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weyrwolfen · 4 months ago

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Caveat Emptor: Chapter 4 - Mala Fide

Rating: T

Characters: Gen, Commanders Fox, Thorn, Thire, and Stone, Quinlan Vos, Coruscant Guard

Warnings: canon-typical violence; references to self-harm and suicidal thoughts, injuries, loss of autonomy

Previous chapters can be found here on Tumblr or here on Ao3

[X] Request for Repairs Costing Over 10,000 GSC

Affected Facility:

[X] Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center

Specific Location Within Facility: Jenth Block, Cells 02:118 – 02:132

Nature of Requested Repairs: Replacement of facility’s security cameras and reprogramming of security network.

“I need access to the side of your neck,” Scav said brusquely, pulling Fox’s attention away from the datapad in his hands. His CMO was holding a jar of pale green gel in his hands.

Fox refrained from sighing in irritation and instead just tipped his head to the side. Scav smeared a generous glob of the gel on Fox’s neck, just below and behind his ear. It was cold and left behind a faint tingling sensation.

“Don’t move,” Scav said, reaching for the medical monitor he’d obtained… somewhere. The thing had a bulky design and a truly excessive number of lights, strongly suggesting it was civilian in origin.

Then again, they were safely hidden away in the base’s covert investigation room, so perhaps there were some questions Fox could stand to ask.

“What is the point of this?” he asked as Scav pressed the device’s baseplate into the side of Fox’s neck. The thing beeped once and then earned a slight wince as it tightened down against his skin with, from the feel of it, a combination of suction and a ring of multiple fine needles.

“Something about your lapses is triggering uncontrolled spikes in your blood pressure,” Scav replied with a distracted scowl, plugging a cord from his datapad into the monitor. “I intend to track down what before you have a stroke.”

Great. Something else for Fox to worry about.

He had an itemized list, most of which he was actively avoiding thinking about at the moment, and speaking of which…

Have Repairs Been Attempted by On-Site Maintenance Teams? Yes [ ], No [X]

***Attempt Repairs Before Completing This Form***

Fox swore under his breath, backed up, and wiped his previous answer.

Have Repairs Been Attempted by On-Site Maintenance Teams? Yes [X], No [ ]

Describe Attempted Repairs: During previous outages related to this system, CG personnel were instructed that all security cameras and networked systems in the central detention facility contain proprietary technologies owned by Livion Insights (LI) GRC. Repair attempts made by anyone other than approved service providers represent violations of LI GRC intellectual property rights under the terms of the original contract with this vendor. CG personnel assessed the affected cameras, determined them to be LI GRC property, and ceased any further attempts at repair, as per those standing orders.

Select The Type of Area or Item to be Repaired from the Following List (If Unknown, Select Unknown): [Electronic/Non-Droid -> Computer/Computational System -> Networked, >10 Nodes]

Is The Vendor for the Computer/Computational System known? Yes [X], No [ ].

Select The Vendor from the Following List (If Unknown, Select Unknown): [Livion Insights GRC]

***Vendor Has Negotiated Exclusive Service Contracts, Cease All Repair Attempts***

***File Request Has Been Forwarded to Contract Enforcement***

Do You Want to Archive a Copy of This Request? Yes [X], No [ ].

If prior experience was any guide, it would take at least two weeks for anyone to actually see that form, and Fox called it roughly even odds whether it would end up forwarded to the correct department after that or not.

In any case, filling out the kriffing thing wasn’t about actually getting the repairs done. It was about making a trail of flimsiwork, demonstrating due diligence in responding to the situation in the event of an investigation into the inmates’ deaths. It wasn’t much, but it might be enough to keep his troopers from becoming convenient scapegoats, if this developed into a public scandal.

This next form, however, was more of a calculated experiment.

[X] Request for Senate Judiciary Oversight Committee Investigation

Nature of Complaint: Repeated outages of the security systems in the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center, occurring co-incident with targeted inmate deaths suggest a high probability of sabotage within the facility.

Supporting Documents:

Fox selected the copy of the service request he had just filed, the three inmate autopsy reports he’d signed earlier, and the initial incident report Thire had filed last night. Then he linked the new complaint back to the chain of his previous requests and more than a few files he’d had his slicers exhume of similar incidents that had occurred prior to the clone army’s deployment, just for good measure. Something fiercely anticipatory simmered in his chest when he entered the command to forward the whole thing to the Chancellor’s office for processing.

Of course, the entire reporting process was supposed to be anonymous, and according to Guard and G.A.R. regulations, Fox should have sent the complaint directly to the relevant Senate committee. But some Naval analyst had flagged one of Fox’s early reports as containing potential evidence of Separatist sabotage rather than internal corruption, so the Chancellor had ordered that all future reports related to security irregularities or corruption accusations be routed through his office.

That had smelled faintly of strill osik, but orders were orders, and Fox knew very well the price of overt defiance. So the Chancellor got to screen any Guard requests for external investigations, and Fox got to watch most of his requests disappear into the Republic Office of Naval Intelligence, sealed away under a high security clearance designation on the whims of various natborn admirals.

It was galling, but the few times Fox had raised his concerns about this lack of action with the Chancellor had yielded distracted indifference at best and delicately phrased rebukes at worst, both delivered with a kindly façade over dangerously cold eyes. And maybe the natborns who’d just died on Fox’s watch weren’t particularly upstanding citizens of the Republic, but their continued physical wellbeing was as much a part of the Guard’s duty as preventing their escape. Any failure risked reprimands or worse for his men, and the suspicion that these failures stemmed from someone intentionally sabotaging the Guard for some kind of personal gain made him coldly murderous.

Of course, now Chancellor Palpatine was missing, and it would be valuable to know if Amedda would hold to all of Palpatine’s policies in the man’s absence.

…He would try, but Amedda hadn’t been half as far in his Master’s confidences as he liked to think…

The monitor on Fox’s neck beeped.

“The kriff was that?” Scav asked sharply, looking up from his datapad.

“The kriff was what?” Fox asked dryly, rubbing at his eyes. The combination of low-lighting in the room with the bright datapad screen was starting to get to him.

“Your cortisol levels just spiked.”

Fox squinted up at him. “No idea,” he finally said.

Not that Scav believed him, given the ferocious scowl that answer earned. “Hold still,” he said, rummaging around in his crate of decidedly non-regulation medical equipment that had appeared some time during the last rotation.

“Am I going to have to cover up another burglary report from the Grand Republic Medical Facility?” Fox asked dryly as Scav fished several sensors out of the crate.

Scav stuck the first sensor on Fox’s temple and said, “No” without any further elaboration.

Fox just sighed and pulled up the next form on his to-do list. There was something to be said about maintaining plausible deniability.

Scav had just finished taping down the leads between the sensors and the Sith-damned monitor on his neck when the door to the room hissed and then swept open.

It was Stone, bucket tucked under one arm. His expression was so blank, it had to be intentional.

“What happened?” Fox asked, a sinking sensation setting up shop in his guts.

“Nothing, yet,” Stone said, sliding his helmet onto one of the cluttered tables and then easing down onto the rickety stool across from Fox’s makeshift cot. “But Thorn’s got a developing situation up in the Dome.”

The sick roiling that was hollowing out Fox’s guts only strengthened. “Any reason why he didn’t comm directly?” he asked.

There was a momentary silence, and then Stone finally said, “He’s in a briefing with the Acting Chancellor and the Senate Security Council.”

… What?

“Why is this the first time I’m hearing about this?” Fox snapped, even though he was pretty certain he already knew the answer.

Stone didn’t answer, but his eyes slid sideways, over to Scav.

Karking hells.

“You’re grounded, unless it’s an emergency,” Scav said with a glower.

Fox knew that. Of course he knew that. With his current… lapses, it had made the most sense for him to take over administrative tasks from his subordinate commanders today. It freed up his officers to continue their investigation without having to manage Fox’s kriffing issues. It was galling, but he’d agreed with the logic. The last thing any of them needed was Fox having an episode in front of witnesses.

He hadn’t agreed to being wholly blocked out of his own karking command structure. And his comms had been suspiciously quiet all morning.

“Don’t make me make this an order,” Fox snapped, glaring at Scav.

Scav just glared back, but he did enter something into his datapad that must have cleared the medical override, if the way Fox’s vambrace immediately lit up was any indication.

Un-karking-believable.

Fox started to reach for the monitor on his neck, but Scav, who was already on thin ice, still had the temerity to snap, “The monitor stays on.” Scav didn’t back down one centimeter in the face of Fox’s dark glower, but he did add, “You should be able to get your helmet on over everything if you’re careful. I need more readings.”

Fine. Kriffing great. Because that wasn’t going to chafe like a shabuir.

