November 23rd, 2007
A real medical tricorder
Remember, on Star Trek, how someone would be sick or wounded and the doctor would whip out a medical tricorder?
OK, back up. Remember Star Trek? (Picture from Smart Economy blog.
Well a British medical outfit called Orla Protein Technologies is tieing up with an old-line Japanese outfit called Japan Radio Co. Ltd. on something that looks awfully similar.
According to Orla’s press release, its diagnostic biosensors, used to test for viruses, bacteria, and protein markers, are being harnessed to Japan Radio’s surface acoustic wave technology to deliver a single testing device.
The device, essentially a handheld radio with software, will perform tests without touching the patient, and can then transmit results wirelessly, so an ambulance can conduct complex tests before a patient gets to the hospital.
“Their expertise in mass manufacture and sensor technology, combined with Orla’s novel biosurface technology provides a unique opportunity” in the diagnostics marketplace,” said Orla CEO Dave Athey.
Typical British understatement. Sensors which conduct viral and bacterial tests on a wound without touching it are what the old tricorder conceit was all about.
Best of all, this is not the only outfit on this kind of path. Smart Economy reported last year on DARPA research in this area.Wired wrote in May about a remote testing kit for diseases common to bees.
This sounds like something that might get a bee plus.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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