Maintenance of equipment at the Field House

Gary Flegel has requested assistance in helping to maintain the equipment in the exercise room at the Field House. Work will entail cleaning and doing small repairs on the equipment. Please contact a Board Member or Gary if you are interested

The armchair as a fitness trainer (Germany)

Each of us would like to pursue our personal hobbies and interests into old age. However, this depends on us staying fit and healthy. Researchers are now presenting an armchair that brings the gym right into your living room at the push of a button. For years the trends have been clear: not only are we getting older all the time, but we are also increasingly left to take care of ourselves in our old age. This is why researchers are already working on technologies that will assist us in everyday situations later in life. One of these technologies will be presented by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen (Germany) at the CeBIT trade fair in Hanover, March 2013: an intelligent armchair we can not only comfortably sink into in front of the television but one that also motivates us to keep ourselves healthy and fit. On the outside, GEWOS looks like a conventional armchair. Even when you sit down you don't notice any difference. But first glances can be deceiving. A glimpse inside the armchair reveals sensors, circuit boards and all kinds of wiring. The microsystem technology built into the seat cushions, backrest and armrest constantly measures the state of health of the seated person. "GEWOS measures the key bodily functions and determines the correct sitting posture. If the acquired values deviate from specifications, the system shows the user how he or she can practice improving endurance or sitting in a healthier position," explains Sven Feilner of the Image Processing and Medical Technology Department at IIS

A millimeter-scale, wirelessly powered cardiac device (USA)

A team of engineers at Stanford has demonstrated the feasibility of a super-small, implantable cardiac device that gets its power not from batteries, but from radio waves transmitted from outside the body. The implanted device is contained in a cube just eight-tenths of a millimeter in radius. It could fit on the head of pin

Cardiac devices approved without scrutiny (USA)

Cardiovascular devices are often based on studies that lack adequate strength or may have been prone to bias, U.S. researchers say. Dr. Sanket S. Dhruva of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues analyzed the type and quality of study evidence used by the Food and Drug Administration for the pre-market approval of cardiovascular devices. These types of devices were included in the study because it was expected they would undergo the most stringent approval process, given their increasing usage and potential impact on illness and risk of death. "In 2008, at least 350,000 pacemakers, 140,000 implantable cardioverter-defibrillators, and 1,230,000 stents were implanted," study authors said in a statement. The authors conducted a systematic review of 123 summaries of safety and effectiveness data for 78 pre-market approvals for high-risk cardiovascular devices that received pre-market approval between January 2000 and December 2007, examining the methodological characteristics and primary end points. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that of nearly 80 high-risk devices, the majority received approval based on data from a single study - UPI

Grant helps firefighters combat excess weight, cardiac problems (USA)

"Firefighters are supposed to be in top physical condition to do their jobs in highly stressful, physically demanding environments. A $75,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is helping some of the city's first responders lose weight and be heart smart. The Royal Oak Fire Department, Michigan, USA, used the money to buy treadmills, elliptical trainers and bikes for each of the three stations and to schedule cardiovascular screenings and physical exams at Beaumont Hospital." - Daily Tribune

Philips announces breakthrough in new medical imaging technology

"Royal Philips Electronics has announced the first 3D imaging results obtained with a new imaging technology called Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI). The technology, which uses the magnetic properties of iron-oxide nanoparticles injected into the bloodstream, has been used in a pre-clinical study to generate unprecedented real-time images of arterial blood flow and volumetric heart motion. This represents a major step forward in taking Magnetic Particle Imaging from a theoretical concept to an imaging tool to help improve diagnosis and therapy planning for many of the world’s major diseases, such as heart disease, stroke and cancer. The results of the pre-clinical study were published in issue 54 of Physics in Medicine and Biology (2009)."

The mobile treadmill that can be taken outside

The Treadmobile - the latest piece of fitness equipment to come from America - is a gymnasium treadmill which has been fitted with wheels to allow it to be taken into the great outdoors. But maker Alex Astilan, 46, a former decathlete in the Romanian Olympic team, insisted that a work-out on his GBP4,500 Treadmobile was much more "fun" than the obvious alternative - just going for a run. He said it was designed for two people so it was sociable. Mr Astilan, who runs a gym in New York, has built 10 of the machines in a bid to follow his pledge to make Americans "fat to fit in a single generation". "The machine was specifically built for two people," he said. "It will enable obese Americans to run errands and exercise at the same time.

Prince George Regional Hospital unveils new CT scanner

The most powerful CT scanner in Western Canada is now up and running at Prince George Regional Hospital. The Toshiba Aquilion 320 detector, which is only in five Canadian cities, was officially unveiled Monday after two weeks of use. Staff and technicians say the $2 million-machine is able to quickly diagnosing patients with chest pain, cancer and strokes. Acquiring the machine "is quite a feat," said Dr. Firas Mansour, internal specialist. "We are the envy of Vancouver right now." Up to this point, many northern patients presenting with chest pain have had to go to Vancouver for angiogram diagnosis, but now that can be done here in 20 minutes, even though many patients may still have to go to Vancouver for treatment such as angioplasty, he said.