8 Mindblowing Examples Of Technology Innovation In Healthcare
Medical innovations often conjure images of sterile labs, high-tech equipment, and complex procedures. But every now and then, remarkable breakthroughs come with a dash of ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ ingenuity. From reimagined everyday objects to solutions inspired by the natural world, these innovations prove that effective healthcare doesn’t always need to be complicated.
Let’s see some medical innovations that are as surprising as they are effective. We collected eight of our favorites that show how a little out-of-the-box thinking is leading to big changes in healthcare.
1. Zip-up ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - April 9, 2024 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andrea Koncz Tags: TMF creative healthcare healthcare innovation Source Type: blogs
Magnetic Dressing Improves Diabetic Wound Healing
Researchers at the National University of Singapore have developed a magneto-responsive hydrogel wound dressing that also contains two different regenerative cell types. The hydrogel is also embedded with magnetic particles that can be stimulated using an external magnetic field. The action of the magnetic field on the gel-encapsulated particles causes mechanical stresses within the gel to act on the cells, stimulating them to grow and enhancing their regenerative potential. The advanced dressing is intended to assist in healing diabetic wounds, which can be difficult to treat.
In diabetes, various issues can impair wou...
Source: Medgadget - November 9, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Materials Medicine Surgery diabetic wound hydrogel NUSingapore Source Type: blogs
Gelatin-Based Surgical Sealant for Rapid Sealing Inside the Body
Researchers at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation in Los Angeles have developed a gelatin-based surgical sealant. The sealant is thermoresponsive, meaning that it will rapidly form a semi-solid bolus when it reaches body temperature. It is also bioadhesive, adhering to slippery, wet surfaces in the body with relative ease. The researchers achieved this by incorporating caffeic acid, a substance that is naturally found in coffee and olive oil, into the gelatin gel, which helped to increase the adhesive strength of the formulation.
Sealing incisions within the body can be challenging. The slippe...
Source: Medgadget - April 3, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Materials Surgery Source Type: blogs
Tendon-Inspired Sutures Protect Fragile Tissues
Researchers at McGill University in Canada have developed bioinspired sutures that mimic the structure of human tendons. The gel-covered sutures are slippery and tough, reducing the damage caused by conventional sutures when used on soft tissues. Interestingly, the gel surface of the sutures may allow for advanced applications such as drug delivery, infection prevention, or even near-infrared imaging to aid suture placement and removal during minimally invasive surgery.
Suturing to close wounds and aid healing is an old technique, with centuries of history, but in all that time sutures haven’t advanced all that much. ...
Source: Medgadget - April 12, 2021 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Cardiac Surgery GI Materials Ob/Gyn Plastic Surgery Radiology Thoracic Surgery Vascular Surgery Source Type: blogs
Placental Allografts for Diabetic Foot Ulcers: Interview with Tim Wright, CEO of MiMedx
MiMedx, a medtech company based in Georgia, has developed EpiFix, an off-the-shelf allograft system for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers. The grafts are made using donated human placental tissues that are obtained from consenting mothers during caesarean section procedures. The tissues then undergo a proprietary processing procedure to clean them and eventually produce a dehydrated graft that can be stored at room temperature long term.
Diabetic foot ulcers are relatively common in patients with diabetes, presenting in as many as 15% of such patients. These wounds are stubborn and typically resistant to treatment, ...
Source: Medgadget - February 18, 2021 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Exclusive Medicine Surgery Vascular Surgery Source Type: blogs
Do adults really need tetanus booster shots?
If you haven’t had a tetanus booster shot in the past decade, your doctor may recommend getting one. Many people think of a tetanus shot as something you only need if you step on a rusty nail. Yet even in the absence of a puncture wound, this vaccine is recommended for all adults at least every 10 years. But why? A group of researchers recently questioned whether you need to repeat tetanus vaccines on a regular schedule.
What is a tetanus booster?
Booster shots are repeat vaccinations you receive after your first series of immunizations as a child. Protection from certain vaccines can wane over time, which is why doctors...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 12, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Sara W. Dong, MD Tags: Health Men's Health Vaccines Women's Health Source Type: blogs
Pressure Injuries Expanded by CMS as Indicators of Hospital Harm
CMS has implemented a new quality measure for hospitals that expands the array of pressure injuries considered as adversely impacting quality care. The new measure, developed in a program to provide electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs), widens the scope of pressure injury stages that directly infer quality deficit. The new measure however, bears no consideration for unavoidability of some pressure injuries even when recommended clinical practice guidelines for prevention have been followed.
According to CMS, the benefit of eCQMs is to assess the outcomes of treatment, reduce the burden of manual abstraction a...
Source: Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers - September 28, 2019 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Jeffrey Levine Tags: Featured Medical Articles Geriatric Medicine Pressure Injuries & Wound Care Risk Management bedsores decubiti decubitus ulcer end-of-life care geriatrics Healthcare Quality hospital quality Improving Medical Care Jeff Levine MD J Source Type: blogs
Terminal Ulcer Terminology Reconsidered
My new article in Wound Management & Prevention is a critical re-examination of terminal ulcer terminology. In it I make the case for recognizing terminal ulcers as part of the spectrum of skin failure (and not necessarily heralding death) and used only in situations where patients are recognized as actively dying.
