ARTICLE SUMMARY:
Every now and then the nitty-gritty of scientific debate highlights the pitfalls of assessing new technologies in the commercial world. This is the case for a small Australian company, ImpediMed, which is applying digital technologies to the sleepy world of lymphedema.
The diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of secondary lymphedema is about as low tech as it gets in the medical world: the tools of the trade are tape measures, or, less frequently, volumetric exercises based on the Archimedes Principles (plunging limb in bucket of water, etc.), followed by compression garments for relief of swelling and pain. Sophisticated nuclear medicine imaging, lymphoscintigraphy, and its state-of-the-art iteration ICG imaging, is highly quantitative and accurate, but impractical for routine use in large patient populations.
