Diabetic foot ulcers are a major complication of diabetes and present a considerable burden for both patients and health care providers. As healing often takes many months, a method of determining which ulcers would be most likely to heal would be of great value in identifying patients who require further intervention at an early stage. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a tool that has the potential to meet this clinical need. Due to the different absorption spectra of oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin, in biomedical HSI the majority of research has utilized reflectance spectra to estimate oxygen saturation (SpO₂) values from peripheral tissue. In an earlier study, HSI of 43 patients with diabetic foot ulcers at the time of presentation revealed that ulcer healing by 12 weeks could be predicted by the assessment of SpO₂ calculated from these images. Principal component analysis (PCA) is an alternative approach to analyzing HSI data. Although frequently applied in other fields, mapping of SpO₂ is more common in biomedical HSI. It is therefore valuable to compare the performance of PCA with SpO₂ measurement in the prediction of wound healing. Data from the same study group have now been used to examine the relationship between ulcer healing by 12 weeks when the results of the original HSI are analyzed using PCA. At the optimum thresholds, the sensitivity of prediction of healing by 12 weeks using PCA (87.5%) was greater than that of SpO₂ (50.0%), with both approaches showing equal specificity (88.2%). The positive predictive value of PCA and oxygen saturation analysis was 0.91 and 0.86, respectively, and a comparison by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed an area under the curve of 0.88 for PCA compared with 0.66 using SpO₂ analysis. It is concluded that HSI may be a better predictor of healing when analyzed by PCA than by SpO₂.

New technologies have the potential to revolutionize the way we manage health and wellbeing now and in the future. But often seen as expensive and difficult to implement, the challenge is to identify the best technology to deliver real patient benefit and support its rapid adoption to help address the funding difficulties faced by all modern healthcare systems. In this paper we consider the traditional linear model of the technology adoption pathway as it pertains to healthcare, look at common challenges faced traversing this path and suggest solutions. In so doing, we recognise the limitations of the linear model and describe our version of a more realistic, non-linear model. Throughout, we will be looking at the key role of the Clinical Engineer to successful healthcare technology adoption based on our experience of supporting medical device products through to adoption and present the key lessons we learnt along the way.

As increasing reliance on space-borne atomic clocks for position, navigation, and timing manifests, emphasis on pursuing higher performance clocks with robustness and longevity is tantamount. In this vein, key aspects for any space-borne atomic clock not only include excellent frequency stability, but must also be robust enough to survive the harsh environment of space. In this presentation, Frequency Electronics, Inc. (FEI) will present its innovative Digital Rubidium Atomic Frequency Standard (DRAFS) which has recently passed qualification testing. One engineering qualification unit has been fabricated thus far as well as two engineering design units which are reserved for additional testing. The focus in the presentation will be on the development of DRAFS as well as clock frequency stability while subjected to the environmental conditions the unit will experience in a space environment. Topics to be discussed include size, weight, power consumption, environmental sensitivity testing, frequency retrace, radiation hardening, and guaranteed lifetime of the unit over a projected twenty year period.