The causes of dog bites are poorly understood, but the topic causes quite a bit of emotion on all sides of the issue, be it dog owners, people who are afraid of dogs, or those that believe only certain species are dangerous. Researchers at University of Liverpool wanted to study this issue, so they turned […]
Tag: Public Health
National Kidney Registry Speeds Up Its Organ Matching System
GE is profiling how it, working with VasoHealthcare IT, an imaging consulting firm, helped the National Kidney Registry improve how quickly potential kidney donors are matched. Read on at GE Reports…
AI-Driven Interactive Patient Engagement for Hospitals: Interview with TeleHealth’s Richard Bootes
TeleHealth Services’ iCare Navigator is touted by the company as the healthcare industry’s first interactive patient engagement and education platform driven by artificial intelligence. Patients participate in learning via a health coach avatar and the interaction with this technology follows the patient throughout the duration of their hospital stay, and even into post-acute care at […]
Graphene Spike Coating for Implants Kills Any Bacteria Trying to Settle
Graphene, the material that consists of a one atom thick layer of carbons, is so impressive that its development was awarded a Nobel Prize in physics. To add to its abilities, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden used it to create microscopic spikes that kill bacteria upon contact. Because our native cells are […]
Text Messaging System Helps Care Providers and Patients Manage Opioids
Opioid abuse having become a serious health threat for many and a dire societal problem in many parts of America. Perhaps a simple messaging app can help? A collaboration from Washington University School of Medicine and Epharmix, a nearby company based in St. Louis, has released a simple text-based service to help people kicking the addiction. […]
ADVANTAGE PLUS Pass-Thru Automated Endoscope Reprocessor Cleared in U.S.
MEDIVATORS, a Cantel Medical company, won clearance from the FDA for its ADVANTAGE PLUS Pass-Thru Automated Endoscope Reprocessor. It works with all kinds of clinical scopes, including duodenoscopes, but what’s cool is that it is supposed to be fit into a wall so that anything passing from a “dirty” room to a “clean” room goes […]
Spying on Your Social Media and Searches to Fight STDs
Researchers at University of California, Los Angeles and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied whether certain search terms that are used on Google and topics covered on Twitter can point to a outbreak of a contagious disease. They focused on syphilis and found that by monitoring the incidence of certain terms, such as “STD” […]
Anti-Microbial Nanotechnology: Interview with Adrian Fellows, Head of R&D at AGA Nanotech
AGA Nanotech, a medtech company based in the UK, has developed nanotechnologies aimed at overcoming antimicrobial resistance, with a view to offering an alternative to conventional antibiotics. The company has collaborated with researchers from University College London to create poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles that can deliver highly oxidative biocides, using a Thermally Induced Phase Separation […]
Zipline’s New Medical Delivery Drones Fly Faster and Farther
Zipline, a drone company based in Half Moon Bay, California, is unveiling its fastest, longest range, and easiest to setup drone for medical deliveries. The company’s drones are already serving as couriers in Rwanda, delivering blood samples and blood units to and from 21 hospitals in the western part of the country. The new autonomous drones, […]
Sugar-Coated Nanosheets Can Selectively Bind Pathogens
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed sugar-coated ultrathin self-assembling nanosheets that can selectively bind to pathogens, and which have potential to serve as a diagnostic technology or a way to inactivate pathogens. The researchers developed the structures using bioinspired synthetic polymers, known as peptoids, which can self-assemble to […]
LexaGene’s New LX6 Rapid Pathogen Detection System: Interview with CEO Dr. Jack Regan
With the ever-growing list of potentially harmful pathogens being discovered, the systems needed to detect different strains need to become more sophisticated as well. Enter LexaGene, a biotechnology company developing automated and sensitive solutions for efficient pathogen detection. LexaGene’s unique microfluidics approach to pathogen detection uses disposable cartridges to analyse the molecular signature of large […]
Scal-Pal Makes Replacing Scalpel Blades a Snap
Scalpel blades are typically changed by exposing them from a package and handling them directly. Students at Georgia Tech have designed a simple device to make scalpel blade exchanges easier and safer. It works similar to automatic shaving blade dispensers, but applied to scalpel blades. To use the Scal pal, as the device is called, […]
Interview with Ori Geva, CEO of Medial EarlySign: A Healthcare Data Analytics Startup
Predictive analytics is the practice of learning from historical data in contemplation of making decisions about the future. Predictive analytics is not new to healthcare. However, in the past it has been limited by many factors, including data availability and accessibility. Over the last few years, the issue of data availability has been rectified, mainly […]
Blockchain Technology for Transparent Drug Pricing: Interview with Cambridge Consultants
Frustration with the US pharmaceutical industry has been on the rise along with the steadily increasing out-of-pocket copays for prescriptions drugs. The news cycle has also been reporting more frequently on extreme overnight price hikes on, at times, life-saving drugs. Many people are suspecting foul play because drug price negotiations are often held behind closed doors. Together, […]
PhoneSoap Med+ Cleans Smartphones, Tablets, Stethoscopes with UV
Considering that almost every person entering a hospital is carrying a smartphone, there’s constant worry that pathogens have an easy way to invade the very places they need to be kept out of the most. Now a new device is coming to market that was designed to quickly disinfect phones, tablets, and other small devices […]
Low-Cost 3D-Printed Stethoscope for Low-Resource Areas
Scientists at the University of Western Ontario, aka Western University, have developed a 3D-printed stethoscope. The device costs just $3 to produce and takes less than three hours to print, but maintains the acoustic quality of more expensive stethoscopes. The researchers hope that the device could be useful in low-resource settings, where medical equipment is […]
Drone Lifelines: Interview with Zipline’s Keenan Wyrobek
Keenan Wyrobek is the co-founder of Zipline, a California company designing, building, and deploying drones that deliver life-saving medical supplies and blood to the most remote and difficult to access places on Earth. He has a background in helping develop several tech products and patents in robotics, and is now leading product and engineering for Zipline. […]
Device Measures Stiffness of Tens of Thousands of Cells to Screen Drugs for Safety (Video)
Force cytometry, or measurement of strength of cells, can be a useful indicator for assessing how specific drugs affect cell function. Rapidly performing thousands of force cytometry tests can help speed up drug testing, particularly for compounds intended to treat blood pressure, stroke, muscular dystrophy, and asthma. Scientists at UCLA and Rutgers University have now […]
Amiko Respiro Inhaler Tracking System Cleared in Europe
Amiko Digital Health, a company based in London, UK, landed CE Mark approval for its Respiro sensors and accompany platform to be used with Teva’s Spiromax , Chiesi’s Nexthaler and GlaxoSmithKline’s Ellipta inhalers. The Respiro system records usage of an inhaler every time it’s accessed, passing that information in real-time to a patient’s phone and onto […]
QR Codes on Drugs to Thwart Counterfeits, Improve Compliance
Drugs are sometimes faked and sold in place of the real stuff, seriously hurting patients and causing them financial harm. Moreover, patients often take the wrong drugs or take them at the wrong time. What if each pill could be tagged by the manufacturer and confirmed by the patient of its authenticity and that it’s […]