But Fox did manage to get his helmet on, easing it gently over the nest of wires and medical tape until the magnetics finally engaged and his HUD lit up. A whole cascade of previously blocked messages scrolling through Fox’s HUD, including…

“A summons from the Acting Chancellor didn’t constitute an emergency?” he finally asked in a dangerously flat tone all of his officers had learned to recognize. The message had gone out across the Guard’s entire command comm network. He should have been informed, even with the override in place.

“Thorn handled it,” Stone replied.

Scav just went back to whatever he was reading on his datapad, looking utterly unrepentant.

Fox was going to kill his CMO. And then his subordinate commanders. And then probably himself, if only to avoid the ensuing flimsiwork.

“You and I both know that the Chancellor specifically requested me.”

“That is debatable.”

“Stone,” Fox said his subordinate commander’s name with an essay’s worth of scathing rebuke.

“Acting Chancellor Amedda requested the highest-ranking clone on site,” Stone replied, falling into the more elaborately formal language and tone the Guard’s entire command structure defaulted to when dealing with uncooperative natborns. Fox did not appreciate the implications. “Thorn was the highest-ranking officer on Senate rotation.”

“We both know what he meant,” Fox said, not bothering to rein in the iciness in his tone. He was perfectly capable of performing his duties.

He was.

“It is not the Guard’s place to project layers of meaning onto our orders,” Stone continued in the same, blandly polite tone of voice. Shabuir. “We are to carry out the Senate’s commands as stated.”

And Mas Amedda was exactly the kind of politician who rarely used a trooper’s numbers, much less learn their names. Not when he could refer to them by function, like pieces of equipment. The Acting Chancellor had vaguely demanded ‘the ranking clone trooper on site,’ and so he was going to receive ‘the ranking clone trooper on site,’ as broadly interpreted as the Guard found convenient at the time.

Fox knew this script. Fox had karking-well written this script. Malicious compliance could be an exceedingly useful weapon in their political arsenal, but he’d never kriffing intended for his officers to turn it on him. And using it on the Chancellor of the entire kriffing Republic, Acting or not, was just dangerous.

Fox shut his eyes in the privacy of his own helmet to simply breathe and gather his thoughts.

“We will be discussing this later,” Fox finally said, addressing Stone and Scav both.

“Sir, yes sir,” Stone said, reverting back to his usual, clipped delivery. To anyone else, he would have sounded calmly professional.

To Fox, he sounded infuriatingly smug.

And Scav, who had wandered over to the terminal on the workbench, just waved dismissively over his shoulder.

Satisfying as it might have been to explode at the both of them, it looked like Fox had bigger osik to handle.

Thorn had sent a link to a preliminary report, which Fox forwarded to his datapad for easier reading. It was little more than a log of personal notes, and as Fox read, a new line appeared at the bottom, which meant Thorn was still in the thick of the meeting. It was all diplomatically-worded enough to pass an external review of the files, but Fox was well-versed in reading what his officers weren’t reporting.

It didn’t take long to find the first bombshell in the text.

“Any idea why the Jedi were assigned the lead on the investigation?” Fox asked, glancing up at Stone.

“I looked up SB 1468-28 subsection 12.2,” Stone said evenly, referencing one of Thorn’s more opaque notes, but Fox recognized the pause and the long breath Stone took as a concerning show of anxiety from the usually unemotive commander. “Apparently the Jedi have beskar-clad jurisdiction when it comes to cases involving Sith artifacts.”

Karking hells, that wasn’t good. For all that the Jedi Temple was in the Guard’s jurisdiction, Fox didn’t have very much direct experience dealing with Force osik, but he read his brothers’ incident reports.

Fox distinctly remembered the odd, metallic cylinder the Generals had pulled from the Chancellor’s desk, but they had ended up leaving with multiple crates of materials. He hadn’t seen the interiors, and it was possible that each crate held only a single item in isolated containment, but Fox rather doubted it. It had taken the Jedi several hours to pack up whatever had gone into those crates.

How the kark had none of them noticed a treasure trove of Sith artifacts before? Jedi representatives were constantly in and out of the Chancellor’s office. Maybe something new had only just arrived, a gift from some systems representative or another, or perhaps a questionably sourced art piece from one of the high end antiquities dealers on Coruscant.

Was one of those artifacts responsible for whatever had happened to Chancellor Palpatine? Maybe Fox’s concerning lapses weren’t related to the man’s disappearances after all?

That level of cosmic coincidence strained credulity, but a clone could hope.

Fox skimmed further down Thorn’s notes, teasing out the most pertinent points from the tactful, vague text. The Chancellor had protested what he perceived as the Jedi’s overreach, but had no legal grounds to deny their jurisdictional claim. That was interesting. While the Jedi had been steadily falling in public opinion as the war had dragged on, blocking their efforts could be interpreted as impeding the investigation. That was politically dangerous if word got out. and given how unpopular the Acting Chancellor was proving to be with some members of the Senate, it would. Fox didn’t think Amedda would risk that kind of public backlash without a good reason.

…He has a good reason. The Jedi tend to be more perceptive and less susceptible to bribes or threats than the average CSF investigator…

Force. The karking monitor was beeping again. “Can you turn that off?” he asked Scav, annoyed.

“What?” Scav said, thoroughly distracted with whatever he’d been reading on his datapad. “Oh, yes. Here.” The beeping thankfully cut off. “Did you really not notice anything just then?”

“No,” Fox said. He really wanted to rub his eyes again, but that would require taking off his helmet, and he doubted that the nest of wire leads would survive the process unscathed. “Should I have?”

Scav just made a thoughtful, vaguely concerned sound in the back of his throat. “I’m going to need more data to get a better baseline,” he finally said.

Fox waved a hand in vague permission and dismissal. As long as the kriffing thing stopped beeping at him every few minutes, he really didn’t care.

That wasn’t entirely true. He cared a great deal about figuring out what – or who – was hijacking his mind. And he cared about finding out why, at least some of the times when he was being controlled in that way, he had done things he was actively avoiding considering in much detail. And that this somehow involved him disposing of bodies, using the Chancellor’s private hanger and one of his speeders. And that he was almost entirely convinced that he’d had something to do with the Chancellor’s disappearance, and that his men were all actively covering for him, and that the entire Guard might end up decommissioned en masse for treason if half of Fox’s suspicions turned out to be true.

Oh yeah, and he was also curious to know why each time he started to remember anything that might actually help explain the karked-up situation, he was apparently at risk of popping a blood vessel in his already kriffed up brain and dropping dead. Yeah. That too.

But given that he couldn’t avoid thinking about the entire unfolding disaster just then, he might as well get back to Thorn’s preliminary notes.

The CSF representative has protested the Coruscant Guard being placed in direct support of the Jedi, effectively icing them out of the investigation. Which yes, Fox just bet they did. Not that he was complaining, it was convenient, but why had they…?

Oh. Oh hells…

Apparently the Senate Security Council was extremely displeased that the CSF had mishandled key evidence. The CSF representative had blamed the Jedi, who had evicted them from the Chancellor’s office mid-processing, but the fact remained that there were several unlabeled pieces of evidence in holding, a few of which no one on the team could even remember collecting.

And one of those had contained a sample of blood consistent with the Chancellor’s genetic profile.

Osik.

Osik, osik, osik.

It had to be the swab from Fox’s own armor, the one he’d slipped in amongst the CSF’s other samples during the confusion of the Jedi’s decidedly non-regulation appropriation of the crime scene and eviction of all non-Jedi personnel.

Fox looked up at Stone, who’d been waiting in tense, grim anticipation.

Stone didn’t actually say anything, he just nodded slowly.

Fox didn’t say anything either. Not to Stone in the immediate aftermath of the realization. Not when he finally received Thorn’s call for backup securing an emergency session of the Senate. Not until he was forced to, upon arriving at the Dome and having to pull on the mantle of Marshall Commander of the Coruscant Guard.

What was there to say? Fox wasn’t sure there even was a word for how karked he and his brothers were.

“Fox, anything from your vantage?” Thorn asked over the open comm line.

Fox was standing at attention at the rear of the pod, a careful distance behind the natborns he had been tasked with guarding. He held himself rigidly still, but his eyes were roving over the Senate chamber, looking for… something. He just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Well, something else. Something here. He couldn’t pinpoint what exactly, he just knew.

“No,” he said, eyes landing on the vacant, powered down pod which was reserved for members of the Senate press corps. This was a closed session, Fox had overseen clearing and sealing of the vast chamber himself, but something about that empty pod was making him feel unaccountably uneasy.

One of the natborns in the front of the pod, some kind of legal scholar from the Republic Judicial Archives named Dr. Pen Prima, turned slightly to give Fox a questioning, slightly accusatory look.

