REPORT 1996

lso in the health field, in a collaboration with Kaiser Permanente, a health maintenance organization, researchers at Berkeley Lab are helping to develop a network-based data management and communications system for storing, analyzing, and transmitting medical information, including images and data generated during medical procedures such as coronary angiograms. By using a direct ATM network link between the imaging site and the physician's office, Kaiser will be able to present real-time displays of medical procedures, and potentially allow on-line collaboration between a patient's physician and the operating physician in the laboratory.

An inexpensive carbon monoxide occupational dosimeter is being developed as part of a partnership between Berkeley Lab and Quantum Group.

The health and safety of workers is at the core of a CRADA between Quantum Group, Inc., and Berkeley Lab researchers, who have teamed up to develop an inexpensive personal carbon monoxide dosimeter. Carbon monoxide is one of the most deadly environmental pollutants encountered in indoor and occupational settings, and the number one cause of death by poisoning in the United States. About 1,500 people die each year from accidental exposure to high indoor concentrations of the gas. In addition, tens of thousands of people are exposed to non-fatal levels, resulting in headaches, nausea, fatigue, dizziness, aggravation of heart conditions, and brain damage. Until now there has been no practical method for monitoring levels of the gas. Quantum Group, Inc. and Berkeley Lab are developing an inexpensive carbon monoxide occupational dosimeter-a small "badge"-that can be worn on a person's clothing. The successful commercialization of this product will help ensure the health and safety of thousands of American and international workers.

In addition to CRADAs, ERLTT funds a Quick Response Program (QRP) which allocates money for fast turnaround research and development projects. These include personnel exchanges, technology maturation efforts, technical assistance, and single-year CRADAs. One such project, with Ceramatec and the Electric Power Research Institute, will help develop thin-film electrolytes for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). These fuel cells, powered by natural gas, are exceptionally attractive for distributed electric power generation, increasing the efficiency of power plants and promising yearly fuel savings of many millions of dollars for consumers. Another QRP, with Spacek Labs Inc., will aid in the development of an object avoidance prototype for a light rail system.

Isy Godwasser, CFO of Symyx, with Viviana Wolinsky, from Berkeley Lab's Technology Transfer Department. Symyx, a California start-up business, has licensed a new method for combinatorial synthesis of materials invented by Lab researchers.

Besides collaborative research, the Lab offers use of its technologies through licensing agreements to companies both large and small. One such agreement with industrial giant E. I. du Pont grants a license for a technology that may lead to a viable substitute for chlorofluorocarbons, a major environmental hazard. Another, with Symyx Technology, a small California start-up corporation, has licensed a fundamental breakthrough in the synthesis and screening of advanced materials such as phosphor materials for flat-panel displays and medical imaging, and superconductors. The procedure, invented at the Lab's Center for Advanced Materials, may speed up the synthesis and screening of those materials by more than a factor of four, and will be the core technology for the start-up firm.

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