Resilient Ambassadors of Change » Web/Tech/Gadgets

Surgeon assessment

Yelena Spector — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:51:32 +0000

The da Vinci robort is a devise that scales down a surgeons hand movement in order to allow him to perform operations using tiny incisions. This innovation allows for less tissue damage and a much quicker recovery period for patients. There are over 200,000 being used for surgical procedures today.

Breakthroughs in innovation often rely on breakthroughs in measurement

Christa Chaffinch — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:53:24 +0000

Boy, do I like that sentence!

Here is a very interesting article from The Atlantic regarding how businesses are creating experiment, measurement and decision-making innovations based off of the deluge of data (user/customer, product, site, popularity, sentiment, etc.)

Medical test results on your mobile phone

Yelena Spector — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:13:23 +0000

A new phone app allows physicians and patients to view medical imagines immediately and discuss the treatment plans. The app Call MIM turns phones and tablets such as the iPad into medical diagnostic tools. Amongst the many benefits of the app is allowing physicians at other hospitals to view images for immediate feedback and quick decisions.

On Siri

Christa Chaffinch — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:22:37 +0000

We're one step closer...

Apple has unleashed Siri on the world, and I think it is ready for her.

I like this article, and linked it here, because it touches on what makes Siri possible: unbelievable amounts of data. Here at the RA offices, I helped to start a special interest group in Natural Language Processing, and at our inaugural meeting we discussed Siri quite a bit. She seems to be the logical next step down the path to where NLP and situational awareness can take us. Location data makes Siri's searches and solutions "smart" and relevant. But NLP is what makes her edge closer and closer to "human".

Using Technology to Detect Pain

Yelena Spector — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 19:37:14 +0000

Very interesting article about what our technology has the ability to do and what will come of these advances in the future.

Studies are being done to use software to detect pain in patients. Pain is one of the key elements of patient assessment. Nurses normally use the pain scale 0-10 and the five faces in order to assess pain.

Doctors and Social Media

Yelena Spector — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:28:12 +0000

A new study shows doctors are making greater use of social media, approximately 65% of physicians use some form of social media for professional purposes. Social media is not only limited to social networking sites such as Facebook, but also professional and patient networking cites for communication and sites specific to medicine such as blogs and even Youtube.

The Idea Factory

Christa Chaffinch — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:57:35 +0000

I really enjoyed reading through these descriptions of the innovative work taking place at MIT's Media Lab, particularly the Medicine Group (duh). You can read more about the Media Lab and their collaborations on their website, but beware: you can also easily lose track of time and end up spending hours there!

Collaborative Learning

Christa Chaffinch — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:26:57 +0000

This fascinating and entertaining article written by Duke Professor Cathy Davidson touches on a variety of things we're focused on here in our work: the intersection of intelligence and technology; new education, assessment and grading methodologies; unlearning and relearning; and multi-disciplinary approaches to education (and, frankly, to life).

Putting Six Degrees of Separation to the Facebook Test

Yelena Spector — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:02:11 +0000

It is a little difficult to believe the Six Degree of Separation idea. Can it really be possible that you are only six people removed from anyone in the world? Maybe not anyone in the world, but social media does help support idea. The article Putting Six Degrees of Separation to the Facebook Test talks about how one of today’s most popular social media sites itself is running an experiment to test the idea to see how closely people really are connected to each other. The idea first presented by Fringyes Karinthy in 1929, is true today more than ever because of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Experiments continue to be done on the idea of six degree of separation in social media, however while social media is extremely popular today and has great potential, there are still limitation. Even with 5.8 million members on Facebook, it is still hard to believe that every person in the world is only six steps away from any other person on earth. With all the experiments going on regarding these two topics, we will hopefully soon find out if this is in fact true.

Microchip Based on the Human Brain

Yelena Spector — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:42:01 +0000

Living in the society we live in, every day brings new technological advances that people never dreamed of. From the creation of the very first television or cell phone, no one could imagine the production of flat screen TVs, iphones, or an android like systems which had capabilities exceeding any expectation. However, while new technological advances are a part of our everyday life, the ability for a computer or microchip to even up to a human brain was still never possible despite our advances…until now that is…