This report originally appeared in the January 2009 issue of DOTmed Business News
In health care, some of the most important equipment and tools weren't initially created for their current purpose. Accordingly, inventions have found a second life in the medical field and have in-turn offered a second life to those being helped by them. The range of products is phenomenal - as simple as Kellogg's Corn Flakes or balloons and as complicated as the microchip.

Hospital to consumer - a reversal of fortune
In the early 1900s, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, superintendent of a famous hospital and health spa in Battle Creek, Michigan and his younger brother Will Keith (W.K.) invented Kellogg's Corn Flakes.

The brother believed that healthful eating was the way to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle, so they were determined to make foods from grains. Dr. Kellogg put his hospital and spa patients on a diet that eliminated caffeine, meat, alcohol and tobacco.

To create their own foods, the brothers mashed and processed grains, rolling the cooked product through presses creating long sheets of dough that were then baked and served as breads or biscuits. One batch of cooked wheat became stale after accidently being left out overnight. When W.K. saw the flaked wheat the next morning he had an inspiration. The brothers parted ways in business because John didn't believe there was financial potential in marketing the cereal. W.K. founded the Kellogg Company in 1906 and the wheat flakes are still served as breakfast food in homes and hospitals across the country.

Tape and gauze cure-all
Josephine Dickson was accident prone, so when she married Earl Dickson, a Johnson & Johnson employee (at the time, J&J manufactured gauze and adhesive tape), he decided that it was time to do something for his poor wife who was always cutting herself.

Dickson had the idea to cut tape into strips and insert a piece of gauze in the middle of each strip. From then on, whenever Josephine cut herself, ready-made bandages were on hand for her to use quickly and without a fuss. Little did Mr. Dickson realize that shortly thereafter, J & J would begin mass-producing these bandages, trade name them BAND-AID, and market them all over the world.

Happier and healthier because of balloons
The balloon revolution began in 1924 when Professor Michael Faraday manufactured the first rubber balloon. He made it by cutting round sheets of rubber, which he laid together, pressing the edges so that the rubber automatically welded when heated. His first experiments were used along with hydrogen at the Royal Institution in London. That same year, pioneer rubber manufacturer Thomas Hancock took full advantage of Faraday's discovery and introduced consumers to toy balloons.

Dr. Adreas Gruentizig, a young German physician working at University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland toyed with the idea of adding a balloon to the Dotter catheter (a transluminal angioplasty technique). In 1975, Gruentzig developed a double-lumen catheter fitted with a polyvinylchloride balloon that set in motion a revolution in medicine by offering a new way to address blockages in the heart. The doctor performed the first coronary angioplasty on a human in 1977 and altered the field of interventional cardiology and treatment of coronary artery disease forever.

A dog breeds the need for Velcro®
After taking his dog for a walk, George de Mestral, a Swiss amateur-mountaineer and inventor found that he and his dog were covered with burrs. Curious, de Mestral decided to place the burr plant seed sacs under a microscope to see why they stuck so tightly to animal fur and clothing. He quickly discovered that small hook-like projections enabled the burrs to cling. From that discovery, de Mestral designed a unique, two-sided fastener - one side with soft loops like fabric - the other with stiff hooks. He called his invention Velcro - a combination of the word velour and crochet. Soon, a weaver in France picked up on the idea and working with de Mestral, the multi-million dollar Velcro Industry was formed.




Perhaps the most notable use of Velcro in the healthcare environment came when it was used to hold together a human heart during the first artificial heart surgery. It is still used to attach chambers in artificial hearts. Among hundreds of healthcare applications, Velcro is used to cinch blood pressure cuffs, belt patients in wheelchairs, attach disposable covers on examination tables and close patient gowns.

Typewriter makes communicating a bit easier
The first typewriter went to market in 1874 and it was thanks to printer and inventor Christopher Latham Sholes. Sholes had initially created a numbering machine but on suggestion of a friend took his invention a step further and created a letter writing machine - a typewriter. In 1868 he had applied for the patent, but with funding problems, he sold the rights to James Densmore, who began marketing the machine. Densmore handed the device over to Remington & Sons for production. The first typewriter had a habit of keys sticking, so Sholes rearranged the keyboard to put distance between the most used letters. That same keyboard configuration is still used today.

Early marketing of typewriters was designed around the fact that most people using it would be women transcribing dictation. A U.S. census report from 1919 indicated that 81% of all typists were females working in offices (many in doctor's offices and hospitals).

What started the digital age?
Perhaps one of the most important inventions in the past 100 years is the microchip. This tiny integrated circuit is the heart and soul of every digital device in existence. It powers all kinds of consumer and medical devices including computers, cell phones, iPods and almost any other electronic device imaginable. In the medical field, researchers have developed a microchip-based device that can isolate, enumerate and analyze circulating tumor cells from a blood sample.

Due to the introduction of the microchip in the early 1970s, there have been more breakthroughs going from consumer to health care and health care to consumer than in any other period in time because of the microchip.

Perhaps one of its greatest early accomplishments has been ushering "the consumer" into the unbelievable era of personal computing.

