Hi-Tech Headband Allows Fully Paralyzed to Communicate

Japanese researchers say they’ve developed a headband that reads changes in brain blood flow to help individuals who are completely paralyzed regain some form of communication, the BBC reported Saturday.

Called “kokoro-gatari” (mind-talk) by its inventors, the device was designed for use by patients with advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Researchers say it has allowed these ‘locked-in’ patients to communicate simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers to questions with about 80 percent accuracy.

“You may think the accuracy rate is 20 percent less than perfect but it is a big leap from zero for us,” Kensuke Yanagita, of the Japanese ALS Association, told the BBC. “At least caregivers would be able to know [if] the patient is feeling good or not.”

In ALS, patients gradually lose control of muscles governing movement, speech and other functions, but their intellectual capabilities remain unaffected. Brain blood flow is one of the few functions these patients do retain control over.

Patients control the headband by directing blood flow to the brain’s executive thinking center, the frontal cortex. According to the researchers, they do this by simply doing arithmetic equations in their head or by trying to remember the words of a song. The headband emits infra-red rays which pick up on this increase in blood flow, and interprets it as a ‘yes’ to any outside question.

The device is expected to cost about $3,500 and be marketed in Japan by the end of this year.

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Drug Plans Begin Medicare Marketing Blitz

Beginning Saturday, America’s millions of Medicare beneficiaries can expect to be bombarded with advertising and other solicitations from health insurance companies extolling their own versions of the new Medicare drug prescription plan, set to kick in this January.

Over 40 options will be available to beneficiaries in almost every state, the Bush administration said Friday, with most plans differing slightly from the standard minimum benefit mandated by Congress.

According to the New York Times, under the government’s new plan, Medicare recipients must pay a $250 deductible and are then responsible for 25 percent of annual drug costs ranging from $251 to $2,250. They are also responsible for 100 percent of the next $2,850 in expenses. Medicare will pay about 95 percent of expenses over $5,100, however. This leaves a ‘coverage gap’ for those will annual expenses between $2,251 and $5,099.

In many cases, annual deductibles offered by private Medicare-linked drug plans may be less than the $250 outlined by Congress and in most states insurers may also provide drug coverage for those in the coverage gap, further reducing expenses to beneficiaries.

Enrollment for the new Medicare drug plan begins Nov. 15. While this smorgasbord of choices can save consumers money, it could also make the process more confusing.

“It’s mind-boggling,” Oregon Medicare commissioner Cindy Becker told the Times. “If you try to explain the whole program at one time, people will be shellshocked. You have to give it to them in small doses.” In her state alone, she said, 20 companies plan to offer 45 stand-alone plans with monthly premiums ranging from $6.93 to $64.99.

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Acting FDA Chief Resigns Other Position

Newly appointed U.S. Food and Drug Administration Acting Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach said Friday that he will resign his previous job as head of the National Cancer Institute, the Washington Post reported.

Von seo tips Eschenbach, a Texas urologist and long time Bush family friend, was appointed to the FDA post earlier this week after the s