The Food and Drug Administration issued de novo approval to SENSIMED, a Lausanne, Switzerland firm, to introduce its Triggerfish continuous eye volume monitoring system. The Triggerfish allows physicians to decide when is the best time to measure the intraocular pressure that changes throughout the day and single in-office tests may not be at all i (Read more...)
Author: Medgadged
OcuMet Beacon Leads to Earlier Detection of Retinal Disorders: an Interview
OcuSciences, based in Ann Arbor, MI, has developed an instrument that will provide information to enable earlier diagnosis of eye conditions including glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and macular degeneration. Currently, in the case of diabetic retinopathy, it is only after being diagnosed with diabetes that a patient will begin to have their retina (Read more...)
Philips MR400 Patient Monitor Now Cleared for Use Near MRI Machines in U.S.
Monitoring of patients in the MRI suite, particularly those under anesthesia, is often impossible since traditional patient monitors don’t do well around strong magnetic fields. Philips just received FDA clearance to introduce the Expression MR400 patient monitor that works much like the monitors found in ICUs, but avoids image degradation an (Read more...)
Researchers Weld Neurons Together, Hope to One Day Repair Spinal Injuries
Broken neuronal connections are the cause of paralysis, organ failure, and other serious conditions. There have been attempts to bypass such injuries, with limited success, but now researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada have developed a technique that uses lasers to essentially weld neurons together. There’s still a ways to g (Read more...)
Thin Film Brain Implants Integrate Electronic Components in Flexible Package
There seems to be a race to develop practical neural interfaces that are implanted in a minimally invasive fashion and that don’t require wires sticking out of the scalp. We just reported on stentrodes that can be delivered into the brain through the vasculature and now we are learning of a new ability by researchers at Toyohas (Read more...)
Knee Perturbator Studies How Legs Recover from Stumbles to Improve Prostheses
Lower limb prostheses are becoming competitive with real legs in terms of strength, running speed, and other characteristics. One important factor these devices are still missing compared to natural legs is the brain’s assistance when recovering from a stumble. Now researchers at ETH Zurich and National Centre of Competence in Resea (Read more...)
Stentrodes for Recording Electrical Activity Within the Brain
Being able to accurately record brain activity over long periods of time holds promise for paralyzed people to control prosthetic devices or even their own arms and legs again. That’s can be thought of as only a start of course, as the brain is central to many diseases and conditions, as well as being a […]
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AXINESIS REAplan Upper Limb Rehab Robotic System Cleared in EU
AXINESIS, startup out of Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, won the European CE Mark to introduce its REAplan arm rehabilitation system. The product is designed to help people with brain injury, such as a stroke, recover motor activity in the upper limbs. The robotic device runs the patient through repetitive movement game (Read more...)
Hangout on Using Hep. E Viral Shells to Transport Drugs
Just a few days ago we reported on how scientists at UC Davis are using hollow shells of the Hepatitis E virus to safely transport drugs through the digestive system and into the rest of the body. We held a hangout with a couple of the researchers behind the project discussing their latest findings, applications for […]
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Withings Now Offers Hy-Result BP Assessment Software
Withings, maker of smart scales, activity trackers, wireless blood pressure cuffs, and other devices, has released a new in-app offering to better interpret blood pressure readings. The Hy-Result algorithms were developed at the Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris to replicate how a physician would study the numbers. In a recent study in B (Read more...)
Microfluidic Chip Mimics Smallest Capillaries to Study How Drugs Affect the Mechanics of Cells
It has been known for a while that some drugs seem to have physical rather than chemical modes of action or associated side effects. Glucocorticoid drugs that are used for asthma or rheumatoid arthritis, for example, increase the white blood cell count but biological explanations for how that happens have been unconvincing. R (Read more...)
Spectranetics Bridge Occlusion Balloon Plugs Large Vessel Tears Caused by Lead Extractions
Spectranetics, a Colorado Springs, CO firm, won FDA 510(k) clearance for its Bridge Occlusion Balloon, a device used to block large vessels, typically the superior vena cava (SVC), if a tear happens while removing cardiac leads. Though tears are rare, when they do happen the rapid blood loss can be difficult to manage. The Bridge Occlusion [&h (Read more...)
JINS Eye Exams and Custom Glasses in Under an Hour
JINS, one of the largest Japanese eyewear makers that recently made presence in the U.S. with its new store near San Francisco’s Union Square, is doing something pretty new for the U.S. market. The company partnered with 20/20 NOW, a novel eye exam provider that uses remote technicians and ophthalmologists, to offer eye exams and […]
Noctura 400 Sleep Mask Helps Diabetic Patients Keep Their Eyesight
Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness for adults between the ages of 20 and 64 in the United States. As a patient’s diabetes progresses, the blood circulation worsens and the supply of oxygen to the retina is compromised. The retina is especially oxygen-starved at night since the rods, which are use (Read more...)
Eye Implant for Producing Tears to Fight Dry Eye Syndrome
Dry eye syndrome may soon be treated with a new implant developed by a team led by researchers at Stanford University. The team identified the afferent neural pathway as being an excellent target for stimulation in order to activate tear production. They built a device that has platinum foil electrodes implanted under the inferior lacrimal [&hellip (Read more...)
Paxos Ophthalmology Tools Empower Docs, Simplify Monitoring of Patient Eyes
A new package of ophthalmic tools is being released by DigiSight Technologies (San Francisco, CA) that will allow physicians to keep a close track of the eyesight of their patients. The Paxos platform includes the Paxos Scope that can clip onto most smartphones to offer anterior & posterior segment visualization at up to 56° static [&hellip (Read more...)
XPAND Amblyz Electronic Glasses for Lazy Eye Proven Effective in Study
Lazy eye, or amblyopia, is typically treated with eye patches or special eye drops that block vision in the good eye so that the weaker one is forced to develop better. This normally involves young children who all too often hate eye drops and refuse to wear patches over the very eye that they see […]
BoomCast, a Smart and Loud 3D Printed Leg Cast
Anyone who has ever broken an arm or a leg knows full well how bulky and unwieldy conventional casts are. A group of engineers wanted to improve the experience and make casts more than just rigid structures to hold bones in place. The BoomCast is 3D printed based on a scan of a person’s leg […]
BoomCast, a Smart and Loud 3D Printed Leg Cast
Anyone who has ever broken an arm or a leg knows full well how bulky and unwieldy conventional casts are. A group of engineers wanted to improve the experience and make casts more than just rigid structures to hold bones in place. The BoomCast is 3D printed based on a scan of a person’s leg […]
Use of Ultrasound to Promote Faster Healing of Wounds
Sometimes discoveries in science are not about the development of new medical devices or drugs, but about repurposing existing technologies for new applications. Researchers from University of Sheffield have now used ultrasound to reduce healing times of diabetic wounds by 30%. The study, published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatol (Read more...)