First Wi-Fi pacemaker in U.S. gives patient freedom

Aug 1, 2009 - After relying on a pacemaker for 20 years, Carol Kasyjanski has become the first American recipient of a wireless pacemaker that allows her doctor to monitor her health from afar -- over the Internet.

When Kasyjanski heads to St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, New York, for a routine check-up, about 90 percent of the work has already been done because her doctor logged into his computer and learned most of what he needed to know about his patient.

Three weeks ago Kasyjanski, 61, became the first person in the United States to be implanted with a pacemaker with a wireless home monitoring system that transmits critical information to her doctor via the Internet.

Kasyjanski, who has suffered from a severe heart condition for more than 20 years, says the device has given her renewed confidence and a new lease of life, because if her pacemaker were to malfunction or stop working, only immediate action would save her life.

"Years ago the problem was with my lead, it was nicked, and until I collapsed no one knew what the problem was, no tests would show what the problem was until I passed out," she told Reuters Television.

Dr. Steven Greenberg, the director of St. Francis' Arrhythmia and Pacemaker Center, said the new technology helps him better treat his patients and will likely become the new standard in pacemakers.

He said the server and the remote monitor communicate at least once a day to download all the relevant information and alert the doctor and patient if there is anything unusual.

"If there is anything abnormal, and we have a very intricate system set up, it will literally call the physician responsible at two in the morning if need be," he said.

The wireless pacemaker, made by St. Jude Medical Inc., received FDA approval in July.

"It is a tremendous convenience for the patient from even interacting with a telephone to call the doctor," he said.

"On a larger scale it enhances our ability to pick up and evaluate any problems with their pacemaker and certain other rhythm disorders that could be potentially dangerous or life threatening in ways we really could not do before."

Kasyjanski, an account clerk, said it was frightening initially to be the first American patient to be implanted with the device but her fears have slowly been replaced by a sense of relief, knowing that her heart is under constant surveillance.

"Deep down I feel like I have gotten another chance," she said. "Right now I feel like this is a new lease on life and I am here for my two children and my grandchildren and, God willing, I will be here for many more years to come."

There are more than 3 million people internationally with pacemakers and 600,000 more are implanted each year.

Greenberg said wireless technology was likely to become far more common in patient care, and give physicians time to focus more on their patients as opposed to routine tests.

"In the future, these pacemakers may be placed not just for people with slow heartbeats. We may be monitoring high blood pressure, we may be measuring glucose, we may be monitoring heart failure," he said,

"There are literally dozens of physiological parameters that now, with this wireless technology, we can leverage for the future of monitoring. So it is not just a rhythm monitor but a disease monitor."

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The clash of search and social networking titans

Aug 1, 2009 - Social media sites like Facebook are changing the game in the Internet search space, attracting large audiences and search activities and encroaching on search engine turf, panelists stressed during a technical conference Tuesday. But SEO (search engine optimization) remains very much alive, they added.

The clash between social media and search engines was a highlight of a panel session entitled "Search: Where to Next?" covering the future of search at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, Calif. Responding to the question of whether social media has caused SEO to be dead on arrival, panelist Eli Goodman, search evangelist at market intelligence provider comScore, noted the popularity of social sites like Facebook and Twitter but stressed that he did not believe SEO was dead.

"I believe that what's happening here is that maybe it's the way that we define it," and determining what is relevant, Goodman said.

In addition to the major core search engines, there are more than 3 billion searches per month on YouTube in the United States and more than a billion searches monthly on Facebook, Goodman added. "[What] you have to remember is that the places where people are comfortable in getting relevant results is spreading out," he said. Searchers are setting the tone for relevant searches, said Goodman.

SEO is not dead, and companies need to make sure content is optimizing to show relevant results, said Heather Dougherty, research director at Web analysis firm HitWise. "These social networks make it a little more difficult, maybe," she said. "They optimize very quickly in terms of results. That doesn't mean [the results] are relevant."

A music label, for example, would be interested in searches on YouTube, she said. MySpace, meanwhile, focuses on searches for people, while LinkedIn is about business searches, Dougherty added. "The actual content that's happening on each of the social networks is very, very different in terms of the searches that are happening," she said.

