GPS Tracking

In the midst of President Obama’s recent reformation of the United States’ system of healthcare, the quality widespread availability of primary care physician coverage is an ever-increasing topic of heated debate.  While everyone holds different opinions on how our current healthcare system operates on a primary care level, our nation undoubtedly holds our secondary care specialists (e.g. surgeons, radiation cancer treatment, etc.) in the highest regard.  While technological advancements have allowed for many chronic illnesses that were once incurable to be treated and even prevented as soon as possible, cancer still claims the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans every year.  While no permanent cure for this disease has been discovered yet, the application of radiation therapy as a palliative treatment (where a cure is not possible and the aim is focused on local disease control or symptomatic relief) has become a common route for many cancer victims.  By surgically implementing a GPS tracker into the affected organs of a variety of cancer sufferers, cancer treatment specialists are beginning to realize the potential for GPS tracking technology to minimize the potential detrimental side effects that accompany this form of treatment.

In 2010, the National Cancer Institute reported 217,730 new cases of prostate cancer and 32,050 deaths due to this disease.  While radiation therapy is commonly cited among cancer physicians as a plausible way to control the spread of this type of cancer, the harmful rays of radiation can have a negative impact on the healthy organs of the patient.  In addition, even when radiation is specifically targeted toward the prostate, factors such as breathing, coughing, and involuntary body movement can shift the location of the patient’s internal organs, thus further exposing healthy organs to beams of radiation.  In April of this year, Gulf Coast Cancer Centers of Daphne, Alabama began using a Calypso system, which implants a rice grain-sized GPS tracker into the prostate of a patient preparing to undergo radiation treatment.  By utilizing the GPS tracking data provided by the GPS tracker, doctors are able to offer more accurate delivery of radiation to a tumor by assessing the real-time location of the prostate during treatment.

Side effects of unintended radiation exposure in prostate cancer treatment include impotence, incontinence, and rectal bleeding, according to Gulf Coast Cancer Center physicians; they also noted that after incorporating the GPS tracker provided by a Calypso system into their treatment regimen, the chance of patients realizing these side effects was greatly reduced.  With prostate cancer currently the most common form of cancer (next to certain forms of skin cancer) and the second-leading cause of cancer deaths among American men, the application of readily-available and affordable GPS tracking technology is poised to help a significant number of victims overcome this disease and return to living long, healthy and proactive lifestyles as quickly as possible.

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Bank Robberies Becoming Less ‘Profitable’

GPS Shines Light on Would-be Thieves

Source Acquired Via My Fox Atlanta, May 20, 2010, Hiram, Georgia – Attempting to rob a bank these days is not as easy as it once was – this is the lesson that two men in Hiram, Georgia, learned on the morning of May 19, 2010. The men robbed a Bank of North Georgia in Hiram, but were quickly tracked by police who used a GPS tracker.

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