Fox pretended not to notice. The medical monitor on his neck was throwing off his helmet’s magnetics. Normally, his current settings would have allowed him to speak freely in the confines of his bucket without being overheard, but apparently the misalignment was enough to kriff up his seals. Given the flashing red light in the upper right of his HUD, his environmental systems weren’t able to fully engage either. That was currently of lesser concern, but if anyone decided to gas the Senate chamber, and with Fox’s luck he wouldn’t bet against that happening today, he was going to rip the monitor off of his neck and deal with Scav’s displeasure after the fact.

He did, however, type a short, private message to Thorn, explaining the problem.

“The investigation into Chancellor Palpatine’s disappearance has been mismanaged from the start!” Senator Agrael was shouting from his pod, directly across the chamber from Fox’s current position. “The Senate has received hardly any updates on the process, and now we hear that the Jedi have been given control of the investigation over the rightful, civilian authorities!”

“Only after those authorities mishandled key evidence!” another Senator yelled out from somewhere several tiers of pods higher in the chamber. From the gurgling sound of the voice, Fox guessed that it was probably Senator Saal.

So basically, the Security Council’s report to the entire Senate body was going about as well as Thorn had predicted. At least this was a closed session. Once this news broke to the general public, the Guard would most likely be facing protests and worse.

And the news would get out, sooner rather than later. Acting Chancellor Amedda could plead for discretion all he liked. This scandal was too politically unstable to stay under wraps for long, and the Senate leaked sensitive intelligence like a sieve on its best days.

At least the Guard was being spared the worst of the current political fallout.

At least Fox and his commanders were the only ones who knew or even suspected the real cause of the apparent mismanagement of the investigation by the CSF.

He should probably feel a little guiltier about his role in the whole cascading fiasco, but frankly, the CSF had been making his troopers’ lives as difficult as possible from the very moment the clones had been assigned to this osik posting. The current dragging the CSF was unfairly receiving for this case didn’t even begin to rebalance the scales for all of the other investigations they’d actually bungled and then passed the public blame onto the Coruscant Guard.

Honestly, this couldn’t be happening to a nicer group of shabuire. Seeing Captain Axion fuming from the guest pod that had been assigned to the CSF for this hearing was a memory Fox was going to cherish for a good long while.

However, he really shouldn’t be lingering about any of that right now, especially given the pod full of Jedi Generals to Fox’s immediate left.

“Please, Senators. The transition of certain aspects of the investigation to the Jedi has nothing to do with the performance of the brave civil servants within the CSF,” said Senator Amidala in a placating tone of voice clearly meant to deescalate the situation. “It is my understanding that their role is confined to investigating a number of potentially dangerous Force artifacts recovered from the Chancellor’s office.”

“Cultural artifacts!” Senator Deechi protested, joining the argument for the first time. “Artistic relics! What evidence have the Jedi provided that these pieces are in any way related to the Force?”

It hadn’t escaped anyone’s notice, Fox’s included, that Palpatine’s Umbaran Administrative Aide, Sly Moore, was positioned in the pod alongside Senator Deechi, standing in symbolic solidarity with her home world and conspicuously leaving Acting Chancellor Amedda to face this unfolding scandal in his central pod, alone.

It was almost definitely a play for power of some kind, but whether her primary target was Mas Amedda, the Jedi, both together, or someone else entirely was anyone’s guess.

“Most moderately powerful Force artifacts emit a kind of low-level radiation that is visible with a standard spectral analysis,” Chief Jedi Archivist, General Jocasta Nu answered from the Jedi Order’s pod, sharp tone sounding terribly dry. General Windu, standing at her side, looked like he very badly wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose, if the dignity of his position would allow it, while General Vos, who was sprawled casually in one of the pod’s rear seats, just seemed to find the proceedings to be deeply entertaining. “Of course, unshielded exposure to Sith artifacts has also been known to result in possession, evisceration, temporal displacement, and any number of other, unpleasant side effects. However, I am sure that we can draft up the proper legal waivers for any Senators who feel dutybound to verify our identification of artifacts in person.”

That earned scattered laughter from a few Senators and an almost comedic widening of Senator Deechi’s pale eyes at the rather bluntly delivered, mildly threatening rebuke from a rather frail-looking, exceedingly elderly Jedi General.

“’Chief Archivist means she’s stationed on Coruscant all the time, right?” Cooper said over the open comm channel. “So why wasn’t she assigned as our General?”

Fox didn’t disagree with his trooper’s thought in principle, but…

“Keep the comms clear,” Thorn said, sounding more exasperated than anything.

Yes. That.

But then, because Thorn was just as bad as the rest of their brothers despite his rarefied rank, he proceeded to ignore his own order by shifting over to a private channel with Fox and saying, “Kind of makes you understand why they recalled the 212th the second all of this started.”

Fox refrained from snorting. Much. Cody’s general was always being called in, whenever there was a political disaster for the Order to navigate on Coruscant. Fox couldn’t find it in himself to complain much, not when it meant he got to see Cody far more frequently than his other batchmates ever seemed to manage.

Not that the 212th and General Kenobi were going to arrive in time to avert this particular fiasco. They were still at least a day out, having just engaged a small Separatist fleet which had been harassing Republic supply lines all along the Pfaresian hyperspace lane.

Senator Agrael and Senator Laothru had started shouting over one another, making it nearly impossible to tell what either one of them were saying.

Acting Chancellor Amedda, bereft of a vice chair to do him the honors, banged the Speaker’s Staff against the floor of his own pod in a bid for order.

He was resoundingly ignored.

In the clamor, Fox found his gaze subconsciously drifting back towards the empty press box. His fingers twitched almost subconsciously towards his twin, holstered blasters, but there was no one there. It was almost as if he was expecting someone, some threat, to appear in the empty pod.

Trying to focus on what was bothering him left Fox with a faintly disorienting sense of nausea and a sneaking suspicion that somewhere back at Guard headquarters, Scav’s datapad was lighting up with all sorts of concerning data. He refrained from reaching for the monitor under the high collar of his blacks, as if poking the Sith-damned thing might give him any kind of answers.

Any potentially clarifying memories remained frustratingly out of reach, beyond the bone deep knowledge that CC-1010 was involved somehow. Was something about to happen to one of the members of the press corps? Was CC-1010 about to ‘happen’ to one of them? Or had he already? Probably not. The dedicated pool of reporters assigned full time to the Senate did not change much, and Fox would have received a report if any of them had mysteriously disappeared.

But he wasn’t entirely sure, and that uncertainty was eating at him.

Deeming any action better than simply standing here like an ornamental plant, watching over two scholars quietly debate the galactic ramifications of the ongoing unhinged Senatorial shouting match, Fox pulled up the text function on his vambrace and typed out another message for Thorn.

‘Tell Hound to take Grizzer on a perimeter walk. Check the press pod, make it look routine.’

The reply was a simple, terse, ‘Understood.’

“I say the root of the problem lies with the sentient who has been giving the orders since Chancellor Palpatine’s disappearance,” said Senator Agrael, when the shouting seemed to be dying down to just a dull roar. “A sentient who we never elected to office, and one who is most likely sabotaging this investigation to prop up his unearned position of power!”

That set off a new wave of shouting, as several more Senators pulled their pods away from their docks and demanded to be recognized amidst the chaos. Acting Chancellor Amedda looked murderous as he continued banging his staff against the floor of his platform to no net effect.

Fox sighed quietly to himself. This was developing along a wholly predictable path, even if he hadn’t expected the speed of Mas Amedda’s political fall from grace.

Chancellor Palpatine’s staunch supporters saw the lack of progress in investigating the man’s disappearance as a political and moral betrayal.

The anti-war voting block was already unhappy with Palpatine’s policies and saw this as a convenient opportunity to oust his politically weaker proxy.

The more xenophobic of human Senators despised the Chagrian Acting Chancellor on principle.

The Senators who were more focused on their own personal power and comfort were watching their investments shrink in value during the ongoing instability.

Given all of that, the next words out of Agrael’s mouth weren’t all that surprising.

“I call for a vote of no confidence,” he said, gravelly voice amplified across the vast Senate chamber.

That resulted in a new eruption of shouts. Fox scanned his immediate surroundings again, an instinctive threat assessment even if he did not truly expect any of the Senators to physically assault one another. His eyes soon landed on the Jedi Order’s pod.

General Vos was watching him, expression thoroughly unreadable.

Fairly caught and quietly desperate to not seem concerned by that fact, Fox just nodded slightly in acknowledgement.

One of General Vos’s eyebrows rose at that, but he did nod in return.

Fox pointedly looked away, out over the assembled Senate body. He could feel the General’s gaze still on him, and it made his skin crawl.

