Researchers at the University of Washington have used machine learning to teach an AI system to identify when someone is having a cardiac arrest. The system learned to identify agonal breathing, which occurs when someone gasps for breath during cardiac arrest, with a high degree of accuracy. The technology can be embedded into a variety […]
Tag: Emergency Medicine
Hot Glue Gun and Custom Biocompatible Glue for Wound Closures
Soft tissue wounds and incisions are generally closed using sutures and staples, but those leave marks behind and can be very unpleasant for patients. In some cases, such as cosmetic surgery, specialty adhesives are used to fuse tissues together. However, these can be toxic and they tend to solidify into a harder form than native […]
Ivenix Infusion System Designed to Reduce Medication Errors is FDA Cleared
Infusion pumps have been known to be a vector for a variety of medical mistakes, primarily adverse drug events. This has become such an issue that a few years ago the FDA began its Infusion Pump Improvement Initiative. One of the results of this program was the establishment of new requirements, aimed at reducing errors, for […]
Crisper MRI Now Possible Thanks to Helical Resonator Metamaterials
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a complicated imaging modality and improving it requires a deep understanding of the physics involved. Scientists at Boston University have been working on improving MRI’s signal-to-noise ratio using special metamaterials that are made of arrays of helical resonators. Each of these resonators is just a piec (Read more...)
Bioabsorbable Wound Dressing with Nanoscale Chitosan to Rapidly Stop Bleeding
Chitosan is a sugar compound derived from the exoskeletons of shrimp, crab, and other shellfish. It is used extensively in medicine, including in dressings, because of its well known hemostatic properties. These properties work at the nanoscale, so delivering tiny bits of chitosan to the site of a wound can help improve how it works […]
Military-Specific Augmented Reality Patient Simulation: Interview with Dr. Kevin King, CEO of MedCognition
MedCognition, a Texas-based startup, has been awarded a contract to develop military-specific augmented reality patient simulations for the US army, in conjunction with Chenega Healthcare Services. The technology is based on an existing patient simulator, the PerSim system, which uses Microsoft HoloLens Mixed reality to project simulations of patie (Read more...)
LifeFlow Next Gen for Sepsis and Shock Makes Infusions Easier and Safer
410 Medical, a Durham, North Carolina firm, is releasing a new version of its LifeFlow rapid infuser for treating patients during sepsis or shock. The LifeFlow Next Gen can safely deliver 500 ml of crystalloid fluid in less than two minutes, nearly four times faster than when using a pressure bag. Device is operated with […]
(Read more...)Masimo Radius PPG Wireless Oximeter FDA Cleared
Masimo won FDA clearance for its Radius PPG wireless pulse oximetry sensor. The device features Masimo’s SET Measure-through Motion and Low Perfusion technology that stays accurate as the patient moves around and about. The tetherless product allows patients to freely move about the clinic, going to the bathroom without having to disconnect f (Read more...)
RhythmAnalytics Detects Cardiac Arrhythmias Using AI, Now FDA Cleared
Biofourmis, a company with offices in Singapore and Boston, won FDA clearance for its RhythmAnalytics cloud-based software that uses artificial intelligence techniques to automate the interpretation of cardiac arrhythmias from ECG tracings. The system can detect more than fifteen different types of arrhytmias including using beat-by-beat morphology (Read more...)
FDA Clears Software to Spot Collapsed Lung in Chest X-rays
Zebra Medical Vision, an Israeli firm, landed FDA clearance for the HealthPNX automated chest X-ray analysis software that can independently spot signs of pneumothorax (PNX), colloquially known as collapsed lung. The software can help radiologists quickly and confidently identify the cause of a patient’s symptoms, allowing for emergency treat (Read more...)
Haemonetics TEG 6s Hemostasis Analyzer Cleared for Trauma Testing
Haemonetics won FDA clearance for its TEG 6s Hemostasis Analyzer System to be used in adult trauma settings to evaluate the viscoelasticity of patients’ blood. The system relies on an all-in-one cartridge into which a small sample of blood is placed. The cartridge already has the necessary reagents within itself, automatically mixing them wit (Read more...)
Automated Machine for Pumping Bag Valve Masks
Bag valve masks help paramedics, anesthesiologists, and others to oxygenate the lungs, but being manual devices the operator oftentimes has to do additional tasks, such as provide jaw thrust or use both hands to ensure good seal around the face mask. Engineering students at Rice University made an attachment for ventilator pump bags so that [&helli (Read more...)
Donor Kidney Transported by Drone to Lucky Recipient
Clinicians and engineers at the University of Maryland have pulled off an impressive feat of delivering a donor kidney via a drone, a kidney that was later implanted into a fortunate patient. It may seem that once you figure out how to deliver something using a drone, other things of a similar size and weight […]
UC Davis First to Get Canon’s Ultra-High Resolution CT
Clinicians at the University of California, Davis Health are now scanning patients using an Ultra-High Resolution CT scanner, the only of its kind in the United States. The Aquilion Precision from Canon Medical Systems is able to resolve things down to the 150 micron level, allowing for diagnostic insights previously impossible. The capability is m (Read more...)
Synaptive Medical to Release MRI for Head Scans in Emergency Rooms
Synaptive Medical, a company based in Toronto, Canada, will soon be releasing its Evry device, an MRI machine dedicated to performing head scans in the emergency room. The first installation of this unique device will be at the QEII Health Sciences Centre (QEII) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At QEII it will be used as part […]
Wearable Epinephrine Injector to Stop Allergic Reactions
People susceptible to acute allergic reactions, particularly children, can find it difficult to keep an epinephrine injector (think EpiPen) on hand. Adrenaline, the common name of epinephrine, has to be delivered quickly before anaphylactic shock sets in, so a team at Rice University have developed a wearable injector that can be used at any time. (Read more...)
LIFEPAK CR2 Defibrillator Reads ECG During Chest Compressions, FDA Approved
Stryker won FDA approval to introduce its LIFEPAK CR2 defibrillator with LIFELINKcentral program manager. It was developed by Physio Control, now a subsidiary of Stryker. The interesting capability of this automatic external defibrillator (AED) is that it is able to analyze the stricken patient’s electrocardiogram (ECG) while someone is perfo (Read more...)
Butterfly iQ Multi-Purpose Pocket-Sized Ultrasound Now Available in Europe
Butterfly Network, a company based in Connecticut, finally won the CE mark and is releasing in Europe its Butterfly iQ portable ultrasound system. The product consists of a transducer that plugs right into an iPhone or iPad via the Lightning port, and uses a matching app to display live images, change settings, and review previously […]
UPS and Matternet Launch America’s First Medical Delivery Service Using Drones
The FDA recently allowed UPS and Matternet, a drone firm, to make regular deliveries between two buildings of the WakeMed hospital system in Raleigh, North Carolina. These are regular commercial flights that are helping WakeMed get more efficiency out of their centralized laboratory, allowing clinicians to send patient samples for analysis faster t (Read more...)
Masimo’s Rad-67 Pulse CO-Oximeter with Hemoglobin Spot-Check Cleared by FDA
Masimo just obtained FDA clearance for its Rad-67 Pulse CO-Oximeter with Spot-check Next Generation SpHb monitoring technology and the rainbow DCI-mini Reusable Sensor. The device can be used for quick noninvasive hemoglobin measurement and features the Masimos’s own Measure-through Motion and Low Perfusion SET pulse (Read more...)