Channel Medsystems, a company based in San Francisco, California, won the European CE Mark to introduce its Cerene cryotherapy device in the European market. The endometrial ablation device is designed to help address heavy menstrual bleeding in premenopausal women who are done having children. Unlike other existing endometrial ablation device (Read more...)
Author: Medgadged
Computer Vision Applications in Mental Health: An Interview with Dr. LP Morency
The National of Mental Health estimates that more than 40 million adults in the US experienced some form of mental illness in 2015, 16 million (or almost 7% of the US population) of which experienced at least one major depressive episode. Over their lifetime, almost 30% of US adults will develop an anxiety disorder. This […]
New MRI Technique Images Glucose in Body to Spot Tumors
Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center have developed a highly sensitive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system that can image tumors in the body, without the need for conventional contrast agents or radioactivity. Normally, doctors often inject a contrast agent into the blood before an MRI scan. The contrast agent circulates in the blood (Read more...)
Nightingale System Offers a Smart and Geeky Sleep Experience: Medgadget Review
A few weeks ago we had an opportunity to review the new Nightingale smart home sleep system from Cambridge Sound Management, a Massachusetts firm. At its core it’s a sound and noise generator that works to distract your brain from the environmental sounds coming from all around you. Similar devices have existed in the past, but (Read more...)
HxRefactored Interview with dacadoo, an Open API Health Score and Digital Engagement Platform
On Day 1 of HxRefactored, we heard from Matt Park, VP of North American Sales for dacadoo, about the company’s mobile patient engagement and Health Score technology platform. During the conference, we had a chance to sit down with Alex Rice, dacadoo’s North America Business Development Manager, to learn more about the company and its [& (Read more...)
Light-Sheet Microscopy Images Tumor Margins Intraoperatively to Guarantee Full Tumor Removal
Surgical tumor removal, particularly within the breasts, suffers from imprecision related to identifying the margins of where the tumor is. That’s because tumors are often indistinguishable from healthy tissue until they’re visualized and analyzed by pathologists using laboratory microscopes. The time it takes to confirm that sampl (Read more...)
Georgia Tech Researchers May Have Developed Technology to Prevent Cancer Metastasis
Cancer cells rely on their cytoskeletons to move away from where they are born, resulting in metastasis of the cancer. This process has been a challenge to prevent, but doing so can go a long way toward successfully killing cancers before they’re allowed to spread. Researchers at Georgia Tech are now reporting in Proceedings of the (Read more...)
New Way to Optimize Exoskeletons Helps to Drastically Improve Their Efficiency
Exoskeletons that help people with mobility issues have been in development for quite some time now and some even been approved by the FDA for at-home use. Though there’s already a great deal of technology built into these types of devices, they remain clunky, imperfect, and produce a gait that resembles that of robots in old […]
Calon Cardio’s MiniVAD Left Ventricluar Assist Device Set for 2018 Clinical Trials
Working with the University of Swansea, Calon Cardio, a Welsh firm, has created the first UK-developed Left Ventricluar Assist Device (LVAD). The MiniVAD is scheduled to begin a 50 patient clinical trial in late 2018, with a full clinical rollout planned for 2020. Calon Cardio’s miniature implantable heart pump is used to treat advanced (Read more...)
Wrist Worn Wearable Measures Glucose, Cortisol, and Interleukin-6 from Sweat
Researchers at University of Texas at Dallas may have revolutionized diabetes management thanks to a remarkable new wrist-worn sensor that is able to continuously and accurately monitor glucose, cortisol, and interleukin-6 in perspired sweat for up to a week. These days, blood has to be drawn and levels of cortisol and interleukin-6 (Read more...)
Ontario, Canada Poised to Lead Global Biotech Innovation: Interview with Minister Reza Moridi
Canada’s province of Ontario has been rapidly developing its infrastructure for world class biomedical research. In a place that birthed the discovery and isolation of insulin in 1921, the first external cardiac pacemaker in 1950, and the discovery of stem cells in 1961, Ontario has historically been ripe with biomedical innovation. To (Read more...)
Tiny Barometric Sensor to Detect Presence of Disease Biomarkers
Researchers from Jinan University in Guangzhou, China and Washington State University have developed a novel type of sensor that works by measuring pressure changes induced by the production of oxygen (O2). The technology may miniaturize and make readily available testing of a wide variety of biomarkers. The team of researchers has already demonstr (Read more...)
Exosomes, The Elusive Tiny Vesicles Produced by Cells, Have Lots of Potential for Medicine
Exosomes are tiny capsules (30-130 nanometers) produced by cells that seem to be involved in all sorts of processes within the body, but only lately have they been properly studied. Because these natural nanoparticles are involved in many different biochemical processes, they may be relevant for a wide variety of clinical applications including dia (Read more...)
Coffee Helmet for Better Nose and Throat Surgery
Engineers at Vanderbilt University have developed a silicon cap filled with coffee grounds to track patient head movements and orientation during delicate nose and throat surgery. The technology was recently presented at the International Conference on Information Processing in Computer-Assisted Interventions in Barcelona, Spain. At present, patien (Read more...)
WONTECH Picocare Laser System for Tattoo Removal Cleared by FDA
Korean company WONTECH won FDA clearance to introduce its Picocare laser-based tattoo removal device. The system relies on a Nd:YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet) laser that generates light in a choice of four different wavelengths and delivers it in pulses lasting only 750 picoseconds (.00000000075 s). The laser light is able to b (Read more...)
Merit Medical’s Embosphere Microspheres for Minimally Invasive Treatment of Enlarged Prostate
Merit Medical has announced winning de novo clearance for its Embosphere Microspheres to be used for prostatic artery embolization procedures as a treatment option for symptomatic enlarged prostate. The de novo classification means that this is the first product that can be used to embolize the prostatic artery without resorting to surgery. The tin (Read more...)
HxRefactored Panelist Interviews: Philips CMO Rob Smythe and Cleveland Clinic Director Dr. Julie Rish
During Day 1 of HxRefactored 2017, Medgadget had a chance to sit down with two panelists from the Improving the Clinician Experience panel session to learn more about their work. The interviewees were Rob Smythe, CMO of Health Informatics at Philips, and Julie Rish, PhD, Director of Patient Experience Best Practices at Cleveland Clinic. Mike B (Read more...)
LivaNova’s Seizure Fighting Vagus Nerve Stimulators Approved for MRI
LivaNova, a company with offices in Texas and Belgium that makes vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) systems that help to prevent the onset of epileptic seizures, received FDA approval for patients with the implants to be free to undergo MRI scans. While some precautions are still necessary, the previous MRI related approval required special equipment to (Read more...)
Computer Vision Algorithm Studies Laparoscopic Procedures to Understand What’s Going On
Laparoscopic surgeries are often automatically recorded from the point of view of the endoscope’s lens. This is thanks to built-in recording equipment that accompanies many commercial endoscopic systems. What isn’t easy is reviewing all those hours of footage to find something that may be useful for training clinicians or that may be us (Read more...)
HxRefactored 2017 Day 1: Purpose Driven Design, Health Equity, and the Clinician Experience
Welcome to Medgadget‘s coverage of HxRefactored taking place this week in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now in its seventh year, HxRefactored, a Health 2.o and Mad*Pow event collaboration, brings together healthcare designers, practitioners, and technologists to learn about and discuss opportunities to improve health experiences through (Read more...)