Described herein are noninvasive electrical stimulation devices, systems and methods for stimulation of the Vagus nerve through its auricular branch to provide beneficial physiological responses in subjects, including alleviation, mitigation or elimination of symptoms of various disorders, including metabolic and inflammatory disorders.

Described herein are noninvasive electrical stimulation devices, systems and methods for stimulation of the Vagus nerve through its auricular branch to provide beneficial physiological responses in subjects, including alleviation, mitigation or elimination of symptoms of various disorders, including metabolic and inflammatory disorders.

An information display and control system that enables a fast and easy understanding and management of the status of the patient's dialysis is disclosed. Also disclosed is an information display and control system that enables a fast and easy understanding and management of the status of the patient's cardiovascular and ventilation systems. The system can control management of a patient's dialysis, as well as administration and management of a patient's medication and fluids. The display is organized by goals related to management of patient's dialysis machine, blood flow, dialyzer flow, and patient's body weight. The display is also organized by goals related to management of patient's cardiovascular system, ventilation system, and medications and fluids administration and management. Such goals include urea reduction rate, urea reduction ratio, fractional urea clearance, total urea reduction, dialysis treatment duration, hemodynamics, oxygenation, CO.sub.2 removal, medication status, and fluids status.

A ventilator includes a bidirectional breath detection airline and a flow outlet airline. The flow outlet airline includes an airline outlet. The flow outlet airline is configured to be connected to an invasive ventilator circuit or a noninvasive ventilator circuit. The breath detection airline includes airline inlet. The airline inlet is separated from the airline outlet of the flow outlet airline. The ventilator further includes a pressure sensor in direct fluid communication with the breath detection airline. The pressure sensor is configured to measure breathing pressure from the user and generate sensor data indicative of breathing by the user. The ventilator further includes a controller in electronic communication with the pressure sensor. The controller is programmed to detect the breathing by the user based on the sensor data received from the pressure sensor.

A system and method for measuring the effectiveness of a dose from an inhaler on a user is disclosed. The inhaler includes a drug container and a dosing mechanism coupled to the drug container to aerate a dose from the drug container. The dosing mechanism provides the aerated dose to the user. A sensor interface is in communication with a physiological sensor. The physiological sensor is attached to a user to sense a physiological response to the dose. Physiological data is sent to the sensor interface. A controller is coupled to the sensor interface to collect the sensed physiological data from the user corresponding to the time that the aerated dose is delivered to the user. The effectiveness of the dose may be determined from the collected data. The dose amount or frequency may be changed or the drug may be changed based on the collected data.

A system and method for measuring the effectiveness of a dose from an inhaler on a user is disclosed. The inhaler includes a drug container and a dosing mechanism coupled to the drug container to aerate a dose from the drug container. The dosing mechanism provides the aerated dose to the user. A sensor interface is in communication with a physiological sensor. The physiological sensor is attached to a user to sense a physiological response to the dose. Physiological data is sent to the sensor interface. A controller is coupled to the sensor interface to collect the sensed physiological data from the user corresponding to the time that the aerated dose is delivered to the user. The effectiveness of the dose may be determined from the collected data. The dose amount or frequency may be changed or the drug may be changed based on the collected data.

A method for managing sleep of a user comprises obtaining, by a computing system, sleep data and environmental data for the user; determining, by the computing system, a sleep state of the user based on the sleep data; determining, by the computing system, one or more awakening actions based on the sleep state of the user and the environmental data; and causing one or more devices in an environment of the user to perform the one or more awakening actions to awaken the user.

Medical techniques include systems and methods for administering a positive pressure ventilation, a positive end expiratory pressure, and a vacuum to a person. Approaches also include treating a person with an intrathoracic pressure regulator so as to modulate or upregulate the autonomic system of the person, and treating a person with a combination of an intrathoracic pressure regulation treatment and an intra-aortic balloon pump treatment.

The present invention generally relates to a process suitable for extracorporeal lung support. The process comprises contacting blood with a dialysis liquid separated by a semipermeable membrane. Oxygen is introduced into blood and/or into the dialysis liquid prior to contacting blood and dialysis liquid being separated by the semipermeable membrane. The process is versatile and allows for blood oxygenation as well as removal of at least one undesired substance occurring in the blood, selected from carbon dioxide, bicarbonate and hydrogen cations, from blood. Thereby, the present invention takes advantage of the Haldane effect in the extracorporeal contacting step. The undesired substance can be efficiently transported across a semipermeable membrane to the dialysis liquid. In contrast to extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal methods of the prior art (ECCCbR), the present invention employs a versatile dialysis liquid that allows to adjust the pH and buffering capacity of the dialysis liquid, to add fluids to the dialysis liquid and/or to the blood and to remove substances from the blood in the extracorporeal circuit, depending on the conditions and needs. The present invention also provides regeneration and recycling of the dialysis liquid, and thus for its repeated use. The present invention is suitable for treating human or animal subjects suffering from lung failure or lung disorders.

A dialysis device (100) comprises: a dialyzer for exchange of substances between a blood flow and a dialysate flow in a dialysis area (106) of the dialyzer, wherein the dialyzer comprises a dialyzer membrane (110) for passing toxins in the blood flow to the dialysate flow through pores (112) of the dialyzer membrane (110); and a capacitively coupled generator (120) for generating electromagnetic fields in the dialysis area (106) for loosening electrostatic bonds between toxins and proteins in the blood flow, wherein the generator (120) is capacitively coupled to the blood flow and to the dialysate flow on opposite sides of the dialyzer membrane, and wherein the dialysate membrane (110) is formed of a material having lower conductance than blood and dialysate such that a large electromagnetic field strength is provided across the pores (112) of the dialyzer membrane (110).