When a person develops an unsightly skin condition, the first person to assess it is typically not a dermatologist. A lack of expertise in dermatology too often leads to misdiagnoses. General practice physicians, for example, get very little training on skin conditions. Now, thanks to a new feature inside the latest Apple iOS for iPhones […]
(Read more...)Tag: Medicine
Hopkins Researchers Deliver Blood Samples Using Drone in 161 Mile Journey
The last few weeks have been full of natural disasters striking Mexico, islands in the Caribbean, and the United States mainland. Roads are damaged and entire communities have been cut off from help for days at a time, while the potential for infectious diseases to thrive has skyrocketed. Moreover, patients often end up without their […]
Wireless, Handheld Ultrasound for iOS and Android: Interview with Laurent Pelissier, CEO of Clarius Mobile Health
Clarius Mobile Health, a Canadian firm, is a pioneering company specializing in portable solutions for ultrasound diagnostics. Since its debut, it has surprised and impressed us with its tiny portable ultrasounds. Clarius offers the only app-based, wireless ultrasound scanner that can be taken to the point of care even in the most rugge (Read more...)
Masimo’s Slim and Portable Rad-97 Pulse CO-Oximeter FDA Cleared and Now Available
Masimo won FDA clearance and just announced full market release of its Rad-97 Pulse CO-Oximeter. It’s available as is, or with either a built-in blood pressure cuff or a capnography (CO2) attachments. The monitor comes with Masimo’s well established Measure-through Motion and Low Perfusion SET pulse oximetry and its rainbow&nb (Read more...)
TruMed AccuVax for Automatic Management of Vaccine Supplies
TruMed Systems, a firm based in San Diego, California, is releasing its AccuVax vaccine management system that’s designed to improve clinical efficiency, save nurses’ time, and reduce waste. The system of course keeps the medications at the correct temperature for long-term potency and helps to reduce the chances of making errors in adm (Read more...)
Hitachi’s Compact Supria True64 CT Scanner Cleared in U.S.
Hitachi has announced that the FDA granted the company clearance for its Supria True64 CT scanner. The device is designed to take less room in a busy clinical environment and to provide a 64-slice image quality using a 40 mm detector and 64 separate detector and electronics processing channels. Hitachi notes that many compact CT scanners [&hel (Read more...)
Your Age in TeloYears, Interview with Telomere Diagnostics CEO Jason Shelton
In 2009, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three scientists for the discover of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. Today, telomeres, stretches of DNA at the ends of chromosomes, are used as part of a new, commercially available genetic test that helps individuals better understand how w (Read more...)
Your Age in TeloYears, Interview with Telomere Diagnostics CEO Jason Shelton
In 2009, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three scientists for the discover of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. Today, telomeres, stretches of DNA at the ends of chromosomes, are used as part of a new, commercially available genetic test that helps individuals better understand how w (Read more...)
Consure Medical: Improving Ease-of-Use and Comfort of Patients Requiring Fecal Management [Interview]
You may not think that the topic of fecal incontinence (FI) and management sounds very lucrative or interesting, and within demanding and stressful healthcare environments it is usually last to receive attention. Even if healthcare workers do think about these issues, they often do not have as much time as they would like to invest […]
Tiny Microchips Give Tracking Capabilities to Medical Devices Inside Body
As we develop a wide array of new implantable, injectable, and swallowable medical devices, the need to accurately track their location within the body becomes ever more critical. Currently, ultrasound, electromagnetism, and other methods are employed to track objects introduced into the body, but these modalities suffer from a number of imperfecti (Read more...)
$40 Keychain Device Detects Food Allergens
For those with allergic reactions to certain foods, cross-contamination or accidental mislabeling can lead to reactions ranging from annoying to life-threatening. To address this health need, researchers at Harvard Medical School have made a device that can quickly, inexpensively, and accurately detect common food antigens. The integrated exogenous (Read more...)
Athelas Device Provides Accurate CBC Testing – From Home
For high-risk patients or those with diseases that require constant blood monitoring, going to the doctor for blood tests may soon be a thing of the past. Athelas, a company based in Mountain View, California, announced the launch of a new blood test that has been clinically validated and can be used in the patient’s […]
Smartphone Using Its Camera Can Assess Heart Health
A group of researchers in California has developed a smartphone app that can be used to evaluate some aspects of heart health, potentially replacing in some cases more complicated procedures like ultrasound or MRI. In patients with heart failure it is important for doctors to assess how effective the heart is at pumping blood around […]
Algorithm Makes Smartwatches More Effective Movement Trackers
Researchers at the University of Sussex in the UK have devised an algorithm that helps smartwatches track activity more effectively by learning new movements as they happen, rather than just having a limited number of pre-programmed activities they can recognize. Wearable devices to track movement are currently very popular. At the moment, the (Read more...)
SmartTouch for Symbicort Smart Inhaler Cleared by FDA
Adherium, a company out of Auckland, New Zealand, won FDA clearance to introduce its SmartTouch for Symbicort device that monitors and promotes prescribed inhaler usage. Symbicort is an inhaled medication used to treat symptoms of asthma and COPD. The device is placed over the inhaler itself and, once paired with the patient’s smartphone (Read more...)
HeartSciences MyoVista High Sensitivity ECG Now Available in Europe
HeartSciences, a firm based outside of Dallas, Texas, is releasing in Europe its MyoVista high sensitivity electrocardiograph (hsECG) device that helps to screen patients for cardiac disease. It relies on a mathematical method known as continuous wavelet transform to process ECG data in a manner very different than conventional ECG. The c (Read more...)
Nanomachines to Drill Through Cell Membranes
An international team of scientists has developed tiny motorized molecules that can drill holes in cells membranes when stimulated by light. The nanomachines could be useful for drug delivery or directly killing cancer cells. The nanomotors are paddle-like chains of atoms, which spin up to 2–3 million times a second when supplied with energy (Read more...)
Novel Smartphone App for Bilirubin, Pancreatic Cancer Screening
Pancreatic cancer patients have one of the lowest five-year survival rates, due in large part to the disease going undiagnosed in its early and intermediate stages. There are no overt symptoms during the critical early period, and non-invasive screening tools for identifying early pancreatic tumors before they metastasize have yet to be developed a (Read more...)
Drug Loaded Nanoparticles Turn Fat Cells Brown to Help Control Obesity
Brown fat cells are much easier for the body to burn than regular white lipocytes. Obese people with a particularly high ratio of white to brown fat cells can have a hard time losing weight even when while dieting and exercising. Nanotechnology may soon help people turn white fat into brown fat, turning a daunting challenge […]
FDA Grants First Clearance for Patients to Perform Hemodialysis on Themselves at Home
NxStage Medical, a company based in Lawrence, MA that focuses on hemodialysis equipment, won FDA clearance for its System One to be used by the patients at home and by themselves. This is the first such clearance that gives people with end stage renal disease a new level of independence from clinics and at-home carers. […]