X-ray imaging is a cornerstone of modern medicine, but it comes with substantial risk for patients and healthcare providers. CT scanners, fluoroscopes, and mammography machines have to produce a great deal of ionizing radiation because existing silicon-based detectors aren’t very efficient at capturing incoming X-rays. Most of the radiation p (Read more...)
Author: Medgadged
Drive-Through COVID Test Booth Developed at Penn State
A team of engineers at Pennsylvania State University, including faculty and students, has been working on a solution to protect staff at drive-through COVID-19 testing sites. The team, working separately in different locations around the university, designed a booth that provides a barrier between the individuals being tested and the person conduct (Read more...)
Blood Filtering Device Wins FDA Emergency Use Authorization for COVID-19
The FDA has issued the first Emergency Use Authorization for a device to help treat COVID-19 patients currently in the ICU. Terumo BCT’s Spectra Optia Apheresis System, combined with Marker Therapeutics’ D2000 Adsorption Cartridge, is now indicated for adult patients with COVID-19 udergoing respiratory failure. The device is intended to (Read more...)
JINS SCREEN Lenses Now Free During At-Home Season
All kinds of organizations, institutions, and companies are trying their best to help alleviate stresses created by the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic. Companies are giving away free data, and at-home eye tests, and insurance companies are lowering their rates temporarily, and others are offering their services free of charge. Our friends at JINS, a Jap (Read more...)
Researchers Turn One Ventilator into Two
A group of clinicians, medtech researchers, and companies based in Galway, Ireland, has developed a system that allows two patients to use one ventilator, essentially doubling the effectiveness of existing ventilator stocks during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Called the Galway VentShare system, the technology consists of viral filters, valves, tu (Read more...)
Abbott TriClip Cleared in Europe for Minimally Invasive Tricuspid Valve Repair
Abbott announced that it received the European CE Mark for its TriClip Transcatheter Tricuspid Valve Repair System, a minimally-invasive device for tricuspid regurgitation repair. Like many other valve repair devices, TriClip is designed for implantation using a minimally-invasive transcatheter procedure. Unlike other devices, however, TriClip work (Read more...)
World’s First Indoor Disinfection Drone Ready to Fight COVID-19
In true timely fashion, Digital Aerolus, a global leader in autonomous technology for any vehicle that flies, drives, dives, or swims, has developed the first indoor drone with C-band ultraviolet (UVC) lights, created specifically to combat the spread of the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) virus with a 99% disinfection rate. By using its patented technologie (Read more...)
Aranet Multi-Patient Temp Monitoring System Unveiled for COVID Clinics
Hospitals addressing the COVID-19 epidemic are worried about being short on ventilators, personal protective equipment, and appropriate bed space where patients can be treated. The biggest hurdle may be having enough staff to monitor large numbers of patients. To help address this matter, Aranet, a company that normally makes environmental monitori (Read more...)
Electric Car Manufacturer Switches to Making Emergency Ventilators
Mullen Technologies, a company that’s aiming to soon start producing a high-performance electric car, has directed its engineering and manufacturing efforts into releasing an emergency ventilator for the current COVID-19 pandemic. The Mullen 8 ventilator, named for oxygen’s atomic number, is based on easily obtainable parts and will be (Read more...)
Breast Pumps Converted Into Ventilators to Help COVID-19 Response
A team of engineers working at University of Maryland’s TechPort, typically a drone startup incubator, are converting breast pumps into rudimentary ventilators. Breast pumps create significant suction to pull milk out of a woman’s breast. Turns out the pressure, if reversed, can probably provide enough assistance to deliver the necessar (Read more...)
CroResp Makeshift Respirator Mask for COVID-19 Pandemic: Interview with Ivor Kovic, MD
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant shortages of PPE for medical staff. This is extremely concerning, as it means that clinicians can’t adequately protect themselves, and infections among medical staff will lead to staff shortages at a time when every member of staff is needed. Similarly, infections among clinicians could promot (Read more...)
University Converts CPAP Machines into Ventilators
As cities across the United States face ventilator shortages for COVID-19 patients, a group at Auburn University has developed a way to convert continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines into functioning ventilators. CPAP machines are commonly used by sleep apnea patients to help maintain an open airway during recumbent sleep. Engineers at (Read more...)
Stryker Emergency Relief Bed to Help COVID Clinics
Stryker, a big name in the medical device space, is releasing its Emergency Relief Bed specifically designed for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The company claims it’ll be able to manufacture 10,000 of these per week as the demand for extra beds escalates and facilities are converted to temporary hospitals. The Stryker Emergency Relief Bed is (Read more...)
University Ventilator Supports Two Patients Independently
A group of engineers from Georgia Tech, Cranfield University in the UK, and Emory University, have developed their own version of a bag-mask-valve (Ambu-bag) ventilator. It combines the ubiquitous resuscitation bags that are found within hospitals and inside ambulances, a motorized device to squeeze the bag, and an oxygen concentrator. The nice thi (Read more...)
Stanford’s Smart Toilet Scans Urine and Stool for Diseases
Advancements in wearable sensors have allowed us to quantify and monitor the many bio-signals, and sometimes even bio-fluids, that emanate from our bodies. But when it comes to urine and fecal matter, which can contain a wealth of information, we’ve largely relegated its inspection to the yearly physical or when helping a doctor diagnose a [& (Read more...)
A Sticky Solution to a Hard Problem : Interview with Dr. Luiz Alavarez, CEO of Theradaptive
The development of biomaterials for orthopedic applications is a crowded space with several large and small companies designing innovative materials. One approach is the use of these materials to deliver therapeutic proteins that enhance healing. Theradaptive has developed a novel method to modify the proteins themselves so that they coat the surfa (Read more...)
SMARTDrill™: An Interview with SMART Medical Devices Cofounder, Wayne Anderson MD/MBA
Smart Medical Devices Inc., a startup based in Las Vegas, Nevada, believes surgeons should have access to surgical tools and devices that deliver real-time and actionable data. Smart Medical Devices, Inc. was created by three physicians who recognized the inefficiency and inherent risks involved when using current orthopedic drilling technology, an (Read more...)
Materialise Breathing System to Help Reduce Need for Ventilators
Conventional mechanical ventilators are the go-to method when patients in severe respiratory distress need help breathing. As things stand, there’s an unprecedented demand around the world for ventilators to help patients acutely affected by COVID-19. Materialise, a leader in custom 3D manufacturing, has now developed and is moving through re (Read more...)
Tablo Hemodialysis System Receives FDA Clearance for Home Use
Outset Medical announced that it received FDA 510(k) clearance for its Tablo Hemodialysis System to be used in the home, expanding its existing labeled indication for use in acute and chronic care facilities. Touted by Outset as a “dialysis clinic on wheels,” Tablo is designed to reduce dialysis cost and complexity. The device needs onl (Read more...)
Ortho Diagnostics Unveils COVID-19 Antibody Test
Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, a company out of Raritan, New Jersey, has unveiled its SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) antibody test, a development that may allow the detection of those who have already fought off the virus, but never knew they had it. This will help with tracking the spread of COVID-19, identify clinical staff that can pretty safely […]