The primary mission of the SPPDG continues to be electronics research in pursuit of objectives specified by the sponsoring organizations. Delivery on the contracts, and excellence in both research and support to the sponsors, are the keys that have made the SPPDG successful thus far.
There are, however, opportunities for technology transfer between the leading edge of the electronics industries represented by SPPDG sponsors and industrial collaborators, and the direct patient care medical community represented by the Mayo Foundation clinics and hospitals. These opportunities arise only when members of one community interact with the other, as occurs routinely in the SPPDG. There are two distinct targets for technology transfer: the biomedical research and clinical medical communities; and the commercial electronics industry.
Technology Transfer to the Biomedical Community
There are many potential technology transfer opportunities between the electronics and medical communities, ranging from advanced high resolution flat-panel computer displays for presentation of the patient's electronically retrievable medical record on the physician's desk, to real-time microminiature biosensors. Since 1989 the SPPDG has participated in approximately thirty such technology transfer projects with other staff members of the Mayo Foundation. Although typically several such projects are active at any one time, a large prior project and a set of presently developing projects are noted below as examples.
NASA Advanced Communications Technology Satellite
NASA developed, launched (in 1993), and tested an Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) to demonstrate the effectiveness of new antenna concepts and on-board digital processing of data streams.
The SPPDG was contacted by NASA in 1992 to ascertain the level of possible interest at Mayo Foundation in participating in the ACTS experiments, and the original proposals to NASA and DARPA for funding for the clinical experiments was prepared by the SPPDG. The Mayo Foundation participated in the ACTS experiments program to investigate communication techniques which may eventually allow large medical centers to provide supporting medical services to small and medium-sized medical facilities in small towns and rural areas. While at that time Mayo had a decade of experience in the use of conventional analog video satellite communications for "telemedicine" between our three primary sites in Rochester, MN, Scottsdale, AZ, and Jacksonville, FL, the Phase One ACTS experiment, conducted at 1.5 megabit/second data rates, was intended to demonstrate that the provision of quality medical diagnostic and information services to remote facilities can be cost effective and timely. These experiments were concluded successfully, with the result that several research papers describing the clinical efficacy of the Phase One experiments were published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings (TE Kottke et al.,1996;71:329-337; and:JR Duffy et al., 1997;72:1116-1122).
The Phase One experiments were followed with a Phase Two set of clinical demonstrations, in which much higher data rates, i.e., 155 megabits/sec (the Asynchronous Transfer Mode [ATM] protocol referred to as STS-3) were employed. For these experiments data in ATM format was transmitted by fiber optic landline from Rochester, MN, to Kansas City, KS, then uplinked to the ACTS satellite, and received by a specially designed ACTS earth station located on the premises of the Mayo Clinic Arizona in Scottsdale, AZ. Nearly a half dozen different types of telemedicine and clinical outreach experiments were conducted. The results of these studies were published in four papers in the August 1999 Mayo Clinic Proceedings (see, e.g., BK Gilbert et al., 74(8):753-757, August 1999) and in IEEE Network (WR McDermott et al., 13(4):30-38, July/August 1999). The information gained from these studies was employed by Mayo Foundation in the design and implementation of a next-generation video communications system linking our three primary clinical care sites in Rochester, MN, Jacksonville, FL, and Scottsdale, AZ; the system employs the ATM data transmission protocol, with the encrypted data transmitted on fiber optic landlines through the so-called "public switched ATM network" provided by the commercial telecommunications industry.
Technology Transfer to the Electronics Industry
The SPPDG works closely with Mayo Clinic's Office of Intellectual Property (OIP; the commercialization arm of Mayo Clinic) to license the rights to technological innovations, where possible, to commercial companies. SPPDG staff members have prepared several dozen technology disclosures, on a wide variety of electronics, optics, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) concepts and devices, to OIP. A number of these disclosures are working their way through the U.S. patent process. OIP is constantly increasing its contacts with the commercial electronics industry, and welcomes queries from that industry regarding SPPDG inventions and developments.
Ongoing Biomedicine Technology Transfer
The SPPDG constantly examines possible areas for technology transfer of electronics-based devices and systems into Mayo's clinical practice. Working with our collaborators in the Department of Orthopedics we have developed a design to instrument hip and knee prostheses so that stress and strain information can be measured by strain gauges installed within the hip and knee prostheses, then transmitted to antennas placed on the hip and knee. Also in collaboration with the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, we are investigating the possibility that specially designed wheelchairs, in conjunction with the surgical implantation of specialty devices, may be able to mitigate the problems of pressure sores in wheelchair-bound patients. In collaboration with a member of the clinical staff of Mayo's Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Metabolism, and Nutrition, we have developed a pre-production version of a small form-factor completely self-contained (i.e., needing no wireless link or attached wired computer) "wearable" 3-axis accelerometer, temperature measurement unit, and data logger, which can record and self-store data continuously for up to a month. The pre-production units are already being used in preliminary studies of healthy and normal obese adults at Mayo, and in obese and lean children (in collaboration with researchers at National Institutes of Health). These units are viewed as a "platform technology", in that with slight changes in software load and in hardware design, they will also be applicable to studies of falls in elderly individuals, and in assisting technologists in Mayo's Department of Orthopedic Surgery to train lower-limb amputees to walk with computer-controlled prostheses. Descriptions of the initial work on normal adults and children have been published and/or are in press. The photo below depicts the pre-production unit, without a case, and with two different experimental cases intended to investigate the physical robustness of the devices.
Posture and activity detector 1 (PAD1) printed circuit board assembly shown next to two different styles of PAD1 case assemblies. Outer dimensions of the PAD units in their cases are 3.2" (82.75 mm) long, 1.5" (38 mm) wide, and .54" (13.75 mm) thick.
