At the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, a new robotic rehabilitation system has been developed that’s smart enough to continuously and very finely adjust itself to the patient’s rehab needs. The robot consists of a harness suspended from the ceiling that is pulled on by motors up and forward so the user wearing […]
Author: Medgadged
New Way to Grow Liver Tissue to Repair Damaged Organ
Here’s an interesting new technology that might ameliorate symptoms in patients with liver failure, improve liver function, and decrease demand for liver transplants. Researchers at MIT, Rockefeller University, and Boston University have created a new way of building hepatic tissue that can be used to replace diseased parts of livers. The investigators’ building process involves […]
Non-Destructive Mass Spectrometry Helps Identify Tumor Margins Inside OR
Determining where a tumor margins are is one of the greatest challenges for surgeons treating cancer. Tumors have nearly all the same characteristics as healthy tissue, and so it’s standard practice to send biopsy samples of tissue to the pathology lab for margin inspection. This takes time, and often too long for the patient under […]
Baker’s Yeast Now Used for Drug Discovery
Scientists at the University of Toronto and the RIKEN Center in Japan have developed a new approach to help with drug discovery. Rather than requiring human cells, the technique is based on baker’s yeast, which is well-understood at a molecular level. Discovering how drugs work in the body can be very complex. Similarly, it can […]
EndoSwab Helps Verify Cleanliness of Reusable Endoscopes
Endoscopes are hard to clean due to all the little crevices where pathogens can hide, and this has led to quite a bit of controversy in the last couple of years. While more attention has been bestowed on this problem, there’s still a lot of work left to do to improve cleaning procedures, as a recent […]
Stellarex Drug-Coated Balloon for PAD Approved by FDA
Spectranetics, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, won FDA approval to bring to the U.S. market its Stellarex drug-coated balloon catheter. The device is designed and indicated for helping to restore and keep open the lumen of superficial femoral and popliteal arteries in patients with peripheral artery disease. The device features the company’s EnduraCoat Technology that gradually releases paclitaxel, […]
Cochlear Unveils Nucleus 7, World’s First Made for iPhone Cochlear Implant Sound Processor (Interview)
Cochlear, a medical device company at the forefront of the world’s hearing implant market, has announced the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor, the world’s first Made for iPhone cochlear implant sound processor, in partnership with Apple. Known for it’s Nucleus cochlear implant and Baha bone conduction implant technologies, Cochlear previously released the world’s first Made for iPhone bone conduction […]
Review of LifeBEAM Vi Headphones: Where Artificial Intelligence Meets Personal Training
Summer is here in the Northern Hemisphere, and the weather is pleasant (almost) every day. Some of us, especially those living in the northern United States, have emerged from our winter hibernation with a couple extra pounds to lose. For anyone in need of a little extra motivation to get back in shape, a personal trainer […]
Micro-Sized Silk Cocoons for Drug Delivery
An international team of researchers has used a microfluidic system to produce microsized silk capsules that could be used to deliver delicate proteins or drugs in the body. They extracted silk proteins directly from the glands on silkworms and ran them through small channels on a microfluidic chip to produce the silk capsules. The process […]
Tough Hydrogel Swells in Stomach for Drug Delivery
Researchers at MIT and Brigham & Women’s Hospital have designed a hydrogel that can be swallowed and will stay in the stomach for several days as it delivers drugs. At present, patients don’t always take their medication as prescribed. In fact, this non-compliance costs the health-care system in the U.S. over $100 billion annually in […]
New Surgical Glue Sticks Well to Wet Objects, May Replace Sutures, Staples
At Purdue University scientists have developed a new surgical glue that’s based on the proteins of sea mussels and other animals. The material, which is able to stick to objects while immersed in a water environment, has recently been tested and shown to work better than existing commercially available products. While sutures and staples work in most […]
CompuFlo Epidural Anesthesia System Measures Pressure at Needle’s Tip, Cleared by FDA
Milestone Scientific, Inc., a company out of Livingston, New Jersey, achieved FDA clearance for its CompuFlo Epidural Computer Controlled Anesthesia System. Milestone’s DPS Dynamic Pressure Sensing Technology is able to provide precise and continuous measurement of the pressure at the tip of the syringe, both helping to guide anesthesiologists when accessing the epidural space and recording the […]
Deep Learning Algorithm Diagnoses Schizophrenia from fMRI Scans
A scientific collaboration between researchers at IBM and the University of Alberta in Canada has come up with a software tool that analyzes functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of patient brains and with 74% accuracy diagnoses schizophrenia. Moreover, the software’s algorithms were also able to reasonably estimate how bad the symptoms of the disease were […]
New, More Effective Flu Vaccine Delivered Using Dissolvable Microneedle Patch
Researchers at Georgia State University have developed a more effective way of delivering influenza vaccines thanks to a dissolvable microneedle array and a special formulation of the vaccine. The microneedle device is made of a biocompatible polymer, the needles of which are tightly packed with the vaccine. The vaccine works well thanks to a novel […]
New Way to Reprogram Macrophages Helps Immune System Kill Tumors
Macrophages, as their greek-derived name implies, are hungry white blood cells that consume all kinds of foreign and unwanted objects within the body. They are one of the primary methods that the immune system uses to fight off disease, and they work by checking the protein content on the exterior of cells to identify whether […]
Embrace Neonatal MRI System Cleared to Stay Inside Neonatal ICUs
The FDA has just cleared Aspect Imaging‘s Embrace Neonatal MRI System, the first dedicated neonatal MRI system to receive a regulatory green light in the U.S. It’s intended to be used to image the head and brain, and to remain inside of neonatal intensive care units (NICU). Currently, these fragile little patients have to be […]
New MRI Probe Highlights Fibrogenesis to Help Track Scar Formation Noninvasively
Tissue injuries often result in fibrogenesis, a process involving the development of an extracellular matrix that results in scars. While it can be viewed on the exterior of the body, currently there are no noninvasive methods to track the progress of fibrogenesis within the body’s interior. A team of researchers at Harvard Medical School have now […]
Stryker’s MultiGen 2RF Generator for Facet Joint Ablations Cleared by FDA
Stryker, a company best known for orthopedic devices, won FDA clearance to introduce its MultiGen 2 RF Generator in the U.S. The device is used to treat pain deriving from facet joints in the spine by delivering radiofrequency energy that ablates targeted tissues. Compared to the previous version of the device, Stryker claims that the MultiGen […]
Stryker’s MultiGen 2RF Generator for Facet Joint Ablations Cleared by FDA
Stryker, a company best known for orthopedic devices, won FDA clearance to introduce its MultiGen 2 RF Generator in the U.S. The device is used to treat pain deriving from facet joints in the spine by delivering radiofrequency energy that ablates targeted tissues. Compared to the previous version of the device, Stryker claims that the MultiGen […]
Non-Invasive gammaCore Device to Fight Pain of Cluster Headaches Released in U.S.
The gammaCore non-invasive vagus nerve stimulator from electroCore, a Basking Ridge, New Jersey company, is now available for adult patients to treat acute pain arising from episodic cluster headaches. Currently only available with a doctor’s prescription, the gammaCore device is used to transmit an electric current through the neck and to the vagus nerve. This is done […]