Tech Talks Central

Antennas are at the very heart of our wirelessly connected world. Technology advances have completely miniaturized and concealed them to the point that people tend to forget that they exist! Antenna research is hotter than ever with applications like wearable and embroidered antennas which give birth to terms like “functional fashion”, more efficient energy harvesting which enables inductive powering in more situations and the study and analysis of specific absorption rates (SAR) which are directly related to the effect of wireless devices on our health. Dr Will Whittow, Senior Lecturer in Electronic Materials Integration at Loughborough University, talks about the current challenges being addressed and some of the ground breaking research that takes place in the field of antenna technologies. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks central.

Dr. Nikos Petrellis talks to us about his work in developing electronic circuits to convert sensor outputs from analog to high resolution digital data. He explains the importance of portable, low cost, and diverse modules that can be applied to existing, perhaps older technology, systems. We talk about healthcare applications of converting and correcting analog data derived from existing wearable sensors in real time without the need of costly upgrades to hospital equipment. Dr. Petrellis presents his future projects including developing an easy to use interface and sensors for elderly person assistance. This will monitor vitals and detect an emergency, or simply aid healthcare professionals in diagnosis. Interviewed by Venetia I. Kyritsi for Tech Talks Central.

Prof. Thomas Pieber talks about the EU funded REACTION project; a decision support system for the remote accessibility to diabetes management & therapy in operational healthcare networks. Patients are monitored with wearable non invasive and minimally invasive continuous Glucose Monitoring sensors(CGM) based on novel technologies. Starting from his own task of trying to improve the quality of control from the medical side, he poses an interesting question on whether ‘Hospitals are aware of the Problem?’ and how qualified hospitals, medical staff, doctors are ready for glycemic control. We ask him if Europe has anything to envy from the US when it comes to eHealth innovation, considering ideas, research and investments. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.

Dr. Themos Kallos, Vice President and Chief Science Officer of MediWiSe, describes two important projects his company is working on, which are based on RF properties. The first one uses special antennas for microwave tomography on cancer patients while the second uses V-band waveguides for glucose sensing, in a non-invasive way thus avoiding the painful needles. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

Professor Gianlucca Lazzi opens the conversation with the renowned ‘bionic eye’, an artificial retina to restore vision to the blind. With over 20 years experience in biolelectromagnetics for implantable devices he mentions his research in hippocampus implants and neurostimulators in general; the role they play in health and how these can affect human lives in the future. In an effort to simplify advancements in sensor technology he explains what liquid metal sensors are and their possible advantages. He goes on to foresee the future in implantable devices and restoring senses to patients. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks central.

Health is changing. From traditional healthcare provision, lifestyle habits and medicinal tech to the available tools, systems, devices and software. The terms eHealth or mHealth will soon be obsolete as advances in patient management, personal healthcare records, analytics, quantified self, data mining, big data and the self-managed paradigm gradually replace legacy systems, processes and businesses. Professor Dimitris Koutsouris, an accomplished authority in Biomedical Engineering, talks about the disrupting driving forces that are making this massive shift happen, the enablers, the opportunities and the challenges. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks central.

Mr. Ioannis Tamposis is a healthcare IT expert working for OraSys that offers innovative healthcare services. They have developed a platform for managing medical imaging workflows in an enterprise level which can be integrated among all radiology equipment and applications. OraSys is also involved in the HPV Guard Project, a decision support system based on advanced clinical theranostics protocols for the cost-effective, personalised management of HPV related disease. Interviewed by Venetia I. Kyritsi for Tech Talks Central.

Professors Anton Amman and Agapios Agapiou speak about their effort to use breath and sweat of humans as an innovative tool for targeted clinical diagnostics – kind of an odour-CSI...Their ambitious goal is to develop a personalized mobile telemedicine application that could recognise, using special and elaborate sensors, volatiles (which is quite a feat, as we may easily pinpoint only a handful of them) and alert people if something is not as it should be... Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

Data is changing healthcare. Health information systems deal with the entire pipeline of health related data from data capture/acquisition, information extraction, Data analytics and interpretation, presentation and decision support. We had the opportunity to talk with a distinguished guest Dr May D. Wang, Associate Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. In the first part Dr Wang gives an overview of the role of data in healthcare and some of the key challenges in adopting and exploiting the benefits of new information systems in healthcare. We talk about the increasing role of personal and personalized healthcare solutions, the stakeholder landscape and the importance of managing change in legacy healthcare environments and ecosystems. At the last part of this interview Dr. Wang talks about the extensive educational and training activities that are currently in progress: from online Master-level courses in bio-medical data analytics for young scientists to patient training and hospitals/physicians decision support systems. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks central.

Dr. Akram Alomainy explains what cognitive radio is, how it senses and learns from environment and why it’s important for the most effective results. He talks about ink-jet printed antennas, antenna flexibility and how they can be part of textiles. His research focuses on creating very small and flexible antennas without losing efficiency and how their application in health services can help patients and personnel in linking everything for medical assessment. Dr. Akram Alomainy is a very passionate and eloquent speaker with a very clear image of his research and the future. He mentions his research on the light spectrum, specifically on bending light and why he wants to research more on cognitive antennas by creating a device that will do everything in one. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.