People stricken with COVID-19 exhibit a wide range of symptoms. Some are barely affected while others suffer dire consequences. People with asthma are in particular danger, as SARS-CoV-2 is a respiratory virus that can make breathing even more difficult. Now, the FDA has issued an Emergency Use Authorization for the gammaCore Sapphire CV non-invasive vagus […]
Tag: Cardiology
Simplifying Transseptal Access to the Left Atrium: Interview with Terri Burke, CEO of Protaryx Medical
Protaryx Medical, a company based in Baltimore, Maryland, has developed a device to allow for more precise transseptal access to the left atrium during transcatheter procedures. The device provides three-dimensional control and steerability to take the guesswork out of transseptal access to the left atrium, and the company believes that this could improve physician convenience […]
Watchman FLX Next Gen Stroke Prevention Device Now FDA Approved
Boston Scientific’s WATCHMAN, a device that’s used to close the left atrial appendage, has done wonders for preventing the formation of clots that lead to stroke in many patients. Now the company has announced that its WATCHMAN FLX, a new and much improved version of the implant, won FDA approval. Already cleared in the European […]
Nanogenerators Harvest Energy from Body, Monitor Heart Health
Wearable medical devices such as continuous heart rate monitors, insulin pumps, and neural stimulators usually need access to an electric power source in order to function. While there’s a great deal of wasted energy that our body emits that can be harvested to power such devices, making it actually happen using biocompatible materials has proven […]
Vitls Platform Cleared in U.S. for Remote Patient Monitoring
Vitls Inc., a company out of Houston, Texas, won FDA clearance for its Vitls Platform, a combination of a vitals monitoring patch, cloud storage, and an app that lets clinicians monitor multiple patients wearing such a patch at once. The patch, which is called Tégo, keeps track of a patient’s heart and respiration rates, heart […]
Does Less Medical Care Mean Better Care?
A fellow cardiologist comes to the defense of New York Times contributor Sandeep Jauhar, who was castigated on social media for suggesting that most people were fine with fewer doctor visits. theheart.org on Medscape
Scientists 3D-Print Human Heart Pump
Scientists at the University of Minnesota have 3D printed a beating heart muscle ‘pump’ consisting of pluripotent stem cells and an extracellular matrix. The researchers grow the stem cells within the structure until they reach an appropriate cell density, and then differentiate them into cardiomyocytes. The 1.5 cm sized structure can pump fluids, and could […]
Patients to Draw Their Own Biomedical Sensors Using Pencil and Paper
Wearable bioelectronic devices that stick to the skin and measure things such as temperature, heart rhythms, and other vitals are typically complex devices that use modern materials to do their job. They tend to be difficult to manufacture, expensive, and fragile, and so are still not widely available. Incredibly, researchers at the University of Missouri […]
Thinklabs One Electronic Stethoscope Helps Physicians Stop Spread of COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the implementation and use of telemedicine and telehealth platforms and devices as part of current day-to-day standards of care in many hospital and healthcare systems. In this era of social distancing, doctors on our frontlines are at the most risk when diagnosing patients, and it’s therefore important to minimize […]
Medtronic LINQ II Insertable Cardiac Monitor Cleared in U.S.
Medtronic landed FDA clearance for its LINQ II insertable cardiac monitor that’s indicated for the detection and classification of cardiac arrhythmias and remote monitoring of patients. The LINQ II features remote programming capabilities, allowing cardiologists to tune the implant settings without the patient having to come into the office. Thanks to secure connectivity, the cardiologist […]
Getinge Servo-air Multi-Purpose Mechanical Ventilator FDA Cleared
Getinge has won FDA clearance for its Servo-air mechanical ventilator. The device doesn’t need any wall gas or pressurized gas cylinders to operate thanks to a built-in turbine that generates enough continuous air pressure to meet any patient’s needs. Using powerful hot-swappable batteries allows the Servo-air to maintain patients while in transport between hospital wards. […]
Micro-LEDs and Solar Panels Wirelessly Power Medical Implants
Researchers at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea have developed a method to wirelessly power implanted devices using light. The technique involves a micro-LED patch to transmit light through the skin and a photovoltaic system on implanted devices that can turn this light into electricity. This technology could help researchers to […]
Abbott’s Gallant Heart Rhythm Implants FDA Approved
Abbott won FDA approval for its Gallant implantable cardioverter defibrillator and cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator devices. Cleared in Europe earlier this year, the implants feature Bluetooth connectivity, allowing data to stream to a physician for closer observation and monitoring. The devices connect to the myMerlinPulse smartphone app, available for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets, […]
Kyocera Helps Develop Wearable for Remote Rehab Monitoring During COVID Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a slew of new challenges for clinical facilities, including how to deliver as much care as possible at a distance. The Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) Medical Hospital is working with Kyocera to be able to deliver rehab therapy to patients while closely monitoring […]
Boston Sci’s Lux-Dx Smart Implantable Arrhythmia Detector FDA Cleared
Boston Scientific has announced winning FDA clearance for its LUX-Dx Insertable Cardiac Monitor (ICM), an implant that can detect hard-to-spot cardiac arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation, and help diagnose their origin. The device’s detection algorithm has two separate components, one of which detects a suspect arrhythmia and the other verifies the finding. Once an arrhythmia […]
Philips Gets FDA Approval for Two New Defibrillators
Philips won FDA approval for its HeartStart FR3 and HeartStart FRx automated external defibrillators (AEDs). The HeartStart FR3 is an advanced device intended for use by medical professionals, including paramedics, and features such capabilities as “quick shock” to minimize hands-off time, and military-level ruggedness, ECG monitoring for non-cardiac arrest victims, and a battery that can […]
Nanostimulators Activate Damaged Tissue to Heal Itself
Peripheral artery diseases and injuries to tissue reduce the amount of oxygen that reaches the affected muscles. Such ischemia is difficult to treat, as new vessels are required to carry more oxygen into damaged tissues. Stem cells derived from fat tissues have been shown to excrete substances that spur angiogenesis and calm nearby inflammation. But […]
Neopenda NeoGuard Wearable Vital Signs Monitor for COVID-19: Interview with Sona Shah and Assumpta Nantume
Neopenda, a medical device startup based in Chicago that has been featured on Medgadget previously, has recently adapted its wearable vital signs monitor, originally developed for newborns, to be used with pediatric and adult patients in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, the neoGuard has been utilized as a monitoring solution for newborn infants […]
Medtronic Micra AV Transcatheter Heart Pacer Cleared in EU
Medtronic won the European Union CE Mark for its Micra AV pacemaker that’s delivered into the heart, where it resides without requiring any leads, using a minimally invasive transcatheter procedure. The device is indicated for patients suffering from AV block, a condition that prevents proper electrical signal transfer between the atria and the ventricle. Micra […]
Philips Fetal Monitor to Help During COVID Distancing
Philips is releasing a fetal monitoring device in the United States designed to help pregnant women and their physicians keep a close eye on what’s going on in the womb, while maintaining respect for ongoing social distancing recommendations. The Avalon CL Fetal and Maternal Pod and Patch are being made available thanks to the current […]