Seeing the wide smile on Dr. Basil Harris as he demonstrated his XPRIZE winning “DxtER” device last Friday at the Silicon Valley Comic Con in San Jose, California, it seemed almost natural that he and his team would win a five-year competition named after one of science fiction’s most iconic gadgets. His team was appropriatel (Read more...)
Author: Medgadged
CARDEA SOLO Wearable ECG Monitor for Detecting Difficult to Diagnose Arrhythmias
Cardiac Insight, a company out of Kirkland, Washington, has been cleared by the FDA to introduce its CARDEA SOLO wearable electrocardiography (ECG) sensing device. The electronic component is inside an electrode patch that is stuck to the skin. The patient is outfitted with the device at the doctor’s office and sent home to live a […]
Laser Treated Graphene Circuits Push Stem Cells to Differentiate Into Neural Schwann Cells
Schwann cells are important targets for stem cell therapy because they surround neural axons and can help regrow damaged or diseased nerves, potentially restoring movement to disabled arms and legs. Differentiating such cells has been difficult, but researchers at Iowa State University may have stumbled on a technique that will allow for mass produ (Read more...)
Allergan Wins FDA Clearance for Tear Inducing Nasal Stimulator
Allergan, best known as a pharma firm, won FDA marketing clearance to introduce its new TrueTear intranasal neurostimulator. The device is designed to boost the production of tears by sending a controlled electric current between its electrodes that in turn stimulates the lacrimal gland. The device comes with a bunch hydrogel slip-on tips that (Read more...)
ResMed Unveils World’s Smallest CPAP Designed for Travel
ResMed, one of the bigger names in CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) therapy, is unveiling today the world’s smallest CPAP device. The ResMed AirMini weighs less than 11 ounces (300 grams) and is only 5.4 inches (14 cm) on its longest side. Being so light and small can help patients take it along when traveling, […]
How Everyday Technology Can Improve Healthcare: An Interview With Samsung CMO Dr. David Rhew
If Apple Watch, a Google “smart contact lens”, and IBM Watson are any indication, the tech giants have a significant interest in healthcare. Samsung is no exception. As the largest consumer electronics company in the world, Samsung products touch nearly every aspect of our lives. So it’s no surprise that they’ve sought (Read more...)
HAART 300 Aortic Annuloplasty Device Cleared by FDA to Repair Aortic Valves
BioStable Science & Engineering, a company based in Austin, Texas, won FDA clearance for its HAART 300 Aortic Annuloplasty Device. Having received the CE Mark clearance last year, the company has already begun distributing the device in a few specialty European centers. According to the firm, this is the first annuloplasty device for repai (Read more...)
Cameras and Eyetrackers to Study How Kids With Cochlear Implants Learn
At the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center scientists are working on figuring out how young deaf kids adjust to their new cochlear implants and how they utilize the technology to study the world around them. While the devices liberate the hearing sense, children with cochlear implants are not as quick to learn new words as […]
Heart Sleeve Helps Heart Pump Blood: Interview with Harvard’s Ellen Roche
Heart failure is a very common clinical condition, afflicting millions of patients worldwide, and its prevalence is expected to further increase in the near future. Unfortunately, there are limited treatment options for advanced heart failure and the overall prognosis remains poor. Heart transplantation is considered to be the only definitive cure, (Read more...)
Solar-Powered Touch-Sensitive Electronic Skin for Next Generation Prosthetics
At the University of Glasgow in Scotland, researchers have developed a way of creating touch sensitive artificial skin that, as an added bonus, is also photovoltaic and therefore self-powered. This is a surprising development, as prosthetics typically consume a lot of energy and are always powered by an external source such as a battery. (Read more...)
Smartphone System for Counting Sperm, Measuring Their Motility at Home
At-home male fertility tests typically only let users count the number of sperm in a sample, but another important characteristics that usually only labs measure is sperm motility, or how energetic the sperm cells are as they move around. Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital have now developed an (Read more...)
BIOTRONIK Releases New Line of MR-Conditional Pacemakers, CRT-Ps
BIOTRONIK is releasing a new line of MR-conditional pacemakers, the smallest the company has produced, and new quadripolar cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemakers (CRT-P). The Edora devices allow patients to receive MRI exams, as long as certain precautions are taken, and feature MRI AutoDetect feature that automatically puts an impl (Read more...)
Novel Flexible Glove-Based Biosensor for Detecting Organophosphates
Organophosphates are toxic chemicals used as pesticides in agricultural practice and as nerve agents in biological warfare. Exposure to organophosphates can cause severe illness or death if appropriate safety measures are not taken. Rapid and accurate point-of-use detection of organophosphate pesticides or nerve agents would improve security in bot (Read more...)
Breast Cancer Detection Using Ultrasound: Interview with Dr. Georgia Giakoumis Spear, NorthShore University Health System
Detecting breast cancer is of vital importance in terms of treating it early and effectively. Mammography is the gold standard in routinely screening women for breast cancer. However, in a subset of women with dense breast tissue, mammography doesn’t work as well as one would hope. In fact, it can miss up to a third […]
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Medtronic’s New CoreValve Evolut Pro Transcatheter Aortic Valve Approved in U.S.
Medtronic received FDA approval for its CoreValve Evolut Pro transcatheter valve for implantation into symptomatic patients with severe aortic stenosis who are too fragile for open heart surgery. The self-expanding valve is based on the CoreValve Evolut R, and has a porcine pericardial tissue wrap that makes contact with the native valve and p (Read more...)
Stretching Cells with Laser Pulses
The establishment of cell culture systems opened the door to an unparalleled revolution in biomedical science, but this common lab practice remains drastically artificial and is often not translatable to real-life in vivo systems. This limitation is particularly notable in efforts aiming to understand the mechanisms regulating responses of cells an (Read more...)
Interview: Medstro Pioneers Online Platform Accelerating Healthcare Innovation and Collaboration
Medstro, an online community site for physicians, medical students, and healthcare innovators recently announced passing the milestone of 100,000 registered users – less than three years since it was founded by CEO, Dr. Jennifer Joe, MD and co-founder and COO, James Ryan. This self-funded Boston-based startup has grown impressively given its (Read more...)
Touch and Sound Replace Sight to Let Blind “See” Computer Screens
At Purdue University researchers are working on developing technology that would allow blind people to get a sense of what is displayed on a computer screen. The technology relies on hearing generated sounds and holding onto a force-feedback pen, similar to those common in table-top 3D visualization setups. As the user moves a cursor on […]
GORE VIATORR TIPS Endoprosthesis for Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt Procedures Gets FDA Approval
W. L. Gore & Associates, better known simply as Gore, received FDA approval and is making available in the U.S. its for its GORE VIATORR TIPS Endoprosthesis with Controlled Expansion. It’s intended for Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt (TIPS) procedures that link the portal vein to the hepatic vein to reduce the port (Read more...)
ARTIS pheno, Siemens’ New Flagship Angiography C-arm Cleared by FDA
Siemens won FDA clearance for its new ARTIS pheno robotic angiography C-arm. The system is essentially an upgraded version of the company’s Artis zeego (even the capitalization of the name has changed), sporting a zen40HDR flat panel detector and GIGALIX X-ray tube. The system features automatic dose selection to minimize radia (Read more...)