At Leiden University in The Netherlands, research is being done on making vaccinations easier and more effective. Currently, needles are commonly used and no one, particularly children, is happy about that. Microneedles patches have been developed in the past, but while they’re effective in some applications, they suffer from many limitations (Read more...)
Tag: Medicine
Medgadget Joins the Verily Baseline Project Study, Part 3: Onward to Year Two!
This is the third of a multi-part series about Medgadget editor Scott Jung joining the Verily Baseline Project Study. Click to read the first and second parts. Last April, Verily Life Sciences, a division of Alphabet, launched the Baseline Project Study, a landmark four year, multi-site study of 10,000 individuals all over the United Stat (Read more...)
Veinplicity Makes Veins Fatter for Easier Access (Interview)
Venous access is famously difficult in many patients, and devices have been developed in the past to make veins easier to see. Seeing narrow veins doesn’t make it much easier to get inside of them, but the Veinplicity device from Physeon, a Swiss company that’s part of Germany’s Novintum Medical Technology, actually makes vei (Read more...)
Eko and Mayo Clinic Working on Automated Cardiac Screening Tool
Eko, the company that makes smart electronic stethoscopes that we’re very fond of and which is sponsoring our popular Medgadget 2018 Sci-Fi Writing Contest, has now partnered with the Mayo Clinic to develop automated tools to screen patients for heart conditions. Initially, they’re focusing the attention on spotting low ejection fr (Read more...)
Masimo’s High Accuracy RD SET Pulse Oximeters Cleared by FDA
Masimo won FDA clearance for its RD SET sensors that feature the company’s “Measure-through Motion” and “Low Perfusion SET” pulse oximetry. The new disposable oximeters are supposedly twice as accurate than Masimo’s previous offerings for patients over 3 kg, having an accuracy spec of 1.5% at 1 standard deviation (Read more...)
Near-Infrared Tech for Minimally Invasive Brain Monitoring: Interview with Philippe Dro, CEO of Luciole Medical
Luciole Medical, a medtech company based in Switzerland, has developed near-infrared sensors that can assess levels of tissue oxygenation as well as cerebral blood flow by measuring oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin. The sensors include a skin patch, which measures brain blood flow and oxygen saturation in patients undergoing surgery, and a mi (Read more...)
Vayyar Imaging Launches Walabot Home, A Senior Care Smart Home Device for Fall Detection
This week, Vayyar Imaging, a player in 3D sensor imaging technology, announced the launch of Walabot HOME, a senior care smart home device. Walabot HOME is designed for fall detection without the use of wearables, through the use of low-power radio wave technology similar to Wi-Fi. Avoiding the need for cameras, the system allows users […]
FUJIFILM Unveils CT Scanner with Ultra-Wide Bore for Radiology, Radiotherapy
For the clinicians working on the front lines of the obesity epidemic, FUJIFILM is releasing in the U.S. a new wide-bore CT scanner, which is available in either 64 or 128 slice configurations. The FCT Embrace can be used for radiology, as well as in oncology applications, thanks to its built-in radiotherapy planning features. The […]
Quell Non-Medication Solution for Chronic Pain: Interview with CEO Shai Gozani
Chronic pain affects 100 million Americans and is the most common cause of long-term disability. Long-term use of pain medications has significant risks, and chronic pain is a major contributor to opioid overuse. NeuroMetrix hopes to offer effective, non-medication solutions for chronic pain. The Waltham, MA-based company has developed the Que (Read more...)
Tyto Lets Primary Care Docs Examine Patients Remotely, Now Cleared in Europe
Tyto Care, based in Israel, won the European CE Mark, allowing it to introduce its telemedicine system on the continent. This product lets people perform exams on each other under the guidance of a physician who is able to see and hear what’s going on in real time and is able to review the various […]
SnapECG: Medgadget Reviews a Basic ECG Tracing Viewer for Your Phone
mhealth’s SnapECG is a medical-grade handheld single-lead electrocardiograph that connects via Bluetooth to a smartphone. It gives a recording of the heart’s electrical pulses, and stores the data to be given to a doctor later. It has received CE mark in Europe and approval from the Chinese Food and Drug Administration (CFDA). It can be (Read more...)
Smart Textiles to Release Drugs When and Where Needed
At the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) researchers are working on integrating therapeutic drugs into textiles that can release them into the skin as needed. The researchers envision pain medication to be administered as soon as the body severely during a sports injury, or an antibiotic can be released as (Read more...)
Demystifying Blockchain Technology in Healthcare: Interview with Nicholson Center CTO Dr. Roger Smith
Continuing our series of conversations with healthcare thought leaders about the burgeoning world of blockchain technologies, Medgadget spoke with Chief Technology Officer of the Nicholson Center, Dr. Roger Smith. The Nicholson Center is a medical research and training center founded in 2001, which operates within the Florida Hospital network. (Read more...)
Pervasive ECG: Integrating Body Sensors Into Everyday Things (Interview)
Wearable devices with body sensors have been seen by many as a way to get the general public to be better aware of their overall health. It’s a nice idea, but it still requires people to remember to wear their devices, to check up on the readings via the smartphone, and to recharge the devices […]
Vagus Nerve Stimulation to Reduce Post Surgical Brain Inflammation
Following a difficult surgery, some patients end up experiencing cognitive decline and delirium, which seems to arise from inflammatory changes in the brain, that are still poorly understood. This inflammation is difficult to control in a targeted way, but researchers at Duke University seem to have discovered that electrical nerve stimulation may (Read more...)
Drug Releasing Contact Lens Changes Color to Show When Its Working
Drugs designed to treat eye conditions are often delivered via eye drops. Almost all of the actual drug ends up dripping off the eye and not being properly absorbed. Drug releasing contact lenses are the next big thing to treat conditions such as glaucoma, and they may end up being pretty smart in addition to […]
Virginia Tech’s Medical School Uses Ultrasound to Learn Anatomy, Pathology
At the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, there’s a great deal of emphasis placed on starting students to learn ultrasound techniques early on in their studies. This is important, as it helps students relate directly to real anatomy that they’re observing, to achieve a certain level of intuition when using ultrasound, which ofte (Read more...)
FDA Clears First App-Only Product for Detecting Atrial Fibrillation
FibriCheck, a Belgian firm, won FDA clearance for its smartphone application that is capable of spotting signs of atrial fibrillation, simply by using the phone’s camera. The user places a finger over the camera lens on the back of the phone and initiates the app to do its thing. The app utilizes photoplethysmography to optically watch [ (Read more...)
MIT’s Non-Invasive Glucometer as Accurate as Finger Pricks In Early Clinical Study
Non-invasive blood glucose measurement remains one of the most intriguing challenges for medical technology. While we’ve been promised prick-free glucometry by various companies and institutions, researchers at MIT are getting close to the elusive goal. They have developed a fiber-optic probe coupled Raman system that, when placed agains (Read more...)
MedAware Uses AI to Detect Potential Medication Errors: Interview with Dr. Gidi Stein, CEO
Medical errors are the third-leading cause of death in the US and they are probably the most common and preventable. MedAware, an Israeli company, is using the power of artificial intelligence to detect potential errors before they happen. The company was started by Dr. Gidi Stein, MD, PhD, who had spent several years in the […]