[HN Gopher] Indian researchers create a Raspberry-Pi-based devic...
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       Indian researchers create a Raspberry-Pi-based device to monitor
       health
        
       Author : sebastianvoelkl
       Score  : 57 points
       Date   : 2021-09-14 20:13 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (spectrum.ieee.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org)
        
       | rscho wrote:
       | What would be really cool and useful would be an open source
       | bedside (ICU/OR) monitor. RPi would probably be a good base, I
       | guess...
        
         | junon wrote:
         | No way. Medical devices need very strong guarantees. RaspPi
         | does not offer those. You want a cheap RTSoC.
        
           | rscho wrote:
           | But do those include graphical capabilities, USB
           | connectivity, jack for alim, etc. all-in-one and for a few
           | bucks? I am aware medical devices should provide guarantees,
           | but a smaller guarantee is still better than none at all,
           | innit? For context, in many countries people are simply left
           | to die in the most atrocious ways if they cannot afford care.
           | You should see how african people react when they're admitted
           | to the hospital, even in developed countries.
        
         | maxwellwhite wrote:
         | Let's do it!
        
         | snapetom wrote:
         | Stuff like this is always cool and gee whiz, but it will never
         | muster in the US that I know of, and I suspect most developed
         | countries.
         | 
         | Anything on the bedside, especially in ICU, has to be examined
         | by the FDA to the point where they want to know exactly what
         | the chemical composition of parts are. If there's a risk of
         | things releasing fumes that might be dangerous for a sick
         | patient if the device gets too warm, they'll ding it.
         | Diagnostic software powering these devices are scrutinized by
         | the FDA, too.
        
           | rscho wrote:
           | Of course it would never do in developed countries! For
           | context, I work with such monitors daily in a (very) rich
           | country. I was thinking of the most backwater context you
           | could still find use for it. Some parts of Africa, for
           | instance.
        
       | OJFord wrote:
       | With titles like this, I always think it must either be trivial
       | nonsense, or (more likely!) the journalist just really missed the
       | point.
        
       | Kenji wrote:
       | This is a good idea until the shitty SD card that's inside the
       | rasperry pi gets bitflips and corruptions and the patient dies.
        
       | tomComb wrote:
       | I have a common medical condition which is easily monitored via a
       | common blood test.
       | 
       | It seems to fluctuate quite a bit, and if I could get frequent
       | readings I could figure out what is affecting it, and I could
       | better understand it's effect on me.
       | 
       | But the medical system in my country does not allow for frequent
       | readings, probably for good reason - it would be very expensive.
       | And a hassle going to a lab frequently.
       | 
       | So I'm excited to read about this device and hope the tech
       | matures quickly.
        
       | ssivark wrote:
       | Here's a link to the actual paper:
       | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9524612
       | 
       | Abstract: _The development of a cost-efficient and sensitive
       | platform for biochemical analysis of blood serum and its
       | realization in the low resource areas is one of the imperative
       | challenges to establish a robust healthcare ecosystem. The
       | present work demonstrates the design of a universal platform,
       | capable of performing all biochemical analyses of blood serum by
       | measuring the absorbance of light through the test sample. To
       | verify the working of the developed platform, the concentration
       | of glucose was estimated in blood serum. The detection of glucose
       | has been accomplished in a linear range of 1 mg /dL to 400 mg/dL
       | with detection of limit 1 mg/dL (R2 = 0.9875, n=3). The stability
       | analysis demonstrates improved stability in the output as
       | compared to the conventional analyzer with an average standard
       | deviation of 0.32 calculated for n=5. Human blood samples were
       | tested with the developed platform and the results were in line
       | with the pathology laboratory. The developed platform offers the
       | advantages of automation, low cost, portability, simple
       | instrumentation, flexibility, and an easily accessible interface.
       | Due to the use of a huge processing capability processor, the
       | analysis time reduces to half a minute which yields fast analysis
       | and high throughput. The stability and accuracy also improve
       | owing to the employment of high-resolution electronics
       | components. Overall, the proposed framework is an attractive
       | solution to be incorporated in the low resource area as a
       | universal platform for all biochemistry analysis simply by
       | varying the wavelength of light and reagent._
        
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