“He is only the Acting Chancellor,” said Senator Miri-Dolith was saying scornfully. “Is a vote of no confidence even applicable?”

Thousands of sets of eyes turned to Fox’s pod and the two natborns he had been specifically tasked with guarding.

“Oh,” the one on the left, Dr. Shinzel, said in a very small voice, apparently realizing exactly why he and his colleague had been summoned to the Senate Dome. “Oh my.”

Sith-hells, they were going to be here all night at this rate.

The two legal scholars tried, with many interruptions, pauses to pull up specific passages of law from their respective institutions’ databases, and verbal detours into completely tangential details of Republic policy, to explain the general problem. That Acting Chancellor Amedda could not be removed by a vote of no confidence, since legally, he was simply a temporary stand-in for Chancellor Palpatine. That Chancellor Palpatine could be removed with a vote of no confidence, which would trigger a new election, thereby removing the Acting Chancellor from power. Or that alternatively, they could declare Chancellor Palpatine dead, which would also trigger a new election, yielding the same net result. Granted, if it turned out that Chancellor Palpatine wasn’t dead, well, that would generate a whole new suite of legal problems.

The word ‘unprecedented’ was thrown around a lot.

So was the phrase ‘constitutional crisis.’

It was almost a relief, when Fox finally spotted Hound and Grizzer casually walking into the empty press pod. At least it gave Fox a worthwhile distraction from the flustered, frustrated exclamations of the two academics who, while probably on the largest stage of either of their respective careers, found themselves trying to explain an esoteric facet of Republic legal doctrine to thousands of sentients who 1) clearly thought they were already perfectly well-informed on the topic, and 2) only wanted to hear the details that supported their specific stances.

Except then the spikes down Grizzer’s back bristled up and he opened his jaws and barked in a trained signal Fox recognized, even if he was too far away to actually hear the massiff over the din.

Osik.

Hound knelt down, looking at something under the lip of one of the pod’s padded seats. Thankfully, his body language did not appear to be particularly alarmed when he rose, gloved hand held carefully flat, like he was supporting something small and fragile in the palm of his hand.

Finally, when Fox was about to lose his patience and comm the ARF trooper directly, Hound closed his fist around whatever it was and rolled his arm over to enter something into his vambrace.

‘Datachip. Possible dead drop. Advise?’ popped up in Fox’s HUD, tagged with Hound’s designation number.

‘Log it on Guard internal record. Bring it to Thorn,’ Fox sent to Hound, and then he shifted to the channel he’d opened with Thorn and sent, ‘Hound incoming with datachip. Copy and wipe contents. Return to previous location before session ends.’

…Zara Salaveda of the HoloNet News network would be disappointed to find the files corrupted, but it would not be the first time promises from an anonymous source didn’t pan out. And while CC-1010’s Master had clearly wanted the security leak handled, he had not been terribly specific with his final orders.

And as satisfying as that had turned out to be, it was somewhat unclear if he was still obligated to tie up these final loose ends…

The stray thought crystallized in Fox’s mind, clear and complete and thoroughly damning. He breathed through the pain that bloomed behind his eyes, trying to conjure up specific memories that would make those thoughts make sense. Nothing came to him, except a pulse of dizziness.

‘And then set a watch?’ Thorn asked, completely unaware of Fox’s ongoing, internal crisis.

‘And then set a watch.’ Fox sent, trying to keep up appearances, even though his hands were shaking faintly with the effort.

He didn’t look over to see if General Vos or any of the other generals had sensed this lapse. Fox was fairly certain he already knew the answer, and he was afraid that taking any course of action to confirm it one way or the other also risked giving too much away.

Charger, who was a credit to Kamino’s cloning program and was clearly due for some kind of commendation, formed up his squad around the Generals as an honor guard and escort to guide the Jedi out of the Senate Dome. It was all very respectful, very proper.

It was also just enough of a distraction that it allowed Fox to escape without being too obvious about it. General Vos had continued to watch him, off and on for the several additional hours it took for the Senate to get bored with their stalemate and call for a recess.

Fox’s skin had been crawling, under the thoroughly unwelcome scrutiny.

While most of the Guardsmen cycling off shift from the Dome had piled into several larger transports, Thorn had pointedly herded Fox to one of the two-person speeders. He’d also shucked off his helmet and then dropped in the floorboards before climbing into the pilot’s seat and flashing a quick hand signal for Fox to do the same.

Getting out of his helmet was a bit trickier than getting into it had been, and Fox ended up pulling two of Scav’s sensors free in the process. He couldn’t seem to summon up the motivation to try to fix them and instead started pulling them more completely free, to hang unceremoniously from the high collar of his blacks.

Thorn waited until Fox had pulled the last line free and let his hands drop into his lap before asking, “Scav’s handiwork?”

Fox nodded slowly, leaning back against the speeder’s hard headrest and shutting his eyes.

With their helmets off, there weren’t any comm lines to be compromised, and the Guard swept their vehicles for listening and tracking devices daily. They could speak freely here, and yet it still took Thorn a few minutes to work up to asking the question Fox had been expecting.

“How did you know about that datachip?” he finally asked.

“I remembered some things,” Fox admitted, without further elaboration. It wasn’t like he had much more of an explanation to offer. “What was on it?”

With his eyes still shut, Fox heard the rub of plastoid against the hard, synthetic lining of Thorn’s seat. A shrug, most likely.

“The files are encrypted, but there are a lot of them,” Thorn said.

“They were meant for the HNN reporter. Salaveda.”

Thorn didn’t ask more details, for which Fox was inordinately grateful. He didn’t have them to share, or he would have already offered them.

They were maybe halfway back to headquarters before Fox convinced himself to just ask his own burning question, the one he’d been trying to suppress all rotation.

He thought he’d been starting to see the outline of the pattern here. The fragments of memories, the pieces of disjointed evidence, the covert interactions between Fox’s brothers he’d tried so hard not to notice. They fit together. Mostly. He’d tried to not think about any of it, and speaking his suspicions into existence seemed to risk somehow making them more real. But Fox had always preferred dealing in facts, and the facts had been painting a picture he did not like.

CC-1010 had been the last sentient on record as having seen Chancellor Palpatine.

CC-1010 had the access codes to the Chancellor’s private hanger bay and turbolift, which meant that Fox could not point to their later use as an alibi.

CC-1010 had killed sentients. A lot of sentients. And he had used the Chancellor’s hanger and speeder to dispose of at least some of the bodies.

The chances that he had been doing all of that without the Chancellor’s knowledge or consent seemed slim. And that suggested that if he wasn’t the one pulling CC-1010’s strings, then he almost certainly knew who was.

And Fox’s men knew it too, or at least they suspected a great deal of it. They’d figured out a way to track his movements, and they were using that information to actively cover up CC-1010’s actions.

It explained some of their silence, their seeming lack of concern that helping Fox was risking fatal repercussions. If CC-1010 had been acting against the Republic’s best interests, then that would be treason, and the Guard had made itself complicit in it. But following the Chancellor’s orders, even if they were ones Fox couldn’t remember? That was just what they had been made to do. There was some safety for them all, in Fox just being a product, performing to its design specifications.

But CC-1010 had also come back to base with Chancellor Palpatine’s blood on his armor.

And that last part didn’t fit with the rest of the pattern. Fox was sorely afraid of making it fit.

But he needed to know. He needed to understand the extent of the risk he was posing to the rest of the Guard, and if his suspicions were correct, then keeping him in the dark about CC-1010’s actions wasn’t necessary anymore.

“Thorn,” Fox finally said, so quietly it was almost a whisper. But he could say this here; it was safe. They wouldn’t be overheard. “Did I kill the Chancellor?”

Thorn’s silence was already damning enough, but when he did speak, his words were almost worse. “If you did,” he said slowly, clearly picking out each word carefully. He cleared his throat and tried again, “If you did, then he deserved it.”

AN: If anyone else wants me to tag them as this gets updated, please just let me know. @tazmbc1

#caveat emptor fanfic #star wars #the clone wars #tcw #clone wars #star wars the clone wars #star wars fanfic #tcw fanfic #clone wars fanfic #the clone wars fanfic #commander fox #commander thorn #commander stone #sergeant hound #grizzer #quinlan vos

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jeraldnepoleon · 7 months ago

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Top 10 Electronic Health Records Apps Efficient Data Management | Grapes IDMR

In today’s fast-paced healthcare landscape, efficient data management is vital for enhancing patient care, reducing errors, and ensuring seamless workflows. Electronic Health Records (EHR) software is key to achieving these goals by centralizing and digitizing medical records. Grapes IDMR is committed to helping healthcare providers identify the best EHR solutions, and we've curated a list of the top 10 EHR apps that can transform medical data management in any healthcare facility.

