Philips, MIT to brainstorm new tech to diagnose head injuries

Researchers and doctors spanning three local institutions are aiming to create portable ultrasound technology that can diagnose head injuries on the spot.

Royal Philips, a Netherlands-based technology company with North American headquarters in Cambridge, will partner with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston Medical Center to study a non-invasive method to measure pressure inside the skull, which now requires doctors to drill holes in the patient’s head.

“The method we now have is a crude, old-fashioned way of measuring pressure,” said Dr. James Holsapple, chief of neurosurgery at BMC. “This will give us a pretty good estimate of the intracranial pressure without putting the measuring device in the brain itself.”

The technology will be tested on about 100 patients at BMC who have already had the more invasive test, and the results will then be compared to measure the new method’s accuracy.

The study — part of a ?$25 million collaboration with MIT and funded by Philips — will use data from an ultrasound machine taking measurements of blood pressure and flow, Holsapple said.

He said he hopes testing will be underway over the next several months.

Hans-Aloys Wischmann, head of Philips Research North America, said it could be used to test athletes on the football field or toddlers who have taken hard falls at home.

“By making it less invasive, we can extend it to a wider population,” ?Wischmann said.