Sunday Stroke Survival: Science Fiction / Science Fact

Jo Murphey
The Murphey Saga

Sunday, March 22, 2015

It seems every day a new science fiction gadget appears in real life. What I'd really like to see is the medical tricorder appear from Star Trek. How cool what that be? A device to scan body systems, and diagnose your medical condition.

No waiting for hours on end for an MRI or x-ray, or blood tests before treatment begin. Just imagine what it would do for stroke patient where minutes equal the death of brain cells, death, and disability.

My neurologist and cardiologist have had a new toy for the past couple of years where you click off a bunch of symptoms and it searches a medical database for illnesses that match the symptoms which I thought was cool also. They were also gracious enough to let me play with theirs. The PDR (Physicians Drug Reference) has been an application for years for prescribing medications. So I was biding my time for someone to invent a working tricorder for medical use.

I guess science has been waiting for memory storage to get small enough. With Smart phones getting smarter, it's only a matter of time. Are you a Trekkie like I am?

If you haven't heard...there is a build a tricorder competition going on and the finalists have been announced. The prize is $10 million for the person or team that can develop one.

The rules...nothing drastic. We could have all entered, yeah right!

The device must capture...

• 15 diseases
• Weigh less than 5 lbs
• Portable, wireless
• Be able to demonstrate the device on humans
• Vital signs monitoring for 72 hours

There were actually 300 registered in 2012. I consider that in itself amazing. But the 10 finalist's have some pretty neat designs.

Nothing is impossible with determination.

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Sunday Stroke Survival: Science Fiction / Science Fact

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The Murphey Saga