Tag: Medical Devices

The KidneyX Artificial Kidney Prize, designed to accelerate the development of artificial kidneys toward human trials, is now open for submissions.   Leaders from Luminary Labs, the consultancy that designed and produced the prize, said it represents the ways that the government can promote innovation through public-private partnerships such as KidneyX, which is a collaboration

For children fearful of undergoing MRI scans, an inexpensive everyday item used as a marker, such as a jelly baby lolly or a plastic, fish-shaped soy sauce container, might make the process a little less intimidating. And thanks to a QUT study, these and other relatively cheap, common items have been shown to be visible,

By combining two powerful technologies, scientists are taking diabetes research to a whole new level. In a study led by Harvard University’s Kevin Kit Parker, microfluidics and human, insulin-producing beta cells have been integrated in an “Islet-on-a-Chip.” The new device makes it easier for scientists to screen insulin-producing cells before transplanting them into a patient,

Suffering from tremor can be very frustrating and reduce the quality of life for many people. This includes people suffering from Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis or spinal cord injury and a relatively high fraction of the elderly. Today, there are no effective treatments for tremor, and thus, there is great potential in finding medications that can

A ground-breaking device to help patients with dizziness problems has moved a step forward following a successful research study. Researchers from UEA and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) have published the results of the biggest collection of continuous eye movement data after testing the effectiveness of a wearable diagnostic headset. The Continuous Ambulatory

A simple innovation the size of a grain of sand means we can now analyse cells and tiny particles as if they were inside the human body. The new micro-device for fluid analysis will enable more tailored experiments in drug development and disease research via new ‘organ-on-chip’ systems. It could also transform water contamination testing

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed a unique 3D-printed transparent skull implant for mice that provides an opportunity to watch activity of the entire brain surface in real time. The device allows fundamental brain research that could provide new insight for human brain conditions such as concussions, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The research

Siemens and SAS are partnering up for an artificial project that will develop new analytics for cloud and edge computing, combining SAS’ open source streaming analytics through Siemens’ MindSphere IoT platform. It’s one of two big AI partnerships announced this week by Siemens, whose Healthineers division is also working with Intel on a cardiac MRI

Uterine fibroid embolization (UFE) effectively treats uterine fibroids with fewer post-procedure complications compared to myomectomy, according to new research presented today at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting. Women who received this minimally-invasive treatment also had a slightly lower need for additional treatment than those who underwent surgery. UFE is a minimally-invasive

A team of researchers from New York University has engineered nanoscale protein micelles capable of both delivering chemotherapeutic drugs and of being tracked by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The innovation falls into the category of “theranostics,” meaning that it combines diagnostic capability and drug delivery, allowing researchers to administer therapy while also non-invasively monitoring the

Using strong and targeted but noninvasive magnets at specific sites in the brains of people with and without mild learning and memory problems, Johns Hopkins researchers report they were able to detect differences in the concentrations of brain chemicals that transmit messages between neurons. The strength of these magnetic fields allows the researchers to measure

The most common tests for glaucoma can underestimate the severity of the condition by not detecting the presence of central vision loss, according to a new Columbia University study. The study, published Nov. 8 in JAMA Ophthalmology, found that administering a variation of the visual field test that better assesses macular damage can improve diagnosis

In a breakthrough human study, anti-oxidant, glutathione (GSH), which protects the brain from stress, has been found to be significantly depleted in Alzheimer’s patients compared to normal subjects. As GSH is a very important anti-oxidant that protects the brain from free radicals, the findings give us another measure to use when diagnosing potential for the

It's an inconvenient truth that much of healthcare still runs on legacy software. Whether it's operating systems or medical devices, the security implications of depending on vulnerable and unsupported technologies are serious, putting HIPAA compliance and patient safety at risk. But even recent software has its flaws, of course, and new zero day vulnerabilities are

By developing a novel decoding technology, a team of engineers and physicians at the University of Southern California (USC) and UC San Francisco have discovered how mood variations can be decoded from neural signals in the human brain — a process that has not been demonstrated to date. Their study, published in Nature Biotechnology, is

Wearable devices are increasingly bought to track and measure health and sports performance: from the number of steps walked each day to a person’s metabolic efficiency, from the quality of brain function to the quantity of oxygen inhaled while asleep. But the truth is we know very little about how well these sensors and machines

New research in humans demonstrates the potential to improve memory with a non-invasive brain stimulation technique delivered during sleep. The results, published in JNeurosci, come from a project funded by the United States Department of Defense that aims to better understand the process of memory consolidation, which could translate into improved memory function in both

Fluorescence-based biosensing and bioimaging technologies are widely used in research and clinical settings to detect and image various biological species of interest. While fluorescence-based detection and imaging techniques are convenient to use, they suffer from poor sensitivity. For example, when a patient carries low levels of antigens in the blood or urine, the fluorescent signal

Researchers at Linköping University have for the first time been able to use information from computer tomography images to simulate the heart function of an individual patient. Some of the modelling methods they use have been developed in the motor industry. Computer tomography systems, also known as CT scanners, are found in most Swedish hospitals.

The human body is an extremely complex molecular machine, the details of which can be followed through certain substances; so-called biomarkers. Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to monitor biomarkers live in patients when these are present in minuscule concentrations. Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology have now developed a new technique that can become