Let’s dive into one of the top picks:

1. Doctor-G App Specifications

Teleconsultation: Doctor-G revolutionizes patient care by offering seamless teleconsultation features, allowing healthcare providers to conduct virtual appointments with patients from anywhere. This not only enhances accessibility for patients but also ensures that doctors can provide timely medical advice without the need for in-person visits.

Online Prescription: Doctor-G’s online prescription functionality allows doctors to easily generate and send prescriptions directly to patients or their preferred pharmacies. This feature minimizes the risk of prescription errors, streamlines the medication dispensing process, and enhances the overall patient experience by making it more convenient to receive necessary medications.

History View: Doctor-G provides a comprehensive history view that allows healthcare professionals to access and review patients' medical histories effortlessly. This feature ensures that doctors have all the necessary information at their fingertips, facilitating informed decision-making and personalized patient care.

Integrated Features for Enhanced Healthcare Management

Doctor-G stands out with its robust specifications designed to meet the dynamic needs of modern healthcare. The Teleconsultation feature enables doctors to conduct virtual visits, expanding access to care and reducing the need for physical appointments. The Online Prescription system simplifies the process of prescribing medications, ensuring accuracy and convenience for both doctors and patients. Additionally, the History View provides a detailed and easily accessible record of patients’ medical histories, empowering healthcare providers to make informed decisions and deliver personalized care. These integrated features make Doctor-G a comprehensive solution for efficient and effective healthcare management.

2. Grapes BSA-PRO Specifications

Patient Vitals: Grapes BSA-PRO enables healthcare professionals to easily monitor and track patients' vital signs, such as heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature. This real-time data helps doctors stay updated on their patient's health status, ensuring timely interventions and better patient care.

Surgery Information: The app provides a dedicated section for storing and managing surgery details, including surgical procedures, dates, and post-operative care instructions. This feature helps doctors and medical staff maintain a clear and organized record of all surgeries for each patient, making follow-up care smoother and more efficient.

Diagnostic Results: Grapes BSA-PRO ensures that diagnostic test results, such as blood tests, X-rays, and MRIs, are easily accessible within the app. This feature allows doctors to view and analyze test outcomes quickly, supporting faster and more accurate diagnoses, and enabling better-informed treatment decisions.

A Comprehensive Solution for Healthcare Providers

Grapes BSA-PRO combines essential features like Patient Vitals, Surgery Information, and Diagnostic Results to offer a well-rounded tool for healthcare professionals. Centralizing critical medical data in one app empowers doctors to provide timely and efficient care, improving the overall patient experience and enhancing healthcare management.

3. Grapes IDMR Specifications

Patient Records: Grapes IDMR provides a comprehensive platform for managing patient records, allowing healthcare professionals to store, access, and update vital patient information easily. From medical history to treatment plans, all data is securely organized in one place, enabling seamless healthcare delivery and personalized care.

Billing: The integrated billing feature in Grapes IDMR simplifies the financial aspect of healthcare management. It automates the billing process, ensuring accuracy in generating invoices and tracking payments. This functionality reduces administrative workload and provides a smoother payment experience for patients and healthcare facilities.

Appointments: Grapes IDMR streamlines appointment scheduling by offering a user-friendly interface for managing patient appointments. Healthcare providers can easily schedule, modify, and track patient visits, ensuring efficient time management and reducing scheduling conflicts.

An All-in-One Solution for Healthcare Management Grapes IDMR combines essential features like Patient Records, Billing, and Appointments to offer a holistic solution for healthcare facilities. By consolidating critical data and processes in one platform, Grapes IDMR enhances operational efficiency, ensuring smoother workflows and improved patient care.

4. My-Grapes Specifications

Easily Book Appointments: My-Grapes simplifies the appointment booking process for both patients and healthcare providers. With a user-friendly interface, patients can easily schedule appointments, while healthcare staff can manage and organize bookings efficiently, ensuring a smooth and streamlined experience.

Generate Bills: The app offers a convenient billing feature that allows healthcare providers to generate accurate and detailed bills with just a few clicks. This reduces the time spent on administrative tasks, ensures billing accuracy, and provides patients with a hassle-free payment process.

Vital Patient Information: My-Grapes securely stores and organizes vital patient information, including medical history, test results, and treatment plans. This ensures that healthcare providers have quick access to critical data, improving patient care and enabling informed medical decisions.

A Simplified Approach to Healthcare Management My-Grapes offers a complete solution with features such as Easily Book Appointments, Generate Bills, and Vital Patient Information. By streamlining these key processes, My-Grapes enhances operational efficiency for healthcare providers while improving the overall patient experience.

5. Grapes MIS Specifications

OP/IP Status Updates: Grapes MIS provides real-time updates on both outpatient (OP) and inpatient (IP) statuses. This feature allows healthcare providers to track patient progress, manage care efficiently, and ensure timely interventions by having up-to-date information on patient activities and conditions.

Live Financial Activity Tracking: The app includes a robust financial tracking system that monitors live financial activity. Healthcare facilities can keep a close watch on revenue streams, expenditures, and overall financial health, facilitating better budget management and financial planning.

Bed Occupancy Status: Grapes MIS offers a comprehensive view of bed occupancy status across the facility. This feature helps in managing hospital resources effectively by providing real-time data on available and occupied beds, aiding in efficient patient placement and resource allocation.

Optimizing Hospital Operations Grapes MIS enhances hospital management with key features like OP/IP Status Updates, Live Financial Activity Tracking, and Bed Occupancy Status. These tools provide healthcare facilities with critical insights and real-time data, supporting better operational decisions and improving overall efficiency.

6. Third Eye Specifications

Hospital Asset Management: Third Eye offers a robust system for managing hospital assets, including medical equipment, supplies, and infrastructure. This feature helps hospitals track and maintain their assets efficiently, ensuring that all equipment is in optimal condition and available when needed.

Essential Equipment and Resources: The app provides comprehensive oversight of essential hospital equipment and resources. By monitoring usage, maintenance schedules, and inventory levels, Third Eye ensures that critical resources are well-managed and readily available for patient care.

Efficient Asset and Resource Management with Third Eye

Third Eye enhances hospital management with features such as Hospital Asset Management and oversight of Essential Equipment and Resources. By offering detailed tracking and management capabilities, Third Eye helps healthcare facilities maintain operational efficiency and ensure that all necessary resources are in place to support quality patient care.

7. Vedha Specifications

Real-Time Inventory Tracking: Vedha offers real-time inventory tracking, providing up-to-date information on stock levels and usage. This feature ensures that healthcare providers can monitor inventory accurately and make informed decisions regarding supply management.

Automated Reordering: With Vedha’s automated reordering system, healthcare facilities can streamline their supply chain management. The app automatically generates purchase orders when stock levels fall below predefined thresholds, ensuring that essential items are always available without manual intervention.

Batch and Expiry Management: Vedha helps manage the lifecycle of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals through batch and expiry management. The app tracks expiration dates and batch numbers, reducing the risk of using expired or incorrect products and enhancing patient safety.

Streamlined Inventory and Supply Management with Vedha:

Vedha simplifies inventory management with features like Real-Time Inventory Tracking, Automated Reordering, and Batch and Expiry Management. These functionalities work together to optimize supply chain operations, ensuring that healthcare facilities maintain accurate inventory levels, reduce waste, and enhance overall efficiency.

8. G Call Specifications

Alert Call for Attender and Housekeeping: G Call provides a streamlined alert system for requesting assistance from attendants and housekeeping staff. This feature ensures that help is promptly dispatched when needed, improving the efficiency of hospital operations and enhancing patient care.

Emergency Alert Notifications: The app includes an emergency alert system that sends instant notifications to relevant hospital staff in case of critical situations. This feature facilitates quick response times during emergencies, ensuring that necessary actions are taken swiftly to address urgent medical needs.

Enhancing Hospital Efficiency with G Call

G Call enhances hospital management through features like Alert Call for Attender and Housekeeping and Emergency Alert Notifications. By facilitating prompt communication and quick response to emergencies, G Call ensures that hospital staff can efficiently address patient needs and maintain smooth hospital operations.

9. 360Degree Specifications

Remote Computer Control: 360Degree allows users to control computer systems remotely using their smartphones. This feature provides flexibility and convenience, enabling users to manage computer operations from anywhere, whether they’re on the go or away from their workstation.

Shutdown, Restart, Logoff, Lock: The app offers a range of remote functions including Shutdown, Restart, Logoff, and Lock. These capabilities help users manage their computer systems efficiently, ensuring that operations can be adjusted or secured as needed without physical access to the devices.

