The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 3 (June 2014) | Page 12

Industry News

Innovative Timepiece for the Blind
and Visually-Impaired
Created in collaboration with product designers, engineers, and people with
vision loss, the Bradley Timepiece introduces a stylish innovative design to
help the blind and visually-impaired. Marketed as a timepiece for all, and
not just for those with a sight-impairment, The Bradley is named after Lt.
Brad Snyder who lost his vision from a bomb attack in Afghanistan and
then went on to win two Gold medals and one Silver at the London Paralympics in 2012.
Powered by a Swiss quartz movement, the watch has a ball bearing riding
the circumference of the watch that shows the hour and one on the face
that points to the minute. The Bradley was designed by Hyungsoo Kim of
Eone Timepieces and was originally funded using Kickstarter, where the
project raised considerably more than its target goal. n

FDA Approval of First Mobile
Platform for Real-Time Estimation
of Surgical Blood Loss
Gauss Surgical has announced that the
Triton Fluid Management System™,
the world’s first and only mobile platform for real-time estimation of surgical blood loss on surgical sponges, has
received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.
Triton provides physicians a first of its
kind device to accurately estimate intraoperative blood loss through the use
of sophisticated cloud-based computer
vision algorithms to estimate blood
loss and hemoglobin mass on surgical
sponges.
Current methods of estimating blood
loss during surgery based on visual estimation are known to be inaccurate. Clinical studies indicate that the use of blood
products beyond a level deemed medically necessary can increase complication
rates, ICU days, and overall length of
hospitalisation[1,2]. Overuse can also substantially increase the cost of care. The
cost of a single unit of red blood cells
averages as much as $1,100 when administration and supply costs are included[3].
A recent study by Premier, a health-

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June 2014

care performance improvement alliance
of approximately 2,900 U.S. community
hospitals and 100,000 alternate sites,
looked at 464 member hospitals and
concluded that blood utilisation represents the eighth highest savings opportunity for hospitals – a savings of $1.06
million per hospital, per year.[4]
“Blood loss in surgery has always been
estimated and in situations of large blood
loss, erroneous,” said Aryeh Shander,
M.D., FCCM, FCCP, Chief, Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care
Medicine, Hyperbaric Medicine and Pain
Management, Englewood Hospital and
Medical Center, Englewood, NJ. “Over
or under estimation of blood loss may
lead to wrong clinical decisions. This
new technology avails us the ability to
more accurately account for blood loss
with the potential to not only improve
patient outcomes but also conserve
healthcare resources.”
“FDA approval marks a significant milestone for the company and brings a truly
novel product into the surgical environment,” said Milton B. McColl, M.D.,

Chief Executive Officer of Gauss Surgical. “The Triton Fluid Management
System has the potential to improve the
quality of patient care and drive significant savings to hospitals through better utilisation of blood products and
reduced length of stay.”
At its core Triton uses standard off the
shelf mobile computing technology in
combination with cloud storage. Using
the iPad camera, the system scans surgical sponges that are covered in blood,
and sends the images to the cloud where
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