For most people, the process of blood donation appears simple and straightforward: you lounge on a chair for 20-30 minutes as your blood collects into a bag, grab a cookie and some juice, then head back to the rest of your day. Behind the scenes, however, running a blood bank can be a complex operation. […]
Tag: Medicine
ResMed Releases World’s First Tube-Down Nasal Cradle CPAP Mask
ResMed is releasing a new nasal cradle CPAP mask that features a front-facing tube that points downward. The AirFit N30 mask is the first of its kind, as similar masks typically have the air tube connect on top of the head, which makes them uncomfortable for many patients. The AirFit N30 is also ResMed’s lightest […]
Closed-Loop Artificial Pancreas Better at Controlling Blood Glucose than Current Treatments
A clinical trial, partly based at the University of Virginia Center for Diabetes Technology, has shown that an artificial pancreas, consisting of a continuous glucose monitor (such as the Dexcom G6) coupled with an insulin pump, can more effectively control blood glucose levels in patients with type 1 diabetes than conventional treatments. The syst (Read more...)
Nanomesh Loaded with Antibiotics for Targeted Wound and Infection Treatment
Antibiotics are usually only needed at particular sites, where infection is likely to start. Yet, they’re delivered throughout the entire body via pills and injections. This results in poor localized effectiveness, unnecessary effects on the rest of the body, and sometimes leads to the development of resistance. Researchers at Flinders Univer (Read more...)
Chip to Evaluate Health of Immune System from Blood Sample
Knowing how well a patient’s immune system is functioning may be very useful in diagnosing a disease and guiding the course of therapy. Researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore are making this a reality, having developed a hybrid chip that assesses the health of white blood cells in a whole blood sample. The microfluidic (Read more...)
Contact-Free Baby Monitor Uses White Noise to Monitor Breathing
Echolocation technologies can detect objects by measuring how long it takes sound to bounce off them. This is used to detect submarines underwater, but now to also measure a child’s breathing while delivering soothing, and sleep inducing, white noise. Next week, researchers from the University of Washington will be at the MobiCom 2019 confere (Read more...)
FDA Clears geko Muscle Pump Activator to Prevent VTE
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) too often strikes bedridden patients in the hospital, and this is one of the main reasons that patients are put back on their feet as soon as possible. Inflatable wraps placed around the legs, which can raise the pressure, are a common way to prevent the condition. Now, a device called geko […]
Peptide Particles Ferry Drugs Across Blood-Brain Barrier
Most drugs, genetic materials, and other therapeutic agents are very difficult to use inside the brain because of the blood-brain barrier. There have been attempts to use ultrasound and microbubbles to create temporary passages through the barrier, including as a possible therapy for Alzheimer’s disease, but this is approach is not easy or id (Read more...)
Noble’s Self-Injection Trainers for Rheumatoid Arthritis Drugs: Interview with Joe Reynolds, Research Manager
Last year, Medgadget heard from Noble International about its “smart” training devices that educate patients on safe and effective at-home use of prefilled syringes and autoinjectors. At the time, Joe Reynolds, Research Manager at Noble International, shared some use cases for the company’s products, including rheumatoid arthritis (Read more...)
Microfluidic Device for Rapid Lyme Disease Diagnosis
Researchers at Columbia University have developed a microfluidic device that can diagnose Lyme disease in as little as 15 minutes. The device is particularly accurate in identifying antibody biomarkers that are present during early stage Lyme disease, raising hopes that it could be useful in detecting cases of early infection in a doctor’s of (Read more...)
Light Therapy Device to Treat Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Carbon monoxide (CO) is one of the most common substances that people are poisoned by. It has no smell and is invisible to the naked eye, but can cause severe damage to tissues and lead to death. Patients who have already suffered significant lung damage because of CO inhalation too often don’t respond sufficiently to […]
Dexcom G6 Pro with Blinded Mode FDA Cleared
Dexcom landed FDA clearance for its Dexcom G6 Pro continuous glucometry system. Intended to be used by medical professionals with their patients, it offers a novel “blinded” mode that allows physicians to hide live glucose readings from patients. Using this capability, doctors can review glucometry data and propose lifestyle changes to (Read more...)
New Drug Capsule for Oral Delivery of Insulin, Protein-Based Drugs
Most drugs are administered in pill form, but some have to be injected because they would otherwise be broken down by the gastrointestinal tract. This limitation mostly applies to protein-based drugs. Insulin, essentially a small protein (aka peptide), is by far the most injected medication in the world. It saves lives, but injections can be [&hell (Read more...)
Electrified Graphene Filters Kill All Pathogens and Their Byproducts
Pathogenic bacteria are usually the culprits responsible for the spread of nosocomial infections, but there are other sources of disease in hospitals, including viruses, fungi, their spores, prions, and endotoxins produced by bacteria. Existing methods and standards usually involve two filter beds being used within hospitals’ ventilation syst (Read more...)
Red Light Activated Cancer Drug Improves Treatment in Mice
Researchers from the City University of Hong Kong have developed a new, controllable cancer drug called phorbiplatin that only becomes active and potent after red light stimulation. Their work demonstrates that in the dark the cancer drug does not have substantial toxicity, but the drug is able to substantially reduce tumor size when activated by [ (Read more...)
Printing Custom Flexible Electronics Directly Onto Skin, Bandages, Medical Devices
Flexible electronics have the potential to help monitor, and even modulate, a number of physiological parameters. While stick-on heart monitors can be manufactured as one-size-fits-all, in applications such as electronic bandages that can monitor and treat a wound, it’s best to be able to create custom devices that suit each patient’s n (Read more...)
Laser Activated Gold Nanorods Create Silk Seal for Incisions and Wounds
Staples and sutures are currently used to seal soft tissues together in clinical practice, but researchers at Arizona State University have come up with an alternative technique that resembles welding. It may end up being used to seal tissues during surgeries and to treat wounds, and in many cases simply to enhance the effectiveness of […]
AI-Powered Motion Tracking Technology for Back Pain and COPD: Interview with Rutger Flohil, US CEO of Kaia Health
Kaia Health, a health technology company based in New York City, has developed a smartphone app that can guide users through exercises to help with back pain and COPD. The technology uses AI powered motion tracking technology to monitor users’ movements through a smartphone camera, and provides feedback on the exercises being performed. The a (Read more...)
Disc Pump for Less Obtrusive Ambulatory Blood Pressure Systems
TTP Ventus, the UK-based developer of the Disc Pump, has recently begun working on a new application for this technology – ambulatory blood pressure systems. The company claims that the Disc Pump, which is a miniaturized, quiet, and highly efficient pump, could revolutionize ambulatory blood pressure measurements. At present, 24-hour blood pr (Read more...)
Nanoparticles Inside Samples of Mucus to Measure COPD Development
Management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) suffers not only from a lack of effective therapies, but also from an inability to track the disease’s progression. Spirometers that measure how much air patients can displace using their lungs are the “gold standard,” but that standard is pretty poor in helping to predict (Read more...)