Cardiologs, a company based in Paris, France, won FDA clearance for its software that analyzes electrocardiograms (ECG) for signs of cardiac arrhythmias. The system is based on a neural network, an artificial intelligence technique, that was trained by feeding it more than half a million previously gathered ECG recordings. The Cardiologs system liv (Read more...)
Author: Medgadged
New Mosquito Net Thwarts Mosquitoes Resistant to Existing Insecticides
BASF, the giant German chemical company, is reporting that the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a recommendation for the firm’s new Interceptor G2 insecticide-treated mosquito net. According to BASF, this is important because this is the “first WHO recommendation for a product based on a new insecticide class in more than (Read more...)
Researchers Develop Highly Effective Metal-Free MRI Contrast Agent
In order to better see certain features in MRI scans, patients are often injected with gadolinium-based contrast agents. They seem fairly innocuous for healthy people, but young children and those with poorly functioning kidneys can be seriously affected. Side effects such as vomiting and diarrhea can create further problems for an alread (Read more...)
Stanford Neurosurgery Department Taking Full Advantage of Virtual Reality
At Stanford Medicine neurosurgeons are relying on virtual reality to better understand the nuances of individual cases and to educate patients on their specific conditions. The system, a product of Surgical Theater, a Colorado company that we covered on a trip to the White House a few years ago, combines data from different imaging modali (Read more...)
Million Electrode Array for Brain Interfaces Is Under Development
Researchers at Columbia University are working on substantially improving the abilities of brain-computer interfaces by creating a high density electrode array that can stimulate and read the brain at high precision. The research is part of DARPA’s Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) project that is working on all the different piece (Read more...)
Toxic Nanoparticles Coated with Antibiotics Safely Kill Drug Resistant Bacteria
A team of Brazilian scientists may have come up with a practical way of killing off resistant bacteria by targeting them with toxic silver-silica nanoparticles coated with an antibiotic. Since antibiotics don’t have the full punch to eliminate bacteria resistant to them, the researchers instead used the antibiotic ampicillin as (Read more...)
PET Tracer to Directly Detect Blood Clots
Researchers in Germany have developed a fluorine-based tracer compound that can bind with high affinity to small clots, allowing doctors to image them using positron emission tomography (PET). Blood clots can cause heart attacks and strokes. Doctors often need to find clots using imaging techniques, so that they can treat them or identify where thr (Read more...)
Researchers Work to Grow Capillaries Inside 3D Printed Molds
Researchers at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine have overcome an important challenge to using endothelial cells sourced from induced pluripotent stem cells to generate bioengineered blood vessels. Specifically, the investigators were able to watch and guide the formation of tiny blood vessels within specially built molds that promote (Read more...)
Medtronic’s CoreValve Evolut Transcatheter Aortic Valves Now Approved for Intermediate Risk Patients
Medtronic has announced that its CoreValve Evolut transcatheter aortic valve replacement platform, consisting of CoreValve, CoreValve Evolut R, CoreValve Evolut PRO, is now FDA approved for patients with “symptomatic severe aortic stenosis who are at an intermediate risk for open-heart surgery.” Previously, the products were o (Read more...)
Sepsis-Detecting Point-of-Care Microfluidic Chip Developed
Sepsis is common and often deadly. Early detection of sepsis can be incredibly useful in preventing its full onset by allowing in-time administration of antibiotics. A couple of biomarkers of oncoming sepsis is leukocyte count and neutrophil 64 (CD64), a neutrophil surface antigen. Researchers at the University of Illinois have now reported in jour (Read more...)
Optical Fiber for Movement-Free Activation of Select Neurons in Brain
Researchers from Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Lecce, Italy and Harvard Medical School created a probe designed for optogenetic applications. Optogenetics is a recently developed technique that allows scientists to selectively activate neurons within the brain, and this technology may one day be used as a therapeutic tool to treat a varie (Read more...)
Masimo’s EU Approved Super Sensor Monitors Variety of Physiologic Parameters
Masimo just announced receiving European approval for its new rainbow Super DCI-mini sensor, a pulse oximeter that can simultaneously monitor arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2), hemoglobin (SpHb), carboxyhemoglobin (SpCO), methemoglobin (SpMet), pleth variability index (PVi), index of perfusion (Pi), and pulse rate (PR). This is the first non-i (Read more...)
New Software Diagnoses Cardiac Arrhytmias from ECGs Better Than Cardiologists
Stanford researchers claim to have developed an algorithm that “exceeds the performance of board certified cardiologists in detecting a wide range of heart arrhythmias from electrocardiograms [ECG] recorded with a single-lead wearable monitor,” according to a study published in arXiv. The team used the Zio patch from iRhythm T (Read more...)
Penclic R2 Ergonomic Mouse Review: Comfortable, but Is It Enough?
Using computer mice more than 20 hours per week is associated with carpal tunnel syndrome. Classic computer mice force users into a pronated forearm position, placing stress on the nerves of the carpal tunnel (a sheath in the wrist through which tendons and nerves pass through). The PenClic R2 is an unconventional mouse that aims to […]
MRI Compatible Biopsy Robot to Allow Precise Biopsies
Engineers at the University of Twente in The Netherlands have unveiled a new pneumatically powered robot, called Stormram 4, able to take biopsy samples while inside an MRI machine. In tests conducted by the researchers on phantom models of the breast the investigators were able to achieve sub-millimeter precision in reaching their targets. Current (Read more...)
Using Light to Activate Genes and Kill Cancer
Scientists at Kyoto University in Japan have developed a gene delivery system, involving gold nanorods and a near infrared laser, which can transport a gene into cells and activate it. Changing gene expression is a powerful way to affect cell behavior, and scientists hope to use this approach to treat a variety of diseases. Researchers […]
Update from Westminster Health Forum: Next Steps for Medical Technologies, Devices, and Diagnostics
Last week in London, UK the Westminster Health Forum event brought together clinicians, policymakers, and industry experts to discuss current challenges and future opportunities for innovation in the UK health sector. The day began with Paul Rice, Head of Technology Strategy at NHS England, who detailed examples of UK Global Digital Exemplar Progra (Read more...)
Nokia Launches Portfolio of Digital Health Products: Interview with VP Nokia Digital Health, Cedric Hutchings
Nokia announced its re-entry into the consumer market in late June by launching a portfolio of digital health products ranging from elegant activity/sleep trackers to smart scales and a home air-quality monitor. As the largest line of connected consumer health products on the market, they are now available for purchase on their website an (Read more...)
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Shows Structure of Proteins at Atomic Resolution
Researchers at the University of Stuttgart and Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Germany have made quite a breakthrough by being able to study the atom by atom molecular configuration of proteins using a miniaturized version of an MRI scanner. These days the structures of individual protein molecules are impossible to see and [&helli (Read more...)
CathVision: A Smoother Look at Cardiac Electrograms
CathVision is a Danish company that aims to reduce noisy electrogram signals during cardiac arrhythmia ablation procedures. With cleaner signals, cardiologists can better locate the areas that generate arrhythmias and ablate them. For example, with a higher signal-to-noise ratio, cardiologists can have higher confidence when probing the l (Read more...)