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...)
Tag: Medicine
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. […]
EU Gives First Approval for Ultra-High-Field MRI Scanner, The Siemens Magnetom Terra
Siemens Healthineers just won the first European regulatory approval for an ultra-high-field MRI scanner to be used in clinical practice. The Magnetom Terra sports a magnetic field strength of 7 Tesla, which is considerably more powerful than 3 Tesla, the current high-end standard. MRIs of such strength have been used in research hospitals for year (Read more...)
SoClean Disinfects CPAP Equipment: A Medgadget Review
Users of CPAP machines end up maintaining the system by having to clean the mask, the accompanying air tube, and humidifier. Not only this is a hassle, but for many patients with sleep apnea this may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, causing them to abandon the therapy. As CPAP is impressively effective […]
3M’s New Extended Wear Medical Tape
Long-term medical wearables are often limited by the adhesives that are used to stick them to the skin. The skin needs to breathe and glues can prevent that, remaining in the skin’s pores even after removal of a bandage or stick-on ECG electrode. The materials have to be biocompatible and non-irritating, as well as avoiding […]
Growing and Testing Drugs on Dozens of Tiny Guts at Once
In a demonstration of where the field of organ-on-a-chip technology is inevitably going, MIMETAS, a company developing organ-on-chip technology out of Leiden, The Netherlands, and Roche, the giant pharmaceutical company, teamed up to grow and test 350 perfused gut tubes within a matter of days. The gut tubes replicate the basic structure of an (Read more...)