Original version

BBC World Service Online

Click

Digital Planet

Magazines & Reviews

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Technological and digital news from around the world.

Digital Planet: Brain Scans With a Smartphone

Factual: Science & Nature

Smartphone EEG and software developer Arek Stopczynski (co-investigator) being tested for portable EEG diagnostics in Bhutan

14/01/2014

Brain Scans With a Smartphone

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, Brain Scans With a Smartphone

The app that can take EEG brain scans to enable the correct diagnosis of seizures

The app that can take EEG brain scans enabling the correct diagnosis of seizures. Plus, home treatment for epileptics and the device that stabilises tremors of Parkinson's disease

In Bhutan there are very few specialist doctors who can help patients with neurological conditions. Many people who have seizures, for example of epilepsy, remain undiagnosed and untreated. To circumvent the problem researchers have developed a new smartphone and tablet app that can take electroencephalogram (EEG) brain scans. It is being clinically tested in Bhutan with funding from the Canadian government, part of the Grand Challenges Canada project. This device could have a huge impact, enabling rural community health workers to liaise with neurologists in distant centres in identifying seizure disorders. Click hears from one of the key people behind the innovation, Dr Farrah Mateen. 

Home Video Telemetry
In medical centres of the developed world where diagnosis of epilepsy following a seizure is suspected, patients are admitted to hospital usually for up to five days to record the brain waves and to synchronise a video recording. Even for a wealthy country like the UK this is costly and has led to long waiting lists for beds. But what if patients could monitor themselves at home – lessening the demand for hospital admission? That is the thinking behind the new approach taken by King's College Hospital in London.  Colin Grant went along to the hospital to learn more from patients and from the neurologist, Franz Brunnhuber.

Liftware
Liftware is a tool to help for people with Parkinson's disease and other conditions that lead to uncontrollable tremors. The device is attached to a spoon to help stabilise the tremors when a person with Parkinson's disease tries to eat. Click hears from Berta who suffers from Essential Tremor disease about how the device might impact on her life, and from Anupam Pathak, one of the team behind Liftware.  

(Photo: Smartphone EEG and software developer Arek Stopczynski (co-investigator) being tested for portable EEG diagnostics in Bhutan © Arek Stopczynski)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Digital Planet

Brain Scans With a Smartphone

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service