Elysium Health, a life sciences company selling health products with a particular focus on interventions that target fundamental processes of aging, has developed the Index at-home biological age test. The company claims that the test allows users to determine their biological age at home, and provides science-backed healthy living recommendations that may be able to […]
Author: Medgadged
Optical Coherence Tomography Finally Used to Measure Cartilage Health
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an imaging modality that provides a micron-level look at the tissues being examined. It is used in ophthalmology to assess the eyes and for imaging the interior of arteries to help with atherectomies. Although OCT has significant potential to help clinicians evaluate the health of tissues, it has proven difficult […]
FDA Clears First Duodenoscope with Disposable Business End
Pentax Medical won FDA clearance for its ED34-i10T2 duodenoscope that features a disposable elevator end piece, making it easier to guarantee that the scope is properly sterilized between patients. This is the first scope of its kind, although we recently covered the clearance of ScopeSeal, a disposable device that snaps over a scope’s business end […]
Autonomous Monitoring of Healthcare Facilities Using AI and Advanced Sensors: Interview with Chakri Toleti, Founder and CEO of care.ai
care.ai, an artificial intelligence company based in Florida, has partnered with Google to create an autonomous patient monitoring system. By combining multiple sensors in a patient’s room and neural network data analysis, the system can identify and predict accidents and clinical events, in some cases warning healthcare staff before an incident happens. Preventable accidents and […]
Art Therapy Using Virtual Reality
Virtual reality is already used in medicine to train surgeons, fight phobias, and even help with early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at Drexel University have now taken the first steps to apply virtual reality in the field of art therapy. “Art therapy is founded on the idea that creative expression with an art therapist […]
Flexible Wireless Oxygen Sensor for Monitoring Newborns at Home
Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute have developed a prototype wireless, flexible oxygen sensor the size of a band aid. The device can be stuck to the skin and can wirelessly monitor blood oxygen levels and transmit data through the internet to doctors and caregivers. The technology may allow ill newborns to go home with their […]
Low Cost Turbidity Measurements Using a Fitness Tracker
Continuous monitoring of bacterial growth is a critical step in the biotechnology industry and in biological labs. These measurements are typically taken using large and bulky spectrophotometers that do not fit into incubators for real-time monitoring. Moreover, continuous monitoring is labor-intensive as it requires multiple samplings. Recent developments by researchers from Cork, Ireland have overcome […]
AI Diagnoses Leukemia from Blood Samples as Well as Human Cytologists
A good deal of clinical diagnostics are effectively performed by cytologists who examine cells through a microscope for signs of disease. This is an imperfect, slow process that depends on the training, focus, and attention to detail of the cytologist. Now, researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München and the University Hospital of LMU Munich in Germany […]
Electrospinning Drug Delivery Bandages Directly Onto Wounds
Electrospinning is a maturing manufacturing technology that is already being used in medicine to produce unusual materials with novel properties. It involves melting a polymer and extruding it through a narrow nozzle, while an electric field is used to pull and spin the polymer into a very fine mesh. When a biocompatible polymer is used, […]
Butterfly Network Expands Applications for Smartphone-Connected Ultrasound: Interview
Butterfly Network, the digital health unicorn democratizing medical imaging, is continuing to add new applications for its handheld, single probe, smartphone-connected ultrasound technology. The Butterfly iQ, the multi-purpose pocket-sized ultrasound, won FDA clearance a couple years ago and earlier this year received the CE Mark, clearing it for distribution in Europe. The innovation found within […]
Chemo-Loaded Nanoparticles Piggyback on Red Blood Cells to Treat Lung Cancer
Scientists at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have developed a technique to deliver chemotherapy to the lungs using red blood cells. The method involves binding chemotherapy-loaded nanoparticles to red blood cells, which are then injected into the bloodstream. Once the red blood cells reach the lungs they have to squeeze through the small capillaries and the resulting […]
MRI Maps to Track Effectiveness of Drug Releasing Implants
Drug-releasing implants may have significant benefits for treating a variety of diseases. They’re already used in a few limited applications, but wider implementation has proven to be challenging because it is difficult to know how a drug moves through the implant and into the surrounding tissues. Now, researchers at Purdue University have developed a way […]
Surgeons Succeed In Implanting Donor Kidney Using Robot Through Single Port
Surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic managed to implant a donor kidney into a patient using a surgical robot, and all through one small incision. The technique, in which instruments as well as the donor kidney can be passed through a four centimeter (1.6 inch) wide incision, is designed to make it easier to perform transplants […]
Eyevensys Non-Viral Gene Therapy for Ocular Diseases: Interview with Patricia Zilliox, CEO of Eyevensys
Eyevensys, a clinical-stage biotechnology company based in France, has developed a method to perform non-viral gene therapy in the eye, with the aim of treating ocular diseases. The system uses ocular electrotransfection to deliver therapeutic genes into the eye. Consisting of an ocular device and an electrical pulse generator, the system can deliver DNA plasmids […]
Senza Omnia Stimulator for Chronic Pain, with Widest Frequency Range, FDA Approved
Nevro, a firm based in Silicon Valley, won FDA approval for its Senza Omnia spinal cord neurostimulation system for chronic pain management. The device can deliver traditional spinal cord stimulation at frequencies below 1.5 kHz, along with Nevro’s proprietary HF10 stimulation that goes up to 10 kHz. Both low and high frequency therapies can even […]
Quadriplegics Can Grasp, Lift Objects Using Transcutaneous Neurostimulation
Transcutaneous electrical muscle stimulation is used in a variety of clinical applications, including as a rehabilitation tool to help people with limited mobility. It is effective for maladies such as certain types of urinary incontinence, for example, but getting the muscles of the arm to move in unison and with appropriate strength via electrical stimulation […]
Injectable Electrodes for Neuromodulation
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed an injectable flexible electrode that can aid in neuromodulation therapy, potentially replacing more rigid electrodes that do not mesh well with soft tissues. The injectable material consists of a silicone gel and small metal particles, and it forms a flexible bolus when injected around a target nerve. […]
Novel Coating Makes Affinity-Based Sensors Practical for Medicine
Affinity-based sensors are electrochemical devices that can detect a large variety of disease biomarkers. They typically have enzyme-coated electrodes onto which chemical biomarkers can stick, in the process changing the electrical characteristics of the device, something that can be accurately measured. Although they’re extremely sensitive, when used in practice with whole blood, they quickly become […]
Graphene Imaging Platform to Track Stem Cell Differentiation
Stem cells hold a great deal of promise in treating a huge variety of human diseases. Although much hyped to the general public some years ago, it turned out to be very difficult to safely use stem cells to generate replacement tissues without inadvertently introducing tumors or other maladies. Knowing how stem cells differentiate, and […]
Peptoid-Coated Magnetic Beads to Diagnose Prion Diseases, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed synthetic peptide-coated magnetic beads that can be used to detect the presence of misfolded proteins in blood samples. Misfolded proteins are a factor in a number of diseases, including prion diseases, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. To date it has been difficult to detect such proteins in patient blood […]