Prosthetic Tech Lets Users Control Individual Fingers on First Try
Existing prosthetic hands have to rely on weak electrical nerve signals in order to know when to activate their motors. That’s because electrodes are typically placed on the skin over the area where the nerves end at the stump and the skin doesn’t transmit electricity that well. Implantable electrodes that make contact with the nerves tend to form scar tissue that ends up ruining signal fidelity and brain-computer interfaces are simply too invasive for most applications.
Now, researchers at the University of Michigan have come up with a way to significantly boost the power of nerve signals so that when they&...
Source: Medgadget - March 10, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Rehab Source Type: blogs
Stretchy Coils to Make MRI Imaging Easier on Patients
When undergoing MRI scanning, many patients have to have the body parts being imaged strapped into rigid radio-frequency (RF) coils. These can be uncomfortable, as they’re not custom-sized for every patient, and since many MRI exams can take a half hour or more to perform, the scanning process can be difficult for many to undergo.
Researchers at Purdue University have now developed RF coils that can be flexed and stretched, and that may one day be used within wearable garments that would be worn during MRI exams. “Imagine going for an imaging session and they strap on a comfortable fabric with the coils embedded...
Source: Medgadget - February 26, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Materials Radiology Source Type: blogs
Robotic Phlebotomist Draws Blood, Automates Hematology Analysis
Engineers at Rutgers University have developed a robot that autonomously draws patient blood and immediately performs hematology analysis. Such technology may help to speed up patient care, free clinicians to do other tasks, and even reduce the number of failed IV starts.
The device was recently tested in a clinical trial for the first time and the results, published in journal Technology, showed that the robot is as good or better than trained phlebotomists at obtaining venous access.
Currently, clinicians can miss target veins in patients who lack visible veins and with veins that are not palpable. Trying the pro...
Source: Medgadget - February 10, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Cardiology Critical Care Emergency Medicine Pathology Pediatrics Source Type: blogs
Patch Automatically Delivers Insulin as Blood Glucose Rises
New technology has been making an impact on how diabetics control their blood sugar levels. A combination of a wearable glucometer and insulin pump, connected via a smart control mechanism, can function as an artificial pancreas, but researchers at University of California Los Angeles, University of North Carolina, and MIT have created and now tested an electronics-free wearable patch that automatically releases insulin based on rising glucose levels.
The stick-on device is about the size of a U.S. quarter coin and features dozens of tiny needles loaded with insulin. They’re less than a millimeter in length and ma...
Source: Medgadget - February 5, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Medicine Source Type: blogs
Device Links Up to 10 Organ Chips to Form Body-on-a-Chip
Researchers at the Harvard Wyss Institute have developed a “body-on-a-chip” consisting of up to 10 organ-on-a-chip devices that are linked together to mimic blood flow between different organ systems. The new system allows for more comprehensive drug testing, enabling researchers to see the effects of a drug on multiple organ systems simultaneously. The Wyss team hopes that the technology could help to reduce the amount of animal testing required for drug development while providing more useful results.
In the past decade, numerous organ-on-a-chip devices have been developed. Such technology has the potential to mak...
Source: Medgadget - January 28, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Genetics Medicine Pathology Source Type: blogs
Exclusive with CELLINK Co-Founders Erik Gatenholm and Dr. H éctor Martínez
CELLINK is a 3D bioprinting company based in Gothenburg, Sweden, and was one of the first companies in the world to offer 3D printable bioink, which is used to print human organs and tissues. In just four years of existence, the company has been able to commercialize products used in more than 700 labs and 50 countries. This startup has made a lot of important strides in creating the technology essential to making 3D bioprinting more widespread and accessible to those without the necessary resources. In addition, Cellink has taken a multidisciplinary, tactical approach to conquering tissue bioengineering by looking at the ...
Source: Medgadget - December 6, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Alice Ferng Tags: Cardiac Surgery Exclusive Materials Medicine Neurosurgery Source Type: blogs
MRI Maps to Track Effectiveness of Drug Releasing Implants
Drug-releasing implants may have significant benefits for treating a variety of diseases. They’re already used in a few limited applications, but wider implementation has proven to be challenging because it is difficult to know how a drug moves through the implant and into the surrounding tissues.
Now, researchers at Purdue University have developed a way to use an MRI machine to view the movement of a drug through and out of a drug eluting implant. The capability will allow drug implant developers to study how their designs work with different drugs and within the types of tissues they’re expected to be sur...
Source: Medgadget - November 14, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Medicine Radiology Source Type: blogs
Neuromodulation for Tinnitus Relief: Interview with Neuromod Devices CEO Dr. Ross O ’Neill
Our nervous system plays a central role in how we sense things in our environment, and modulating the signals that pass through our nerves can manipulate our brain in various ways. Neuromodulation is commonly used for pain relief and is being researched to help restore movement, sight, hearing, and cognitive function for those who are impaired.