Flexible Remote Management with 360Degree

360Degree revolutionizes computer management with features like Remote Computer Control and the ability to shut down, Restart, log off, and Lock systems directly from your smartphone. This functionality provides users with enhanced control and flexibility, making it easier to manage computer operations efficiently and securely from any location.

10. G-office Specifications

Office File Management App: G-office is a comprehensive solution for managing office files, allowing users to organize, access, and edit documents efficiently. The app supports various file formats and provides tools for smooth document handling, ensuring that users can easily manage their office paperwork.

Data Security and Encryption: G-office prioritizes data security with advanced encryption protocols that protect sensitive information. This feature ensures that all files and documents are secure from unauthorized access and potential data breaches, maintaining confidentiality and integrity.

Cloud Storage Integration: The app integrates seamlessly with cloud storage services, enabling users to store and access their files from any device with internet connectivity. This feature ensures that documents are always available and backed up, facilitating collaboration and remote work.

Efficient and Secure File Management with G-office

G-office offers a robust platform for Office File Management, enhanced by features like Data Security and Encryption and Cloud Storage Integration. By providing secure document handling and flexible cloud access, G-office ensures that users can efficiently manage their office files while maintaining high levels of security and convenience.

Conclusion

In the evolving landscape of healthcare technology, selecting the right Electronic Health Records (EHR) software is crucial for enhancing operational efficiency and patient care. Our list of the Top 10 EHR Apps showcases a range of solutions designed to streamline medical data management, from teleconsultation and online prescriptions to real-time inventory tracking and remote computer control.

Each app on our list, including standout options like DOCTOR-G, Grapes BSA-PRO, and Vedha, offers unique features tailored to meet diverse healthcare needs. Whether it's facilitating virtual appointments, managing patient records, or ensuring the efficient handling of medical resources, these EHR apps provide comprehensive tools to improve healthcare delivery.

#grapesidmr #grapesinnovativesolutions #jeraldnepoleon #hms software #healthcare management software #my grapes #vedha #360degree #gcall #goffice #doctorg #top10HMSsoftware

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healthcare-updates · 11 months ago

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From Data to Decisions: Leveraging IoMT for Improved Healthcare Outcomes

The article explores how the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is transforming healthcare by enabling remote patient monitoring, enhancing chronic disease management, and optimizing smart hospital operations. It delves into the benefits, challenges, regulatory aspects, and future potential of IoMT integrated with AI and blockchain technology.

Introduction:

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) represents a transformative leap in healthcare technology, connecting medical devices and applications to healthcare IT systems via networking technologies.This interconnected web of devices allows for the seamless collection, analysis, and sharing of health data, which in turn enhances healthcare outcomes.By harnessing the power of IoMT, healthcare providers can make more informed decisions, improve patient care, and optimize operational efficiency.

The Role of IoMT in Healthcare

IoMT spans a vast array of devices, from wearable fitness trackers to advanced medical imaging equipment, all of which generate and transmit data that can be analyzed for critical insights.

Here’s how IoMT is revolutionizing various aspects of healthcare:

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM): Imagine a scenario where your vital signs, such as heart rate, blood pressure, and glucose levels, are constantly monitored without frequent visits to a clinic.RPM enables this by using devices like continuous glucose monitors and smart heart rate sensors.Read more>>

Chronic Disease Management: Managing chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) becomes significantly more effective with IoMT. Devices provide continuous, detailed data on disease progression and treatment efficacy. Read more>>

Smart Hospitals: In a smart hospital, interconnected devices such as IV pumps, patient beds, and imaging equipment streamline operations and enhance patient safety.Smart beds can automatically adjust to prevent bedsores, while connected IV pumps can precisely control medication dosages, reducing the risk of human error. Read more>>

Benefits of IoMT

Improved Patient Outcomes: IoMT facilitates early detection of potential health issues through continuous monitoring, allowing for preventive care and reducing the need for emergency interventions.For example, patients at risk of heart failure can be monitored for signs of deterioration, enabling early intervention and potentially life-saving treatment. Read more>>

Cost Reduction: By enabling remote monitoring and early intervention, IoMT significantly reduces the frequency of hospital readmissions.This not only improves patient outcomes but also alleviates the financial strain on healthcare systems.For instance, patients with chronic conditions can be managed at home, reducing the need for expensive hospital stays. Read more>>

Better Decision-Making: The advanced analytics on data collected from IoMT devices provide actionable insights for healthcare providers.For example, data from wearable devices can be analyzed to detect early signs of health deterioration, enabling timely intervention.Similarly, data from smart hospital equipment can help identify patterns and trends that inform clinical decisions. Read more>>

Challenges and Solutions

While the benefits of IoMT are clear, several challenges need to be addressed for its widespread adoption:

Data Security and Privacy: The vast amount of data generated by IoMT devices poses significant security and privacy risks.Personal health information must be protected to prevent unauthorized access and breaches. Read more>>

Interoperability: Different IoMT devices and systems often use varying protocols, making it difficult to integrate data seamlessly.For instance, a patient’s wearable fitness tracker may not easily communicate with the hospital’s electronic health record (EHR) system. Read more>>

Regulatory Compliance: IoMT devices must comply with stringent regulatory requirements to ensure patient safety and data privacy. This includes obtaining necessary certifications and adhering to standards set by regulatory bodies such as the FDA and EMA. Read more>>

The Future of IoMT in Healthcare

The future of IoMT is promising, with advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) poised to enhance its capabilities further.AI-driven analytics can provide deeper insights into patient data, predicting potential health issues before they arise and enabling more personalized care. Read more>> More Articles

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Smart Hospitals: Integrating Technology into Healthcare Design

#healthcare #InternetofMedicalThings #IoMTinHealthcare #healthcare industry #healthcare updates

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whatudottu · 2 years ago

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Me, remembering that pill bugs can filter heavy metals from soil:

My brain: You know what this means, don’t you?

Me: What-

My brain: You can make talpaedans part pill bug-

Me, working on amperi headcanons: Wait LET ME FINI-

I’ve gone over a few times that I like to think that talpaedans are techno-organic, less so being silicon or silicone based beings but being an integration of organic carbon materials and the more industrialised physiology of being a walking talking construction equipment. I have also previously made use of the whole ‘machine’ aspect of their natural biology to not only consider them as burrowers, but also as ant-like burrowers with haplodiplody, this form of sex-determination system being used to expand the combinations of construction equipment that an individual talpaedan might have, but also as a basis of which I form the sociopolitical building of talpaedan cities, in which case we have large city state colonies of ant inspired pangolins recreating feudalism Europe of the 10th-13th century.

But up - until this point - there was not quite a lot of circumstances that would allow for actual metallic components to not only present itself biologically but also do so naturally, so with the heavy metal eating pill bug there’s a source of extra inspiration. Oniscidae (apparently the more accurate name for pill bugs/rollie pollies and literally any name under the sun) can remove arsenic (which is actually a metalloid), cadmium, lead, and depending on sources also mercury from the soil; additional metals that can be extracted from soil are copper and zinc. The pill bug in question would crystallise these ions in their gut and create spherical deposits within them, but since we are not talking about the isopod alone surely it isn’t too much of a stretch to the idea that perhaps talpaedans can use these deposits within themselves to feed into the development of their most notable features, their built in equipment?

Assuming that Poiana Lüncas has these metals and that talpaedans would in fact filter for them, in real world human employed Earth uses of these metals can indeed be of fine use. Both arsenic and cadmium can be used as alloys and zinc specifically can galvanise other metals such as iron to prevent rusting, very significant indeed in industry, notably especially with large amounts of zinc can be used in hardware industries. Copper has a very notable use in electronics and wiring of which motors are included, let alone more refined wiring in TVs and radio. And argueably the more infamous of these metals (at least to a standard ‘basic’ level of understanding) we have mercury and lead, the former being used in many different industries for it’s ability to measure the change in temperature and pressure, and the latter for some solders, gasoline/petroleum and wonderfully hazardous cosmetic items that uninformed humanity has come to be harmed by.

ngl, spent a bit of time trying to find an oxygen-carrier of these metals that can feasibly make black blood but i literally do not know if the colour of oxides is in any way relevant to how oxygen-carrier bloodcells would actually be coloured as i’m not a chemist

But in highlighting these metals, I am not simply looking to see if a techno-organic talpaedan can have galvanised armour nor if they come built in with blood pressure monitors. No no no, I am saying more than what talpaedans eat but also what metals can talpaedans have easy access to in the development of technology, and how one might say that actually interacts with the ant-psychology of utterly fucking despising other colony.

Well-

Let’s say that google might be a little concerned about me learning about elements used in the construction of ammunition and radiation protection ehek-!

