Most seniors prefer to live in their home for as long as possible, even if their health state is quite altered, instead of checking into anursing home. However, that's a bit more difficult to accomplish, especially if there are no relatives to take care of them, or if the family doesn't have enough time for a thorough supervision.

[Read the rest of this article...]

ITT has launched the groundbreaking PROsmart wireless machine health monitoring system designed to provide cost effective monitoring of all types of rotating equipment. This new technology brings affordable real-time monitoring to equipment that was previously monitored by manual hand-held type data collection equipment. The PROsmart system continuously monitors and automatically predicts machine health and alerts operators and maintenance personnel of existing and impending problems.

[Read the rest of this article...]

This is intended to be an overview of Prognostics Health Management (PHM) benefits; there are many more benefits than are listed here however these provide a base set of benefits that a PHM system can offer. This will help anyone that is new to PHM to understand what a PHM can do you! This can also help PHM developers to take a step back and think what are we really trying to offer by employing a PHM system?


 

[Read the rest of this article...]

This article goes through a 10 step tutorial on how to predict failures in systems. A sample prognostic health management algorithm is developed and the results are shown. This is a great introduction to prognostics algorithm development

[Read the rest of this article...]

San Diego, CA, USA

Hilton San Diego Resort & Spa

September 27 – October 1, 2009

http://www.phmconference.org

follow us on twitter: @phmsociety

[Read the rest of this article...]

Researchers are looking at creating electronic systems that can diagnose and heal their own faults in ways similar to the human immune system.

By Colin Holland

Courtesy of EE Times Europe (10/08/2008 3:05 AM EDT)

LONDON — Researchers at the University of the West of England (UWE) are to carry out research with collaborators from the University of York into creating electronic systems that can diagnose and heal their own faults in ways similar to the human immune system. The part of the Self-healing cellular Architectures for Biologically-inspired highly Reliable Electronic (SABRE) systems project to be carried out in Bristol will be based at Bristol Robotics lab (BRL), which is jointly run by the University of Bristol and UWE. In digital electronic equipment if one component fails this commonly causes catastrophic failure of the whole system. As devices become more and more complex, such instances become more common. Under fault conditions it would, therefore, be highly desirable for the system to be able to cope with faults, and continue to operate effectively even if one or more components have failed. This would require a new approach to the design of electronic systems.

[Read the rest of this article...]

Have you ever felt as if your brain was so full of information that you couldn't process another thing? Mental overload creates confusion and frustration, and for airline pilots, the consequences can be disastrous.

Researchers at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland are studying how advanced technology can be used to warn pilots when they are operating under dangerous levels of stress, fatigue and distraction. Biomedical engineer and lead researcher Angela Harrivel and research associate Terri McKay are testing the effectiveness of functional near infrared spectroscopy, also known as fNIRS. This emerging technology offers a non-invasive, safe, portable and inexpensive method for monitoring brain activity.
 

[Read the rest of this article...]

This is a great article that relates the Auto Industry warranty and maintenance policy's with prognostic health management philosophy.

We all have experienced the frustration of having Joe the Mechanic tell us that our car can’t be fixed and it’s time to buy a new one. We wanted to know this important information earlier to avoid this unexpected repair? We all appreciate an accurate diagnosis and and a timely solution. An accurate estimation of the useful-life of an important asset is always difficult to come by!

The future of telematics is that this evolving technology can help us predict the future, or at least anticipate and fix critical vehicle problems. This is often called prognostics, a term related to diagnostics, but having the sense of anticipating and avoiding costly maintenance largely a warranty cost. “Estimates of global spend on warranty claims run between $45 billion and $50 billion. In the United States, automotive manufacturers and their suppliers spent almost $13 billion on warranty claims in 2006”, according to Warranty Week Magazine . Many in the automotive industry called the challenge of dealing with warranty, climbing the “warranty mountain”.
 

[Read the rest of this article...]

The Cleveland Clinic is testing an electronic health technology that could help transform the way its doctors and other caregivers practice medicine.

The Clinic is partnering with Microsoft HealthVault to enable certain patients to monitor chronic conditions -- high blood pressure, diabetes and heart failure -- at home. These patients will use high-tech devices, home computers and the Internet to keep Clinic doctors posted on their conditions.

The doctors could rely on the information to adjust medications or order aggressive medical care without seeing patients for office visits. Early medical interventions could lead to healthier patients and fewer hospital admissions, lowering costs.

"There is evidence in the literature that these kinds of more continuous monitoring programs do improve the health of patients over time," said Dr. C. Martin Harris, the Clinic's chief information officer.

"This allows us to begin thinking about treating patients when they're not in a hospital bed or in our office," Harris said.

The Clinic and Microsoft are providing patients with digital blood pressure and heart rate monitors, as well as blood sugar meters, said Peter Neupert, vice president of Microsoft's Health Solutions Group.

The monitors and meters can be plugged into computers, which upload information into HealthVault - the online service that enables users to collect, organize and share their health information.

The Clinic's electronic health record system, called MyChart, would grab the information from HealthVault, making it available to doctors in the form they choose, Neupert said.

The Clinic hopes to involve between 400 and 500 patients in the 90-day pilot project, which began Nov. 5, Harris said.

Frequent monitoring of chronic conditions could arm patients with information to better manage their health.

"One of the good parts of MyChart is it runs an ongoing graph of my blood pressure readings," said William Joseph Moore of Lorain, who has participated in the HealthVault pilot for about a week.

Moore takes his blood pressure reading at least once a day. "It gives you a good opportunity to interact with your doctor on a daily basis," he said.

Because home monitoring technologies have the potential for lowering the cost of health care, Moore also believes they could have "far-reaching implications" for people who lack insurance or money to pay for regular doctor office visits.

[Read the rest of this article...]

[Read the rest of this article...]