It was this amazing technology that excited Dr. Ross O’Neill, founder and CEO of Dublin, Ireland based Neuromod Devices. Neuromod Devices has developed “Lenire,” a non-invasive therapy for patients with tinnitus, a debilitating symptom of several hearing-related dis...
Source: Medgadget - October 24, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Scott Jung Tags: ENT Exclusive Neurology Source Type: blogs
PhD Opportunities in San Sebastian, Spain--BCBL
The Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities has published the call for PhD Students 2019. The application period is from 17/10/19 to 07/11/19 at 14:00h.The call offers:1 PHD STUDENT POSITION (4-YEAR CONTRACT) TO JOIN PROJECT PGC2018-093408-B-I0- THALANG – FUNCTIONAL AND STRUCTURAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE HUMAN THALAMUS TO LANGUAGE SYSTEMS ACROSS DEVELOPMENT TO BE SUPERVISED BY PEDRO M. PAZ-ALONSOKey words: Thalamus, Language Systems, Reading, Vision, Functional Connectivity, Structural Connectivity, Lateral Geniculate Nucleus, Medial Geniculate Nucleus, PulvinarSummary of...
Source: Talking Brains - October 22, 2019 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Greg Hickok Source Type: blogs
3D Liquid-Cell Electron Microscopy Imaging Now Possible
Electron microscopy revealed a world that exists at scales smaller than the wavelength of light. Advancements in this field have allowed scientists to visualize ever more objects and processes, but actually seeing living cells in 3D and within a liquid environment has been impossible.
Now, a team of researchers from Penn State University, Virginia Tech, and a company called Protochips have developed a system that allows for an electron microscope to be used to volumetrically visualize living cells and biological systems that exist in a liquid.
“With this technology that we developed in collaboration with Protoc...
Source: Medgadget - October 15, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Diagnostics Materials Nanomedicine News Oncology Pathology Radiology microscopy Source Type: blogs
Nanoelectrode Chip to Study Neuronal Network Activity of Thousands of Cells
Though the patch clamp electrode allowed neuroscientists to study electrical signals from inside neural cells, it is a tool with very limited capabilities. No more than about a dozen cells at a time can be studied, but the brain and the neural system operate on much larger scales. To help study entire neuronal networks comprising thousands of interconnected cells, researchers at Harvard University have created an electronic chip on which neurons can grow while their electrical activity is closely monitored. The technology has already allowed the team to create synaptic connectivity maps with hundreds of unique connections....
Source: Medgadget - September 24, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Nanomedicine Neurology Neurosurgery Source Type: blogs
Bathroom Scale Combined with ECG for At Home Heart Failure Monitoring
Conclusion: This work demonstrates that high quality BCG signals can be collected in a home environment and used to detect the clinical state of HF patients. Significance: In future work, a clinician/caregiver can be introduced to the system so that appropriate interventions can be performed based on the clinical state monitored at home.
Study in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering: Classification of Decompensated Heart Failure from Clinical and Home Ballistocardiography
Via: Georgia Tech (Source: Medgadget)
Source: Medgadget - September 24, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Cardiology Source Type: blogs
Minimally Invasive Biopsies Provide Maximum Pathology Data
Current pathology techniques for analyzing biopsy tissues are lacking in their ability to detect cancer in small samples. Being able to rapidly study the distribution of protein expression within cells, gathered from minuscule samples, could be an important tool for early diagnosis and monitoring of cancer.
Now, researchers at National University of Singapore have reported in Nature Biomedical Engineering that they have been able to use programmable DNA barcodes to measure and localize billions of protein markers within just a couple of hours.
Called STAMP (Sequence-Topology Assembly for Multiplexed Profiling), t...
Source: Medgadget - September 19, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Nanomedicine Oncology Pathology Surgery Source Type: blogs
Cartilage on a Chip to Identify New Treatments for Osteoarthritis
Researchers
from the Polytechnic University of Milan and the University Hospital of Basel
have developed a microfluidic chip containing cartilage, which can be subjected
to mechanical stress. The procedure mimics the conditions of osteoarthritis and
could help in developing new treatments.
Osteoarthritis
is relatively common among people over 60, with 20% of women and 10% of men suffering
its effects at this age. However, perhaps surprisingly, there are no drugs available
that can halt or reverse the process, with palliative care or surgery
frequently being the only options available.
Experimental
models that accur...
Source: Medgadget - August 27, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Geriatrics Medicine Orthopedic Surgery Source Type: blogs