With the earth tilling that many developing talpaedans need to incorporate necessary metals into their diet, depending on the availabilty of said metals they may be an over abundance for food alone; especially with the pressure of competition of resources in combination with a general disdain for anything extracolonial, a factor that may lead to an escalation of tech development. There is an inherent baseline for technology in talpaedans that would already give their industrialisation a boost, in addition to the materials that may vary on quantity based on the region, colony size, and general population needs. Before long there are city states reinforcing their own barriers and expanding their borders for more and more materials - to consume and to create - to in fact increase and increase the tension between colonies so loud to the point pressure spills like a broken thermometer spills mercury and conflicts arise.

And when everything boils over do they realise that many have to balance the act of raising young and building more weapons, the factor that may in fact be the tipping point to realise that the colonies with the most resources are not only a threat but a threat that can overwhelm on the technological scale and the population number. In spite of how many colonies may indeed hate each other, it is more than worth it to them to compromise and in fact LIVE rather than be caught between the suddenly unveiling superpowers of the world that had previously lay unknown thanks to willful ignorance. Decimation of land is significantly reduced from cataclysmic to catastrophic as entire colonies are rased and in fact dug out into craters, many war-era alliances held to the modern day of Poiana Lüncas. A tithing - remnants of the treaties formed at the peak of desperation - of the youngest generation of adult men stands as both tradition and of appeasement, a colony trade and marriage across many different colonial alliances as a symbol of what had to be done before, sharing resources and rearing while the soldiers fought to live.

And all of this because they got a pill bug diet see this is why ants aren’t allowed to have materials for megaton bombs smh 😞

#talpaedan #poiana lüncas #ben 10 #xenobiology #xenosociology #should i tag war? because this became war by the end of this?#ask to tag #bestie why is it when i plan out an idea it takes forever to post #then when i suddenly remember heavy metal eating pill bugs i just write an entire post fresh onto a tumblr page?#have i not learnt? from the one time tumblr ate my entire post about a compilation of my petropia petrosapien ideas?#well i guess not because this was off the cuff plus sudden research #as a bonus again i don't know my chemistry but unless talpaedans don't breathe/need oxygen specifically #they could have a rather rare lead oxide for blood oxygen-carrier or a cuprate oxide oxygen-carrier #if i'm not completely and utterly fucking wrong because hemoglobin is an iron oxygen-carrier and iron oxide is reddish #really don't know about any other hemo stuff but i guess hemocyanin in copper but it's also blue so idk lmao #could also just be a LOT of iron like ferro fluid iron or somethin #or like straight up oil like idk how do you find out blood colour for fictional aliens #i know i found biological basis for techno-organisms and basis for being so fucking war torn #bestie i have no clue

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shaneschaffer · 3 days ago

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Transforming Healthcare: The Future of Medical Solutions

The world of healthcare is undergoing a profound transformation. With the advent of groundbreaking technologies and innovative medical solutions, the landscape of patient care, disease prevention, and treatment is being redefined. These advancements improve the effectiveness of medical interventions and enhance the patient experience, making healthcare more personalized and accessible. From advanced robotics to cutting-edge AI, this article explores the top medical solutions shaping the future of healthcare and their potential to revolutionize the industry.

AI and Big Data: Revolutionizing Diagnosis and Treatment

Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming a central player in the medical field, revolutionizing how diagnoses and treatments are delivered. AI algorithms can process and analyze vast amounts of medical data, such as electronic health records, imaging scans, and lab results, far more quickly and accurately than traditional methods. This ability to sift through complex datasets helps doctors diagnose conditions earlier, often before symptoms appear, allowing for early intervention and better patient outcomes.

Big data analytics also plays a significant role in predictive medicine. By analyzing trends and patterns in health data, AI systems can identify individuals at higher risk for certain diseases, allowing for targeted preventive measures. This proactive approach is increasingly common in managing chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, where early detection and personalized treatment plans can significantly reduce complications. As AI technology evolves, it will become even more integral in creating customized treatment regimens tailored to individual patients.

Telemedicine and Remote Healthcare Access

The rise of telemedicine has shifted how healthcare services are delivered, making medical care more accessible than ever before. Telemedicine allows patients to consult with healthcare providers remotely, using video conferencing, phone calls, or even text messages. This technology has proven particularly valuable in rural or underserved areas, where access to healthcare facilities may be limited.

Telemedicine has become especially essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, when in-person visits were restricted. However, even as the world recovers, telemedicine remains vital in expanding healthcare access. Remote patient monitoring (RPM), a subset of telemedicine, is also gaining momentum. Devices that track vital signs, such as blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen levels, allow patients to be monitored from home, with real-time data sent directly to their healthcare providers. This enables frequent check-ups and faster interventions, improving chronic disease management and reducing hospital admissions.

Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery

Robotics is another area where medical solutions have made significant strides. Robotic-assisted surgeries have become commonplace in many surgical specialties, including urology, gynecology, and cardiology. These robotic systems, such as the da Vinci Surgical System, provide surgeons with enhanced precision and control, allowing for smaller incisions, reduced blood loss, and quicker recovery times.

One key benefit of robotic surgery is its ability to perform minimally invasive procedures. These surgeries involve smaller incisions and less disruption to surrounding tissue, resulting in less pain and faster healing. For patients, this means shorter hospital stays, fewer complications, and a quicker return to normal activities. Additionally, robotic technology allows more complex surgeries to be performed with greater accuracy, improving outcomes and reducing patient risks.

Gene Editing: A New Frontier in Treatment

Gene editing technologies like CRISPR-Cas9 are paving the way for revolutionary treatments for genetic disorders. CRISPR allows scientists to modify specific genes within an individual's DNA, providing a potential cure for conditions like sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, and certain types of cancer. This technology offers hope for patients with genetic diseases that were once considered untreatable, and research is already showing promising results in clinical trials.

Gene therapy has the potential to cure genetic diseases and develop personalized medicine. By understanding the genetic factors that contribute to a patient's condition, doctors can tailor treatments to address specific genetic mutations. This individualized approach is poised to replace the traditional “one-size-fits-all” healthcare model, ensuring patients receive the most effective treatments based on their unique genetic makeup.

Wearable Technology and Health Monitoring

Wearable devices are becoming increasingly popular in health and fitness circles, offering a simple way for individuals to monitor their health daily. Devices like smartwatches, fitness trackers, and ECG monitors can track various metrics, such as heart rate, sleep quality, activity levels, and even blood oxygen saturation. These devices provide real-time feedback, helping users make more informed decisions about their health and fitness routines.

For healthcare providers, wearable technology offers valuable data that can be used to monitor chronic conditions, track recovery after surgery, or assess the effectiveness of treatment plans. With constant monitoring, doctors can detect early signs of complications and intervene before issues become critical. As wearables become more sophisticated, they will continue to enhance the patient-doctor relationship, offering real-time insights into a patient's well-being.

The Future of Medical Solutions

The future of medical solutions is bright, as technological advancements push the boundaries of what’s possible in healthcare. AI, robotics, gene editing, telemedicine, and wearable technology contribute to a new era of personalized, accessible, and efficient care. These advancements are improving patient outcomes and helping streamline healthcare systems, reduce costs, and make medical treatments available to a broader range of individuals.

However, challenges remain. Issues related to data privacy, the cost of implementing these technologies, and regulatory hurdles must be addressed to ensure these innovations are available to all. With continued investment in research and development, the potential for future breakthroughs in medical solutions is limitless. The future of healthcare promises to be more connected, personalized, and patient-centered than ever.

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oncare360 · 3 days ago

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What Are Remote Patient Monitoring Services? A Beginner’s Guide

In today’s fast-evolving healthcare landscape, Remote Patient Monitoring Services (RPM) are becoming a vital tool for improving patient outcomes and optimizing care delivery. These services use digital technologies to monitor and collect health data from patients outside of traditional clinical settings, such as in their homes. For patients with chronic illnesses or those recently discharged from the hospital, RPM Monitoring can mean the difference between early intervention and emergency care.

At its core, Remote Patient Monitoring Services allow healthcare providers to track vital health data like blood pressure, glucose levels, oxygen saturation, and weight in real-time or at regular intervals. This data is then transmitted electronically to healthcare professionals, enabling them to make informed decisions quickly and efficiently. The goal is not only to enhance patient care but also to reduce the burden on hospitals and clinics.

One of the leading platforms in the field, OnCare360, offers a comprehensive RPM Monitoring program tailored to meet both patient and provider needs. As noted on their website, OnCare360 Remote Patient Monitoring program includes device management, seamless data collection, and real-time communication between patients and healthcare teams. This ensures continuous care and rapid response to any warning signs or health concerns.

There are several key benefits to Remote Patient Monitoring Services:

Improved Patient Engagement: Patients become more involved in managing their health by tracking their own metrics regularly.

