Aug 23, 2012 |
Robotic glove detects breast cancer lumps
|
(Nanowerk News) Two engineers and a Harvard Medical School student have teamed up and formed a company (MedSensation) to enhance the human capabilities of touch with a robotic sensor glove. The glove will take the potential of a diagnosis-altering physical exam, and put it into the hands of patients.
|
|
Three products are under development:
|
Glove Tricorder
|
This glove will eventually allow patients to diagnosis their own illnesses. The glove interface allows for data from the physical exam to be a component of automated diagnosis, which at times can mean the difference between a patient living and dying. Our Glove Tricorder includes many sensors (accelerometers, temperature, force, sound, and vibration) and a data protocol that allows the data to be transferred wirelessly. Soon everyone will have a glove that can be used to assess a sports injury or can be used to do self-clinical breast exams. In the future we will be able to augment a human's ability to diagnosis illness, by adding sensors such as ultrasound probes that will be able to integrate the data and provide real-time assessment of heart valve abnormalities, abdominal pain, and much more without having to go to medical facility.
|
Medical Education Glove
|
Allows medical students and medical doctors to improve physical examination skills by quantifying touch.
|
Robotic Breast Exam
|
Automation of the breast exam will allow for detection of breast cancer without physicians. The improvement of robotic technology will allow for a painless and complete breast exam that will eventually be good enough to catch breast cancer that some X-Rays miss. This will save millions of lives world-wide.
|