Panelists also emphasized other trends in search, including LUI (language user interface), which features voice recognition and an animated personality maintaining a dialog with searchers. "Imagine going from a GUI to a LUI environment, where it's much more efficient to have a conversation with a simulated personality" that anticipates user desires, said panelist Stephan Spencer, founder and president of Netconcepts, which provides search consulting.

"You don't need to be plugging away on a keyboard," he said.

Microsoft's Pavan Li, a research manager, emphasized searching from mobile devices. "Actually, mobile for search is a very important part of mobile search strategy," she said.

"Our focus is to help advertisers help you understand the value of mobile search," she said.

Semantic capabilities for search are on the radar screen, said Carla Borsoi, vice president of research and analytics at Ask.com. Semantics will help marketers understand user intent, she said.

Panelists also pondered personalization as part of the search equation. Personalization enables tailoring of results and may be good for consumers but perhaps not for marketers because it could prevent a paid ad from showing up, Dougherty said.

Search will continue to grow as a branding vehicle, according to Goodman. The Kraft Foods Web site, for example, is almost exclusively for branding because users do not buy Kraft macaroni and cheese off of the Web site, he said.

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Google Caffeine FAQ: Your Questions Answered

Aug 1, 2009 - Google has unveiled Caffeine, a "next-generation architecture" for its Web search platform. The retooled search engine is said to be faster, more accurate, and more comprehensive than the current Google search setup.

Google is by far the Internet's dominant search engine -- it accounted for about three-quarters of all U.S.-based searches in June, according to Web metrics company Hitwise -- so any change in its formula is bound to create plenty of questions. Here's a simple FAQ on Google's new Caffeine system, what it's all about, and what it means for you.

What exactly is Caffeine?

Caffeine is a revamped version of Google's actual search engine -- the code that finds your answers when you type in queries.

Where can I see it?

Google has set up a Web developer preview of Caffeine that you can test at http://www2.sandbox.google.com/. That site only works on a regular Web browser as of now; you can't test it via your mobile phone just yet.

How's different Caffeine from the current Google search engine?

The formula itself, in some ways, has changed. Google engineers have actually rewritten parts of the search engine's infrastructure. Of course, Google isn't disclosing exactly what has been altered, but in a nutshell, search results show up faster and in a somewhat different order. The difference may or may not even be noticeable to you.

What's an example of how search results show up differently in Caffeine?

Try searching for "PC World" in regular Google search, then searching for it in Caffeine. As of this story's publication, the links begin to differ four entries into the page. While the fourth result on regular Google search is a 2004 Today @ PC World blog on Google Desktop Search, the fourth result on Caffeine is a link to an Amazon.com page for PC World subscriptions. You'll notice other changes as you compare the two results pages, too (as you will if you do side-by-side comparisons on most other search terms you try).

Will Google.com look different with Caffeine?

No. Caffeine is described as an "under the hood" update; it is not a change to the external Google user interface that you see.

How much faster is Caffeine?

We're talking fractions of seconds, but it's there. In our test search for "PC World," for example, the results took 0.15 seconds on the regular Google search, and 0.09 seconds on Caffeine.

Is that all there is to it?

Pretty much. Google does say, however, that Caffeine isn't finished, and the code will change over the coming weeks.

So is this all happening because of the Microsoft-Yahoo deal?

It's easy to make that conclusion -- after all, it was just days ago that Microsoft and Yahoo announced plans to form a search partnership. Google, though, insists the two events are completely unrelated. "This change has been in the works for months," Google software engineer Matt Cutts assures.

Doesn't Google change its search algorithm pretty regularly?

Yes -- in fact, some accounts suggest the code is tweaked on a daily or near-daily basis. The Caffeine update, presumably, is considered significant enough of a change to warrant more user testing before it is fully implemented; it's described by some as being the biggest infrastructure update to Google's search system in about three years.

How do I tell Google what I think about Caffeine?

After you search for something on the Caffeine developer site, you'll see a link at the bottom of the page that says: "Dissatisfied? Help us improve." Click that link to send feedback.

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