Early Detection and Intervention: Healthcare providers can identify potential issues before they become critical.

Cost Savings: Fewer hospital readmissions and emergency visits can result in significant cost reductions for both patients and healthcare systems.

Convenience: Patients can receive quality care from the comfort of their homes.

For healthcare providers and organizations, another important aspect of RPM Monitoring is understanding how to bill for these services. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have introduced specific RPM billing codes that make it possible for clinics and practitioners to receive reimbursement for providing remote monitoring. These codes typically cover initial setup, monthly monitoring, and time spent reviewing patient data. Familiarity with RPM billing codes is essential for practices looking to implement or scale their remote care services profitably.

OnCare360 simplifies the administrative side of things as well. Their platform supports accurate tracking and documentation, ensuring that healthcare providers meet the necessary requirements for RPM billing codes. This enables a smoother reimbursement process and maximizes revenue while maintaining high standards of patient care.

In conclusion, Remote Patient Monitoring Services are transforming the way healthcare is delivered, offering a proactive approach that benefits both patients and providers. With advanced solutions from companies like OnCare360, implementing RPM Monitoring has never been more accessible. Whether you're a healthcare provider exploring new care models or a patient seeking better health management, understanding RPM is a crucial first step toward a healthier future.

For more information, visit the website: https://oncare360.com/

#RPM billing codes #healthcare providers

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sacredcresttribe · 7 days ago

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Cardiometabolic Monitoring Products Market Size,Scope,Latest Trends,Opportunities (2024-2031)

Cardiometabolic Monitoring Products Market Overview and Estimation

The Cardiometabolic Monitoring Products Market Size has witnessed a steady upward trajectory in recent years, primarily driven by the increasing prevalence of cardiovascular and metabolic disorders such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. According to a recent market report, the market was valued at USD 7.91 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.2%, reaching USD 13.76 billion by 2030. This strong growth forecast is underpinned by growing awareness among patients and healthcare professionals about early detection and continuous monitoring of cardiometabolic conditions.

Aging populations, especially in developed economies, the rising adoption of wearable health technology, and supportive government healthcare initiatives have significantly contributed to this expansion. Furthermore, the increasing shift towards personalized medicine and remote patient monitoring has opened up new avenues for growth in the market.

Cardiometabolic Monitoring Products Latest Trends and Innovations

One of the most notable trends in the cardiometabolic monitoring space is the integration of AI and machine learning into wearable and remote monitoring devices. AI-enabled platforms can now analyze real-time data, predict adverse events, and provide personalized recommendations, significantly enhancing disease management outcomes.

For instance, recent advancements have led to the development of smart biosensors capable of continuously tracking glucose, cholesterol, blood pressure, and heart rate in a single patch. Companies like Fitbit, Abbott, and Apple are innovating with multifunctional devices that can track multiple parameters simultaneously.

Additionally, there's a growing trend of collaborative digital ecosystems where cardiometabolic monitoring devices are linked with electronic health records (EHRs) to enable real-time data sharing between patients and healthcare providers. This integration ensures better diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of complex cardiometabolic conditions.

Another key development is the increased use of remote patient monitoring (RPM), particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients now prefer at-home care models that allow seamless tracking of vital signs without frequent hospital visits.

Cardiometabolic Monitoring Products Market

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Cardiometabolic Monitoring Products Market Segmentation

The cardiometabolic monitoring products market can be segmented based on product type, application, and end user.

By product type, the market is largely dominated by blood pressure monitors, glucose monitoring systems, and wearable heart rate monitors. In 2023, glucose monitoring systems accounted for the largest market share, valued at over USD 3.2 billion, largely due to the rising global diabetic population. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices, such as Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre, have particularly gained popularity for their real-time tracking capabilities and ease of use.

By application, the market is segmented into diabetes, hypertension, obesity, dyslipidemia, and others. Diabetes remains the leading application area, driven by increasing incidence and heightened awareness around self-monitoring. As of 2023, the diabetes segment contributed nearly 45% of total market revenue, with rapid growth expected through 2030.

By end user, hospitals and clinics dominate the market due to widespread adoption of cardiometabolic monitoring tools in clinical settings. However, the home care segment is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 9% during the forecast period, driven by the shift toward remote and preventive care.

Cardiometabolic Monitoring Products Regional Analysis: Focus on the USA and Japan

United States

The United States holds the largest share of the cardiometabolic monitoring products market, accounting for approximately 38% of the global revenue in 2023. Several factors contribute to this dominance, including a high prevalence of lifestyle-related diseases, favorable reimbursement policies, and robust healthcare infrastructure.

The CDC reports that over 37 million Americans have diabetes, and nearly half the adult population suffers from hypertension. These alarming statistics have driven significant investment into early diagnosis and continuous monitoring solutions.

Government policies such as the Medicare Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) reimbursement program have further accelerated the adoption of home-based monitoring systems. The U.S. FDA has also fast-tracked approvals for digital health technologies, boosting innovation and market entry for new players.

Japan

Japan is the leading market in Asia-Pacific after China, contributing over USD 1.1 billion to the global market in 2023, with a projected CAGR of 7.5% through 2030. The country’s aging population—28.7% of the population is over 65—drives strong demand for chronic disease management tools.

The Japanese government has been actively promoting health-tech solutions through initiatives such as Society 5.0, which integrates AI, IoT, and robotics into healthcare. Additionally, Japan’s universal healthcare coverage and government subsidies for chronic disease treatment have played a pivotal role in driving market growth.

Key Highlights

The market reached USD 7.91 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 13.76 billion by 2030.

Integration of AI in wearable monitors is revolutionizing disease prediction and personalized care.

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) solutions are gaining momentum post-COVID-19.

Glucose monitoring systems dominate product type, with continuous glucose monitoring showing the fastest growth.

Home care applications are expected to outpace traditional settings, growing at a CAGR exceeding 9%.

Cardiometabolic Monitoring Products Major Competitors and Industry Activity

The cardiometabolic monitoring products market is highly competitive, with numerous players focusing on innovation, strategic partnerships, and mergers to consolidate their market positions. Some of the most prominent companies in this space include:

Abbott Laboratories – Leader in CGM with FreeStyle Libre series.

Medtronic plc – Known for its integrated diabetes management solutions.

Dexcom Inc. – One of the pioneers in continuous glucose monitoring technology.

Omron Healthcare – Market leader in blood pressure monitoring devices.

Philips Healthcare – Strong presence in wearable and remote patient monitoring solutions.

Recent Developments

In 2024, Dexcom launched the G7 CGM, a compact, all-in-one sensor with improved accuracy and faster warm-up time.

Medtronic acquired EOFlow, a South Korean insulin patch pump developer, to strengthen its wearable diabetes portfolio.

Abbott received FDA clearance for a new biosensor combining glucose, ketone, and lactate monitoring in one device.

Omron introduced AI-powered blood pressure monitors integrated with smartphone apps to track and predict hypertensive episodes.

Philips launched HealthSuite, a cloud-based platform that integrates cardiometabolic monitoring with patient EMRs.

Conclusion

The cardiometabolic monitoring products market is on a robust growth path, driven by the escalating global burden of chronic diseases, technological innovation, and policy-level support for preventive healthcare. The convergence of AI, wearable tech, and remote monitoring has ushered in a new era of proactive, patient-centric healthcare.

With major players making strategic investments and governments worldwide recognizing the value of continuous health monitoring, this market is set to become a cornerstone of modern chronic disease management. Over the next decade, the shift toward digital, connected care will not only improve patient outcomes but also significantly reduce healthcare costs globally.

#Cardio #Cardiology #Healthcare #Analysis #Trends #share #growth #analysis #marketsize #technology

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materialsscienceandengineering · 2 years ago

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Wearable sensors are becoming a promising tool in personalized healthcare and exercise monitoring. In a recent study, researchers from Japan develop a novel wearable chemical sensor capable of measuring the concentration of chloride ions in sweat. By using a heat-transfer printing technique, the proposed sensor can be applied to the outer surface of common textiles to prevent skin irritation and allergies, and could also be useful in the early detection of heat stroke and dehydration. The remarkable level of miniaturization possible in modern electronics has paved the way for realizing healthcare devices previously confined to the realm of science fiction. Wearable sensors are a prominent example of this. As the name suggests, these devices are worn on the body, usually directly on the skin. They can monitor important bodily parameters, including heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle activity. Some wearable sensors can also detect chemicals in bodily fluids. For instance, sweat biosensors can measure the concentration of ions in sweat, providing information on their levels in blood. However, designing such chemical sensors is more complex than physical sensors. Direct contact between a wearable chemical sensor and skin can cause irritation and allergies. In contrast, if the sensor is fabricated directly on a wearable textile, its accuracy decreases due to surface irregularities.