glucose monitoring contacts as a medical device.

For more information on the benefits of smart contact lenses for diabetic patients, as well as other technological innovations that can be incorporated into healthcare education and curriculum development, contact us.