Chronic pain affects 100 million Americans and is the most common cause of long-term disability. Long-term use of pain medications has significant risks, and chronic pain is a major contributor to opioid overuse. NeuroMetrix hopes to offer effective, non-medication solutions for chronic pain. The Waltham, MA-based company has developed the Que (Read more...)
Author: Medgadged
The Pacey Cuff Urethral Control Device: Interview with CEO and a Practicing Urologist
Pacey Medtech, based in Vancouver, Canada, has developed the Pacey Cuff, a urethral control device for urinary incontinence in men, post-prostate cancer treatment. Treating prostate cancer can sometimes lead to urinary incontinence, which can have significant consequences for patient confidence and comfort. The psychological impact of incontinence (Read more...)
Automated System Rates Breast Density on Mammograms
Nearly half of women have dense breasts, a risk factor for breast cancer. For proper screening, spotting dense breast tissue is important, as it can hide the presence of tumors. Currently, dense tissue is identified by radiologists viewing mammography images, but their evaluations are subjective and therefore can vary from physician to physician. A (Read more...)
Tyto Lets Primary Care Docs Examine Patients Remotely, Now Cleared in Europe
Tyto Care, based in Israel, won the European CE Mark, allowing it to introduce its telemedicine system on the continent. This product lets people perform exams on each other under the guidance of a physician who is able to see and hear what’s going on in real time and is able to review the various […]
SnapECG: Medgadget Reviews a Basic ECG Tracing Viewer for Your Phone
mhealth’s SnapECG is a medical-grade handheld single-lead electrocardiograph that connects via Bluetooth to a smartphone. It gives a recording of the heart’s electrical pulses, and stores the data to be given to a doctor later. It has received CE mark in Europe and approval from the Chinese Food and Drug Administration (CFDA). It can be (Read more...)
TSP Crosser for Transseptal Puncture and Left Atrial Navigation Cleared by FDA
Transseptal Solutions, a firm based in Israel, has been given clearance to introduce its flagship TSP Crosser Transseptal Access System in the U.S. The device is used to provide a path and to deliver catheters into the left atrium of the heart. Most minimally invasive cardiology procedures have been performed on the right side of […]
Paper-Based Smart Stickers for Implantable and Stick-On Diagnostics and Therapy
Flexible electronics make possible new wearable and implantable medical devices that conform to the body’s complex curvatures. While a great deal of progress has been made to make such technologies a reality, a lot of them are hard to manufacture, suffer from problems such as poor breathability, and don’t perform well inside the body. N (Read more...)
Smart Textiles to Release Drugs When and Where Needed
At the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) researchers are working on integrating therapeutic drugs into textiles that can release them into the skin as needed. The researchers envision pain medication to be administered as soon as the body severely during a sports injury, or an antibiotic can be released as (Read more...)
Researchers Use Novel Machine Learning Strategy to Accelerate Brain-Computer Interface Training
Brain-computer interfaces are typically systems which measure neural activity and convert it into artificial output. These systems have shown great potential for assisted movement in patients with motor impairments. The interfaces typically work by directing the patient to think about making a movement and allowing the system to repeatedly record t (Read more...)
Demystifying Blockchain Technology in Healthcare: Interview with Nicholson Center CTO Dr. Roger Smith
Continuing our series of conversations with healthcare thought leaders about the burgeoning world of blockchain technologies, Medgadget spoke with Chief Technology Officer of the Nicholson Center, Dr. Roger Smith. The Nicholson Center is a medical research and training center founded in 2001, which operates within the Florida Hospital network. (Read more...)
New PICO 7Y Negative Pressure Wound Therapy System to Treat Two Sites at Once
Smith & Nephew is launching its brand new PICO 7Y negative pressure therapy system designed to be able to treat two wounds at the same time. The system uses a single pump that can support two dressings via a special Y extension, helping with cost savings while reducing the amount of gear worn by the […]
Reminder: Medgadget 2018 Sci-Fi Writing Contest: Win The Eko Digital Stethoscope
It’s that time of the year when we call on technological visionaries, medical futurists, and creative people of all kinds to submit medical science fiction stories to our annual Medgadget Sci-Fi Writing Contest. At Medgadget, we keep a record of the progress of medical technologies and hope to inspire you to imagine a futu (Read more...)
GE Healthcare Unveils New Automated Breast Ultrasound for Dense Breasts
GE Healthcare is unveiling its brand new Invenia Automated Breast Ultrasound (ABUS) 2.0 in the U.S. It is the only FDA approved “ultrasound supplemental breast screening technology,” which allows for spotting of cancerous lesions within dense breast tissue, according to GE. Since dense breast tissue is similar in density to tumors, the (Read more...)
Microlaparoscopic Robotic Surgeries Now Cleared on TransEnterix Senhance System
TransEnterix, the maker of the Senhance robotic surgical system, won FDA clearance for its new 3 millimeter line of instruments, as well as some more 5 mm instruments. At only 3 mm in diameter, the new instruments make it possible to use the Senhance system for microlaparoscopic surgeries with incisions so small that, once healed, are [&hellip (Read more...)
Pervasive ECG: Integrating Body Sensors Into Everyday Things (Interview)
Wearable devices with body sensors have been seen by many as a way to get the general public to be better aware of their overall health. It’s a nice idea, but it still requires people to remember to wear their devices, to check up on the readings via the smartphone, and to recharge the devices […]
Vagus Nerve Stimulation to Reduce Post Surgical Brain Inflammation
Following a difficult surgery, some patients end up experiencing cognitive decline and delirium, which seems to arise from inflammatory changes in the brain, that are still poorly understood. This inflammation is difficult to control in a targeted way, but researchers at Duke University seem to have discovered that electrical nerve stimulation may (Read more...)
University of Bremen Introduces Medical Computing as New Area of Study
Modern medicine relies a great deal on computers to help doctors diagnose and treat disease and administer care. A typical medical education, though, provides next to no knowledge about how images are processed by MRI systems or how big data is being used to expand our understanding of a variety of diseases. Academics at the Fraunhofer [&helli (Read more...)
Tiny New Endoscope for Looking Inside Blood Vessels
Cambridge Consultants, a UK firm, and OmniVision, based in California, have developed an impressive intravascular camera. It produces native images at 400 x 400 pixel resolution, considerably better than existing fiber-optic angioscopes, but engineers at Cambridge Consultants believe this can be boosted to 1,600 x 1,600 with its own software techni (Read more...)
Mechanical Devices Without Any Electronics Self-Report Usage to The Internet
Mechanical devices, particularly 3D printed ones, don’t have much room for electronics and so they remain “dumb” in many ways. Electronics need a power source and integrating them within moving components that are already complex can create greater difficulties. Engineers at the University of Washington have now developed a simple (Read more...)
FDA Clears DuraSorb Bioabsorbable Surgical Mesh
Surgical Innovation Associates, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, won FDA clearance for its DuraSorb Monofilament Mesh. The bioabsorbable surgical mesh is designed for use in reconstructive and cosmetic surgeries, providing structural support for about a year, eventually being absorbed by the body and disappearing from the surgical site to be rep (Read more...)