DowDuPont‘s Specialty Products Division is releasing a new soft skin adhesive, specifically designed for today’s wearable medical devices. The DOW CORNING MG 7-1020 Soft Skin Adhesive is a silicone-based product, which can be worn for extended periods of time while maintaining a tight grip and causing minimal irritation. Unlike devices that use acrylic adhesives, the […]
Tag: Materials
Knee Implant Sensor Generates Its Own Electricity
Total knee arthroplasties can be very effective at restoring comfortable, pain-free walking in many patients. One of the downsides of such procedures is that the implants that are used tend to wear out over time, particularly when exposed to too much use. While there are sensors able to provide information about the status of a […]
Painless Microneedle Skin Patch Accurately Senses Glucose
Microneedle patches are a promising way to easily and painlessly deliver a variety of drugs into the body. Yet there’s also a lot of potential to use microneedle patches to sense important biochemicals, glucose being probably the most important target. Researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden have developed a prototype glucose sensing […]
Self-Administered Long-Lasting Contraceptive Patch
Long lasting female contraceptives typically require trained professionals to perform injections and to implant devices, something that’s not always available in low-resource settings. Researchers at Georgia Tech and University of Michigan have created a microneedle patch that can deliver a long lasting contraceptive by simply being pressed against the skin. It has already been […]
3D-Printed Sugar-Based Stent to Aid Vascular Surgery
Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have developed a 3D-printed stent that can aid surgeons in stitching small arteries together. The small tube sits between the open ends of the artery and helps to hold them in place during stitching. The device is 3D-printed using a sugar-based material, meaning that it dissolves and disappears within […]
Patch with Non-Toxic Battery Monitors ECG, Blood Oxygen, Physical Activity
At CES 2019, imec, a Belgian organization, and the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, presented their latest vitals monitoring patch. The disposable device has a monitoring lifetime of over a week, but since the battery is made of non-toxic materials there’s not a big environmental impact. The device has a basic ECG built-in, can […]
Microrobots Swim Through Vessels, Deform to Snake Through Tortuous Passageways
Researchers at Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne and ETH Zurich in Switzerland have developed tiny robots that could pave the way for advanced drug delivery. Inspired by bacteria, the microrobots can swim through fluids and modify their shape so as to pass through narrow blood vessels or intricate structures. The researchers hope that the devices […]
3M Body Worn Medical Adhesives at CES 2019
Adhesives are constantly used on patients in hospitals and now with wearables that attach directly to the body there’s greater need for new products that expand capabilities. Wearables require extended usage and adhesives that can last for days on the body have to stay on through sweat, being pulled and pushed, and that can breathe […]
Electronic Nanomesh Gently Hugs Beating Heart Cells
Unlike with most other cells, studying the heart’s beating cardiomyocytes is prone to difficulty because attaching rigid sensors to moving cells hinders the movement of those cells. A collaboration of Japanese scientists at University of Tokyo, Tokyo Women’s Medical University, and RIKEN research institute have developed an extremely soft and flexible electronic mesh that can be intimately integrated […]
Implant Controls Overactive Bladder Using LED Lights
Today’s neurostimulators, such as those used to control chronic pain, bladder incontinence, and depression, use electricity to activate nerves. While very effective in many patients, electrical stimulation can lead to inflammation, produce unwanted sensations and pain, and injure fragile tissues. Optogenetics is an approach that offers an alternative, potentially safer option, that relies on light […]
Implant Simultaneously Reads and Stimulates Brain to Control Parkinson’s, Other Diseases
Electrical stimulation may serve to treat a variety of brain-related conditions, and there are already a number of products that help to control Parkinson’s, essential tremor, addiction, and depression. Though there’s a considerable ongoing progress, most of the currently available technologies are not very smart and certainly can’t measure brain activity and respond to it […]
Contrast Agent for Optical Coherence Tomography Improves Imaging of Tissues, Vessels
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an imaging technique that allows ophthalmologists to view the eye’s blood vessels, to study the structure of tissues in various clinical and scientific applications. Though this technology is already widely used, there’s been a constant demand to improve its imaging resolution. Researchers at Stanford have just added an interesting ingredient, […]
Bluetooth-Powered Smart Electronic Pill Releases Drugs on Demand
Researchers at MIT, Draper, an engineering firm, and Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed an electronic wireless device that can stay inside the gut for long periods of time while releasing drugs into the body and measuring various parameters. The device has Bluetooth connectivity built in, and it can share its readings and trigger the […]
Smart Contact Lenses are Here: Interview with Prof. Herbert De Smet of Imec
imec, a research and innovation hub for nanoelectronics and digital technologies, has announced a hydrogel-based smart contact lens that incorporates a silicon microchip, integrated LED light, and radiofrequency (RF) antenna for wireless energy transfer. Belgium-based imec claims that the new lens paves the way for integrated sensors or drug delivery capabilities, whereby a contact lens […]
Smart Tattoos to Detect Fever, Sun Exposure, and Maybe Diagnose Diseases
Tattoos have a long history on the human skin, underlined by a find of a body in the Alps more than 5,000 years old that had tattoos all over it. While tattoos have mostly served as decorations, status symbols, and as parts of rituals, researchers at University of Colorado Boulder believe they can be made […]
Tiny Wearable UV Sensor Can Help to Optimize Phototherapy
Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a “virtually indestructible” solar-powered UV sensor. Described as the world’s smallest wearable, the battery-free device is thinner than a credit card and smaller than an M&M candy, but can warn people about UV over-exposure and help clinicians to optimize dosing during light therapy. Not knowing of Northwestern’s role in […]
Tiny Wearable UV Sensor Can Help to Optimize Phototherapy
Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a “virtually indestructible” solar-powered UV sensor. Described as the world’s smallest wearable, the battery-free device is thinner than a credit card and smaller than an M&M candy, but can warn people about UV over-exposure and help clinicians to optimize dosing during light therapy. Not knowing of Northwestern’s role in […]
Cold Plasma Treated Biodegradable 3D Printed Ortho Implants
Orthopedic implants used to repair damaged and diseased bones and joints typically have a complex structure below the surface that helps native tissues grow into and secure the implants. In addition to this, surface treatments are often applied to even further improve the effectiveness of the implants. These surface treatments, just as the name implies, […]
Nanopore Sensor Exploits Artificial Intelligence for Specific Virus Detection
Researchers at Osaka University in Japan have developed a nanopore sensor to detect single influenza viral particles in a biological sample. The researchers used artificial intelligence to work out the “hallmarks” of the virus, which allowed them to identify it using the sensor. The technique has potential as a point-of-care diagnostic tool for influenza patients, […]
New E-Skin Nearly as Sensitive as Real One
At Stanford University researchers have created an electronic skin that is sensitive enough to give robotic hands the ability to handle delicate berries. Though mostly intended for robotic hands, the technology may give powered prostheses similar capabilities. The e-skin can measure slight pressures and even the direction in which they’re applied, which gives enough information […]