The article presents several reasons why terminal ulcer terminology should be used only in limited fashion. These include the conflation of diagnosis and prognosis which are separate concepts, inaccuracy of prediction of death, advances in healthcare technology, variation in end-of-life trajectories, a...
Source: Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers - September 3, 2019 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Jeffrey Levine Tags: An Aging World Featured Medical Articles Geriatric Medicine Pressure Injuries & Wound Care Publications Risk Management bedsores decubiti decubitus ulcer end-of-life care geriatrics Healthcare Quality Jeff Levine MD Jeffrey M Lev Source Type: blogs
Cloud Computing for Clinical Trial Data: Interview with Jackie Kent, SVP and Head of Product, Medidata
Medidata offers data collection, analysis, and presentation services for clinical trials through its cloud computing AI platform. The aim of the system is to reduce the workload involved in data handling and analysis. This can be considerable in clinical trials, where enormous amounts of data are generated from diverse clinical sites, making the resulting datasets challenging to assemble, analyze, and organize.
Medidata offers a secure centralized platform to collect and store such data, and also provides a data analysis and presentation service so that customers can see how the trial is progressing without having to crunc...
Source: Medgadget - May 29, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Exclusive Informatics Source Type: blogs
New PICO 7Y Negative Pressure Wound Therapy System to Treat Two Sites at Once
Smith & Nephew is launching its brand new PICO 7Y negative pressure therapy system designed to be able to treat two wounds at the same time. The system uses a single pump that can support two dressings via a special Y extension, helping with cost savings while reducing the amount of gear worn by the patient. This can be particularly beneficial for women choosing to undergo a double mastectomy.
The PICO 7Y relies on the company’s AIRLOCK technology that makes sure to evenly distribute the negative pressure, while evaporation and absorption is used to pull moisture from the wound.
The device comes with a number of ...
Source: Medgadget - October 16, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Plastic Surgery Source Type: blogs
Wound Care Webinar Sponsored by The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine
On Wednesday, October 24th I had the honor of delivering a webinar entitled Wound Care: Maximizing Quality While Controlling Costs, sponsored by The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. The webinar will begin at 7:00 EST and last 1.5 hours. I will be giving Part 1 which will include the following didactic material:
• Importance of wound care in PA/LTC • What’s new in the wound world?• Regulatory update • Types of wounds in PA/LTC • Principles of wound management • System considerations • Risk Management considerations
My co-presenter is Dr. Scott Bolhack who will give Part 2...
Source: Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers - September 29, 2018 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Jeffrey Levine Tags: Geriatric Medicine Long-Term Care Pocket Guide to Pressure Ulcers Pressure Injuries & Wound Care Risk Management federal regulations geriatrics gerontology Nursing Homes Source Type: blogs
MolecuLight Coming to U.S. for Easy Fluorescent Imaging of Wounds
MolecuLight, a Toronto, Canada firm, won FDA de novo clearance for its MolecuLight i:X device that can photograph and video record the fluorescence of serious wounds and nearby tissues. The device can capture both regular light images as well as images taken when the scene is illuminated with an excitation light. No contrast agents are required to use the MolecuLight i:X.
While natural light lets one see the wound, it doesn’t reveal the bacterial activity going on within. Fluorescence imaging can expose groups of bacteria present on the wound, and therefore guide a more targeted treatment regimen.
“The MolecuLight ...
Source: Medgadget - August 20, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Plastic Surgery Public Health Source Type: blogs
Abderma, a High Absorbency and Retention Material for Wound Applications
On our visit to Med in Ireland medtech industry event, we had a chance to check out some cool indigenous materials engineering that goes on in Ireland to benefit medtech. Specifically, ATD emolda, a company based outside of Dublin, was showing off its Abderma foam, a product designed for wound management applications.
Abderma, a biocompatible material, combines a number of characteristics that make it work well on wounds, including being able to absorb a lot of liquid material quickly and to retain it within itself. Having tried it between our own fingers, the material is very pleasantly soft and strong. It bends well, hel...
Source: Medgadget - November 21, 2017 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Materials Medicine Plastic Surgery Source Type: blogs
FDA Cleares BRH-A2 to Treat Serious Wounds Using Electric Fields and Ultrasound
BRH Medical, a company based in Jerusalem, Israel, won FDA clearance for its BRH-A2 system that uses ultrasound and electricity to heal deep and chronic wounds. Using the two methods allows to speed up the healing of the wound while reducing pain during treatment. Both electric fields and ultrasound energy are delivered into and under the wound, treating it from all sides. To cover a wide range of treatment options in one session, the device varies the frequency and strength of the electric and ultrasound stimulations. The device can be used in combination with other therapeutic methods, such as negative pressure therapy.
...
Source: Medgadget - November 3, 2017 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Plastic Surgery Vascular Surgery Source Type: blogs
