Masimo won FDA clearance for its Rad-G pulse oximeter, a rugged device developed with the help of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Originally created to spot-check patients for SpO2 (oxygen saturation), respiration rate from the plethysmograph (RRp), pulse rate (PR), perfusion index (Pi), and pleth variability index (PVi®), this latest generation of the Rad-G […]
Tag: Pediatrics
Swoop Portable MRI Cleared in U.S. for Bedside Scans
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become an integral part of medical care throughout much of the world, but access to this technology remains limited. Conventional MRI scanners need dedicated rooms with entry protocols, quench venting, and safety measures, and patients have to be taken to where the machine is located, often at a distant corner […]
Neurostimulation Device Reduces Withdrawal Symptoms of Kids Born Addicted to Opioids
Children born to mothers addicted to opioids suffer through withdrawal in their first few weeks of life. Morphine is commonly used in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) to alleviate symptoms while the kids are weaned from drug dependency. This typically takes two to four weeks, all the while the children are kept in the NICU. […]
Vitls Platform Cleared in U.S. for Remote Patient Monitoring
Vitls Inc., a company out of Houston, Texas, won FDA clearance for its Vitls Platform, a combination of a vitals monitoring patch, cloud storage, and an app that lets clinicians monitor multiple patients wearing such a patch at once. The patch, which is called Tégo, keeps track of a patient’s heart and respiration rates, heart […]
Patients to Draw Their Own Biomedical Sensors Using Pencil and Paper
Wearable bioelectronic devices that stick to the skin and measure things such as temperature, heart rhythms, and other vitals are typically complex devices that use modern materials to do their job. They tend to be difficult to manufacture, expensive, and fragile, and so are still not widely available. Incredibly, researchers at the University of Missouri […]
Thinklabs One Electronic Stethoscope Helps Physicians Stop Spread of COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the implementation and use of telemedicine and telehealth platforms and devices as part of current day-to-day standards of care in many hospital and healthcare systems. In this era of social distancing, doctors on our frontlines are at the most risk when diagnosing patients, and it’s therefore important to minimize […]
Getinge Servo-air Multi-Purpose Mechanical Ventilator FDA Cleared
Getinge has won FDA clearance for its Servo-air mechanical ventilator. The device doesn’t need any wall gas or pressurized gas cylinders to operate thanks to a built-in turbine that generates enough continuous air pressure to meet any patient’s needs. Using powerful hot-swappable batteries allows the Servo-air to maintain patients while in transport between hospital wards. […]
ivWatch Monitors IV Placement Sites for Leakage, Now Cleared by FDA
ivWatch, a company based in Newport News, Virginia, won FDA clearance for its SmartTouch sensor that detects peripheral IV infiltration and extravasation events. Though somewhat rare, these can be difficult to notice and a late response can lead to grave consequences. The SmartTouch sensor can warn physicians that something is wrong, sometimes hours before a […]
Neopenda NeoGuard Wearable Vital Signs Monitor for COVID-19: Interview with Sona Shah and Assumpta Nantume
Neopenda, a medical device startup based in Chicago that has been featured on Medgadget previously, has recently adapted its wearable vital signs monitor, originally developed for newborns, to be used with pediatric and adult patients in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, the neoGuard has been utilized as a monitoring solution for newborn infants […]
Smartphone Measures Hemoglobin Levels in Photos of Eyelids
Anemia is properly diagnosed using a blood test that measures hemoglobin, but simply looking behind a patient’s eyelid can be a pretty good alternative if you know how red the tissue is supposed to be. Now, a team at Purdue University has developed a technology that lets a clinician use smartphone pictures of the inner […]
A Multinational Effort to Reduce Neonatal Mortality: Interview with Dr. Maria Oden, Co-director of Rice 360° Institute for Global Health
According to the World Health Organization, 47% of childhood deaths worldwide occur in the first four weeks of life. This neonatal mortality rate is particularly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly one million newborns die every year. Many of these deaths can be prevented with medical devices that more developed countries often take for granted, […]
BiWaze Cough System Receives FDA Clearance to Help Clear Secretions
ABM Respiratory Care, a company with offices in USA, Singapore, and India, announced that it has received FDA 510(k) clearance to market its BiWaze Cough System, a device for removing secretions in patients who are unable to cough or clear secretions effectively. The BiWaze Cough System consists of a touch-screen device connected to a non-invasive […]
RAPIDPoint 500e Blood Gas Analyzer FDA Cleared to Help Ventilated Patients
To help address the COVID-19 emergency that’s taking over emergency rooms and intensive care units in the United States, the FDA has cleared the RAPIDPoint 500e blood gas system from Siemens Healthineers. The device uses the company’s Integri-sense technology to provide results on blood gas, electrolyte, metabolite, CO-oximetry, and neonatal bilirubin. This is important during […]
Magnetic Beads Trap E. Coli from Body Fluid Samples
While current concern is all about the COVID-19 virus that originated in China and spread around the world, this pathogen will eventually disappear. Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria, though, is with us for the long run and it can cause just as much suffering as COVID-19. Researchers at Rutgers University have just reported in journal […]
ViTrack for Direct, Continuous, Non-Invasive Blood Pressure Monitoring: Interview with CEO of Dynocardia, Dr. Mohan Thanikachalam
Most modern blood pressure cuffs use the oscillometric technique, in which the cuff measures one value (mean arterial pressure) and an algorithm calculates systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings. However, this indirect method can produce inaccuracies, and single-point measurements lead to an inaccurate hypertension diagnosis in 30% of patients. While intraarterial lines can be used […]
zEEG, An Easy-to-Wear EEG Headset
The electroencephalogram (EEG) is used to detect electrical activity in the brain in order to evaluate a variety of neurological conditions. However, EEGs are difficult to perform due to an involved setup process that requires technicians to place individual electrodes onto a patient’s head. Zeto, a Santa Clara, California company, hopes to simplify the EEG […]
Advanced Wireless Neonatal Body Monitors to Improve Outcomes
Babies that end up in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) or pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) are monitored via a complex collection of sensors, each of which has a wire connected to a patient monitor. While necessary, all this technology makes it difficult for parents to bond with their children and for clinicians to […]
Masimo Receives FDA Approval for Continuous RRp Monitoring
Masimo announced that it received FDA clearance for continuous RRp (respiration rate from the photoplethysmograph) monitoring with its with Rad-97, Radical-7, and Radius-7 Pulse Co-Oximeters. Usually, monitoring respiration rate involves manually counting breaths with a timer or using chest straps that need to be fitted. The newly-approved Masimo RRp monitor allows clinicians to conveniently measure respiration […]
Table-Top Robot Uses AI to Make Blood Draws, Insert Catheters
Researchers at Rutgers University have developed a robot that utilizes artificial intelligence, along with near-infrared and ultrasound imaging, to automatically make blood draws and insert catheters in small blood vessels. The device could take the guesswork out of blood draws, which are frequently challenging when performed manually, and reduce the chances of complications, while allowing […]
FDA Clears First Pulse Oximeter to Measure Breathing Rate
Masimo just received the first FDA clearance for a fingertip pulse oximeter that can measure respiration rate. The MightySat Rx spot-check pulse oximeter includes a technology known as Respiration Rate from the Pleth (RRP) that makes it unnecessary to perform manual counts or use chest electrodes to measure respiration rate. The device can be used […]