Electronics
Quantum sensing could aid in better heart attack decision-making.
Heart of the matter
Roughly eight to ten million patients go to the emergency department complaining of chest pain each year in the US, Au-Yeung explains. Physicians are required to use an array of tests to identify whether a patient is experiencing a heart attack. Less than 10% of emergency department patients with chest pain experience heart attacks. “You can imagine that lots of the overcrowding in ERs is because the available tests the physicians use are imperfect. They have to do serial testing to gain confidence before they make a decision.” According to Au-Yeung, estimates suggest that approximately $10bn is spent annually in the US on chest pain evaluations, in part due to unnecessarily long ER stays. CardiAQ is designed for use in ERs after front-line test results have found conflicting results. This imaging modality will help inform diagnosis as an adjunct, says Au-Yeung, explaining that it offers an ultra-detailed and constantly updating map of the heart, compared with the limited stationary views provided by traditional imaging modalities. The technology features a proprietary electrically compact magnetometer sensor that detects minute variations in the heart’s magnetic signals. Advanced AI models are being developed to filter electromagnetic interference and classify complex magnetic field maps into a diagnosis. Data collected by the device is sent to the cloud, where a machine learning classifier analyses it. Clinical studies of the device’s efficacy are currently under way at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Mount Sinai West Medical Center in New York City. Unlike conventional MCG devices, CardiAQ is compact, operates at room temperature with low power requirements, and needs no specialised cooling or shielding. To Au-Yeung, quantum sensing tech in medical devices has the potential to dramatically change patient care in the future, especially if used in combination with burgeoning technologies like edge
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AI, though other experts in the field believe edge AI is still somewhat over the horizon for broad use in quantum sensing medical devices.
Matters of the head
Medtech OEM FieldLine Medical is focused on providing neuroscientific tools that may eventually assist clinicians in studying and diagnosing neurological and mental health conditions through compact quantum sensing technology. Its HEDscan system is a wearable magnetoencephalography (MEG) device that uses a quantum magnetometer (OPM) sensor to passively record magnetic signals from the brain and nervous system.
“HEDscan is making MEG more accessible, wearable and scalable by replacing cryogenic sensors with room-temperature quantum sensors,” explains Dr Svenja Knappe, associate research professor at the University of Colorado and co-founder of FieldLine. Current MEG systems for brain scanning are out of reach for most hospitals and patients because they typically rely on large, multimillion-dollar cryogenic equipment with high operating expenses. Featuring a wearable smart helmet and non-cryogenic, room-temperature quantum sensors, HEDscan provides a more compact and potentially less expensive solution, and is currently available for research-only use, with clinical translation in the planning stages. “We are trying to address the mental health crisis and, if successful, we will democratise functional brain imaging and make it more accessible,” says Knappe. “We envision that it can be used for early screening, patient differentiation and treatment monitoring.” Knappe also predicts that AI will eventually play a large role in facilitating FieldLine Medical’s technology.
MEG studies brain activity by detecting neural oscillations and connectivity patterns that can be associated with neurological and psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, post-traumatic
www.medicaldevice-developments.com
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