A hand-held device that detects bleeding of the brain by using infrared light is being heralded as a potentially life-saving tool to help our soldiers in combat.
The U.S. military is ready to deploy the device, the Infrascanner 2000, after years of testing, according to an article earlier this year in Forbes.
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/03/29/scanner/
Earlier this month a new philanthropy, Hillier Ignite, awarded its inaugural Lifesaving Innovation Award to InfraScan Inc., the Philadelphia-based that manufactures the diagnostic device, according to MedCityNews.com.
The new foundation — dedicated to helping entrepreneurs, active duty service members and veterans — was created by businessman Luke Hillier. In handing out the award at a trade show in Virginia Beach, Hillier explained why he had a personal stake in diagnosing brain bleeding and traumatic brain injury (TBI), MedCityNews.com reported. His grandmother had brain issues after having a bad fall.
Described as “palm-sized” of “the size of an old-school cellphone,” the Infrascanner 2000 it portable and checks for intracranial bleeding so that doctors can triage a soldier, on the battlefield, to learn whether he or she needs a CT or immediate medical attention, according to MedCityNews.com.
The scanner has undergone extensive field testing in Afghanistan, where our troops face the dangers of IEDs, improvised explosive devices, every day.
Hillier Ignite explained on its website why it gave the device, which works on AA batteries, its award.
http://hillierignite.org/ignite-award-winner-the-infrascanner-helped-the-marines-save-a-life/
“The Infrascanner 2000, winner of the Ignite Lifesaving Innovation Award, has a success story that drew us in immediately,” Hillier Ignite said.
“The InfraScanner was being field tested in Afghanistan and Iraq when an Afghan boy was brought to a Marines doctor. His sister had insisted on bringing him after the boy was at the scene of the suicide improvised explosive device. On preliminary examination, a small laceration was found on his head. However, when a positive measurement came back upon examination with the Infrascanner, the boy was quickly evacuated to Kandahar for a full CT scan. The scan revealed a skull fracture and frontal lobe hematoma. Such a serious diagnoses required surgery, which the boy received and to which he responded well.”
“The Infrascanner, previously profiled in Fortune magazine, solves the problems of intracranial hematomas, which occur often – approximately 40 percent of the time – during head injuries, and are usually treatable within a time frame, but are extremely hard to diagnose without a large, expensive CT scan. In a combat arena especially, such a machine is hard to come by and impossible to lug around, but very, very necessary,” the website continued.
TBI has been called the signature wound of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s great to see that there’s a scanner about to deployed that can save the lives of our troops, or lessen the brain damage a bomb explosion can cause.
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