In the late 1950s, electrical engineers Jack Kilby (Texas Instruments) and Robert Noyce (Fairchild Semiconductor) were aware of the potential of digital electronics, but they faced a problem known as "Tyranny Numbers," or the exponential increase of a number of components required to design improved circuits - against the physical limitations derived from the number of components that could be assembled together.

They found a solution in the 'monolithic' (formed from one single crystal) integrated circuit by fabricating entire networks of discrete components in a single sequence, laying them into a single crystal (chip) of semiconductor material. Kilby used germanium while Noyce used silicon.

In 1959, Texas Instruments and Fairchild Semiconductor filed for a patent, engaging in a legal battle that lasted through the 1960s, until their technologies were cross-licensed.

Kilby holds patients on sixty inventions, including the invention of the electronic hand-held calculator in 1967. In 1970, he was awarded the National Medal of Science, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1982. The Patent for silicon based IC was granted to Robert Noyce, who founded INTEL in 1968. INTEL is responsible for inventing the microprocessor.

The computing power of the microchip continues to grow because scientists continue to find ways to make it smaller and store more data. This means medical professionals can store data, watch or record instructional videos, and verbally record notes and reminders on devices and with innovative new chips they can unite devices when they are in proximity to one another.

An Apple a day
Many believe that Apple devices take the lead in both consumer and hospital applications. Some of Apple's notable products include the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPod Touch. Apple manufacturers everything from personal computers used at home to computers used in hospitals for recording and interpreting complicated medical procedures and findings. The Apple iPod and iPhone are used for hundreds of applications from educational to entertainment purposes in homes and healthcare facilities all over the world.

Garden of Eden
It all began when Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak invented the first personal computer and launched Apple Computer Company in the mid 1970s. Their first computer was simple, came without a memory board, power supply or keyboard. The first Apple I computers sold for under $700 and the young company was listed in the Fortune 500.

In 1977, the Apple II found its way into medical offices and hospitals throughout the country. At the same time, hospital information systems started using online data communications technology to provide instant access to computerized databases.

IBM
In 1980, IBM entered the picture realizing the need to build a smaller, stand-alone computer. Bill Gates convinced IBM to use a larger chip (16 bit), more RAM and to license Microsoft Operating Systems (DOS). Gates contracted with IBM to write software for the machine.

During this time and well into the 1990s, systems for healthcare were being developed and included patient care data sets, a computerized system for effective healthcare clinical systems, capturing data at the point of care and managed care and patient-centered computing environments.

In 1997, the Nightingale Tracker went into Beta Testing. The Nightingale Tracker is a portable communication system utilizing a PDA that allowed nurses and students in the field to communicate with instructors who are office-based.

The introduction of the i
The twenty-first century saw iPods, and iPhones make their way into the healthcare arena, as hospitals and clinics were encouraged to go high tech.

Sanjay Dalal, President and Managing Director at Innovation Index Group, Inc. is an innovation expert. He believes that leading applications for the iPhone are becoming increasingly important and relevant for the consumer and physician alike. One application is Epocrates Rx in the healthcare category. "Within the first month of launch, the Epocrates Rx drug and formulatory software was downloaded onto iPhones by more than 125,000 users -25,000 physicians and over 100,000 consumers," says Dalal.

According to Dalal, "iPhone healthcare applications are becoming important to consumers and physicians alike." The majority of physicians using Epocrates Rx do so to practice safer medicine. It helps them to prescribe accurate drug dosages, identify adverse reactions and check for potential drug interactions. "At the same time," says Dalal, "an increasing number of consumers find value as they become more involved in medical care." Thousands have downloaded the free drug reference to their iPhones to monitor personal healthcare. "In short, the success of Epocrates Rx application shows the emergence of consumer healthcare as a killer category on the iPhone," says Dalal.

Epocrates Rx software is also available for Palm, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry.

Lifesaving images on a small screen
The OsiriX coupled with the iPod, is popular because it saves hospitals and clinics time and money - replacing more expensive devices. The OsiriX is an interactive visualization program designed to display and analyze medical images. The iPod Touch version allows for downloading and manipulating of images directly onto the device. It is capable of displaying images from ultrasound, CT scanners, MRIs, PETs, and more in the standard DICOM format used by the medical industry, and is designed to run on the desktop version of the software for Mac.

Philips - Another consumer to health care fit
Philips Healthcare is an OEM that has developed a strong link between consumer and health care with many of their products. Eric van't Hoff, Business Development Manager at Philips thinks that the ProScribe (Philips Consumer Lighting) is "indeed a good fit since the concept was first made by Philips for the consumer market, but is now focused on a specific niche market only - health care."

The ProScribe was initially designed for any workflow user who is always on the move. It enables access to important data immediately using an innovative cordless display allowing a user access to information immediately. The Philips ProScribe connects physicians to patient information in the same manner. A physician visiting patients in a ward can use ProScribe to prescribe medication or make laboratory appointments on the spot. Nurses can use the display to enter blood pressure, temperature and other relevant data. van't Hoff believes with a wireless client, medical professionals can reduce their administrative workload, increase the accuracy of clinical decisions and improve patient care.

Into the future
It's exciting to watch advances in consumer products and the introduction of those products into a medical setting. Even now, if you were to look around your home you may discover some products with untapped potential. After all, who anticipated that the picnic cooler or thermos would make it possible to transport lifesaving organs to needy recipients?