Like the MindReader headset or urine testing or brain oximeter or Ischiban headband or the hand-held brain bleed detector
Or maybe the tricorder xPrize will do it.
http://www.equities.com/news/headline-story?dt=2012-07-13&val=268542&cat=hcare
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln issued the following news release:
A
handheld tool is under development to diagnose traumatic brain injuries
on the spot using technology developed by a University of
Nebraska-Lincoln chemist. Such a device could yield critical and in some
cases life-saving information to guide triage decisions from the
battlefield to the football field.
SFC
Fluidics, a Fayetteville, Ark.-based biotechnology company, recently
entered into a license agreement with UNL's nonprofit affiliate, NUtech
Ventures (http://nutechventures.org/), to use technology developed by
David Hage, professor of chemistry. NUtech is responsible for building
partnerships between the University of Nebraska and the private sector.
Hage,
a bioanalytical chemist, develops methods to separate and measure
specific compounds in complex fluids, and in some cases to do so quite
rapidly -- on the order of minutes or even a fraction of a second. He
might be looking for a drug in a drop of blood, a pesticide in water or
an explosive dissolved in a liquid. In applications seeking to assess
the severity of a traumatic brain injury, his methods can measure
specific proteins in blood serum that are released by the brain. In
other words, the severity of brain injury can be diagnosed with a simple
blood test.
"So
if you have a test that is fast enough to detect this protein in a few
minutes, you can tell pretty quickly if someone with a potential head
injury has to go back to the hospital or if they're OK to keep doing
what they're doing," Hage said. "Having a fast test for this process
would help improve the likelihood of successful treatment and having a
good outcome for the individual."
Both
Hage's technology and SFC Fluidics' technologies are microfluidic,
meaning they work with very, very tiny amounts of fluid. A microliter
droplet, by way of comparison, is about the diameter of a grain of salt.
Hage
continues research, meanwhile, to make the test more sensitive to
provide more information about the severity of a head injury.
"Detecting whether or not a traumatic brain injury occurred is good," Hage said. "Determining severity is better."
An
estimated 1.7 million Americans suffer head injuries each year,
resulting in 275,000 hospitalizations and 52,000 deaths, according to
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Traumatic brain injuries
also are a serious threat for active duty U.S. military personnel who
are exposed to blasts in war zones.
SFC
Fluidics sought to incorporate Hage's technology because it fits well
with the speed and sensitivity demands of traumatic brain injury
diagnostics, said Sai Kumar, the company's vice president for research
and development.
David
Conrad, NUtech Venture's executive director, said the project is
exciting because it has the potential to directly improve people's
lives.
"This
project is a great example of how a university researcher can partner
with industry to create real value," Conrad said. "It will take the
combination of Dave Hage's innovative approach and SFC Fluidics'
platform technology to create the diagnostic device, and the result has
the potential to help a lot of people."
Hage
has spent more than two decades designing separation and measurement
techniques, many of which are patented, for a wide range of
applications. These applications have ranged from new clinical tests to
improved methods for forensic testing, drug development and
environmental monitoring.
His
research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the
Environmental Protection Agency, the Nebraska EPSCoR program, and
Nebraska Center for Nanohybrid Functional Materials, among others.
The Department of Defense supports the development of SFC Fluidics' handheld device.
Clinical trials for the device are expected to begin in spring 2014.
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