Scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have achieved a world’s first of beating a bacterial infection using an engineered virus. This was done in a 15-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis who had a severe case of Mycobacterium. The girl received a double lung transplant, but then developed the infection that antibiotics could not kil (Read more...)
Tag: Medicine
Video Game Shown to Help Reduce Sugar Intake, Drop Weight, for People with Sweet Tooth
Sugar is considered to be a devil in much of the nutritional community these days. It is blamed for the obesity epidemic, increased rates of diabetes, and many other maladies that are on the rise. But the stuff is readily available just about everywhere in all kinds of enticing formats, so self-control is a major […]
Machine Learning Helps Design Complex Immunotherapies
Researchers from Northwestern University have leveraged machine learning to aid in the design of nanomedicines for immunotherapy. They utilized a high-throughput method to synthesize 800 unique immunostimulatory nanoparticles called Spherical Nucleic Acids (SNAs). “Spherical nucleic acids represent an exciting new class of medicines that are (Read more...)
VivaQuant RX-1 Wearable All-in-One Mobile Cardiac Telemetry Unit and Event Monitor FDA Cleared
VivaQuant, a company based in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, won FDA clearance for its RX-1 cardiac patient monitor. The device is unique in that it is able to operate as a Mobile Cardiac Telemetry unit or Event Monitor, all while transmitting its readings for remote analysis. The system gives cardiologists the ability to free up […]
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...)
CleanCase Device-Specific Smart Sterile Covers Going on Sale
SteriDev, a Lansing, Michigan firm, is releasing the first device-specific sterile mobile device coverings. The CleanCase coverings are FDA-compliant and allow surgeons, technicians, and other clinical staff to use smartphones and tablets even in the operating room (OR). These days, it can be quite a hassle to bring a smartphone in the OR, making i (Read more...)
Optical Fibers for 3D Tissue Imaging Inside Body
Researchers at RMIT University in Australia have developed a technique to allow an optical fiber probe to obtain 3D images of tissues deep within the body. The technology could pave the way for minimally invasive 3D optical biopsies. An optical biopsy allows clinicians to view tissues in real-time within their native environment, and avoids the [&h (Read more...)
Self-Inflating Swallowable Capsule for Weight Management
Researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have developed a swallowable self-inflating capsule, which enlarges within the stomach under the influence of a hand-held magnet. By filling a portion of the stomach, the balloon induces a sense of fullness, helping obese patients to reduce the amount they eat. The capsule is conceived (Read more...)
Ultra Cheap Endoscope to Make Cancer Screenings More Common
Conventional endoscopes can get quite pricey these days, sometimes costing more than $100,000 a set. Moreover, they’re expensive to maintain because of intense cleaning regimens that are required to prevent transmission of infections. Engineers at the University of Leeds in the UK are working on bringing the price of endoscopes closer to $50 (Read more...)
Engineered Matrix to Improve T Cell Immunotherapy
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have developed an “artificial lymph node” to help multiply antigen-specific T cells to fight cancer. They used a hydrogel that contains immunostimulatory antigen-presenting nanoparticles to encourage T cells to proliferate, and have increased activity against specific antigens. Current T-cell ba (Read more...)
TransPyloric Shuttle, a Smart Gastric Balloon, Approved by FDA
Gastric balloons are popular among many people working to lose a great deal of weight. They create the sensation of a full stomach, but they’re typically pretty dumb devices whose only task is to take up space. The TransPyloric Shuttle from BAROnova, a company based in San Carlos, California, resembles intragastric baloons but works quite [&h (Read more...)
AliveCor Consumer ECG Now Spots Bradycardia, Tachycardia, and AFib
AliveCor, the company that introduced practical and useful consumer ECG devices to the market, just got FDA clearance for its KardiaMobile monitor to detect bradycardia and tachycardia. The device has already been cleared to help identify the existence of atrial fibrillation (AFib), but now it can spot abnormally slow or fast heart rhythms. So far, (Read more...)
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...)
3D-Printed Heart From Patient’s Own Tissues
Researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel have developed a 3D printing approach to create a heart with a patient’s own cells. The investigators used patient-derived cellular and acellular material obtained from fatty tissue, along with a unique bioprinter, to 3D-print a heart. The team isolated cells from a patient tissue sample and used (Read more...)
Beckman Coulter Gets FDA Clearance for Early Sepsis Indicator
Sepsis continues to be a deadly malady that clinicians haven’t figured out how to tackle consistently. A major limitation of treatment is how early clinicians can identify that a patient is showing signs of sepsis. Beckman Coulter just received FDA clearance for its Early Sepsis Indicator, a cellular biomarker for the company’s DxH 900 (Read more...)
Tyto At-Home Telemedicine Solution Rolling Out Through Best Buy
Tyto Care and Best Buy have partnered up to release one of the more interesting at-home medical devices to come out in the last few years. The TytoHome Medical Exam Kit provides a true telehealth capability by letting parents, caretakers, and people themselves perform physical exams. While the exams are done by average folks, the […]
A Visit to The applied Medical Device Institute at Grand Valley State University
Good ideas for new medical devices are a dime a dozen. Getting from an idea to an actual product is the true challenge. There are many factors to manage during the early stages of developing an idea into a product, financial potential, electronics, materials, regulatory issues, ergonomics, and clinical significance. There are now dozens of [&hellip (Read more...)
Spry Health Continuous Wrist-Worn Pulse Oximeter, Heart and Lung Meter FDA Cleared
Spry Health, a Silicon Valley company, won FDA clearance to introduce its Loop System continuous health monitor. The product, which consists of a wrist-band wearable device, charging cradle, and platform to analyze the readings, provides clinical-grade pulse oximetry, heart rate, and breathing rate of a patient over the entire day. Patients can hav (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...)
INNOVO Transcutaneous Electrical Stimulator for Urinary Incontinence Coming to U.S.
Atlantic Therapeutics, a company out of Galway, Ireland, will soon be releasing its INNOVO transcutaneous electrical stimulator to treat stress urinary incontinence in women. The device was FDA approved late last year as the first transcutaneous stimulator with such an indication. It delivers electric current through the body toward muscles that co (Read more...)