WATCHMAN LAA Closure Technology consists of a delivery catheter and a device that is permanently implanted in the left atrial appendage (LAA) of the heart. The device, often referred to as the WATCHMAN, prevents LAA blood clots from entering the bloodstream and potentially causing a stroke. It is made of a self-expanding, nickel-titanium (Nitinol) frame with an attached woven plastic cap. How does it work? The physician inserts the delivery catheter into the body through a vein in the leg. Th...

The EyeForcer is a medical tech wearable for kids who use smartphones and tablets. It monitors posture to prevent Gameboy Disease. It helps to stop slouching over their smartphones and tablets every day. Posture is one of the fundamental things when it comes to muscle activity and fatigue. However, a minute strain can lead to very serious problems. And, for sports professionals and athletes, even a minute injury can lead to serious consequences. One of the major reason which leads to posture ...

Propeller Health now has a connected inhaler. This FDA cleared mobile application and IoT device helps patients, physicians and public health agencies systematically manage COPD, Asthma, and other respiratory diseases in real-time.  The propeller sensor is a small device that easily fits to most inhalers.  It wirelessly syncs with your smart phone so that you’re phone automatically captures and records your trends of usage including the time, date, and location of when you use your inhaler.  ...

Approaching the limits in miniaturization for ultra-high density, low power consumption media, this capability may enable orders of magnitude increases in on-board data storage capabilities that are compatible with space exploration system resource limitations of mass, power and volume. Benefit The increasing needs for on-board electronic memory will grow rapidly in order to keep pace with the requirements for subsystems involved in flight demonstration projects and deep space operations. Ex...

Senza SCS System (Senza System) is an implanted, rechargeable spinal cord stimulation system for the treatment of chronic pain of the trunk and/or limbs that is difficult to manage (intractable). The main components include an implanted signal generator that is connected to one or two implanted leads, and external doctor and patient controllers. How does it work? The doctor implants the signal generator and leads through a small incision in the patient’s back. The implanted signal generat...

TissuGlu Surgical Adhesive (TissuGlu) is a urethane-based, liquid surgical adhesive which is activated upon contact with tissue fluid. TissuGlu is applied by a hand-held applicator containing the adhesive. How does it work? The surgeon applies TissuGlu between layers of tissue to glue them together during a “tummy tuck” (abdominoplasty) procedure. Water in the patient’s tissue starts a chemical reaction that bonds the layers of tissue together, like glue. The surgeon then continues standard c...

  Philips Medication Dispensing service is a simple way to manage even the most complex medication regimens. So seniors who live alone can stay on track.   How it works 1. Load You put the senior’s medications into individual cups and load them into the dispenser. Provide the medication schedule to Philips Lifeline and we will program the dispenser for you.   2. Dispense The senior presses the button when they hear the reminder. The dispenser will d...

Micra Transcatheter Pacing System (TPS) contains a one inch-long, self-contained pacemaker that is implanted directly in the right ventricle chamber of the heart. It works like other pacemakers to control the heartbeat. Unlike other pacemakers, the Micra TPS does not have leads. The Micra TPS is a single-chamber pacing system – it paces only the right ventricle of the heart. How does it work? The Micra TPS is implanted directly into the heart via the femoral vein (in the leg) using a catheter...

Oxford Nanopore Technologies has created a device that uses nanotechnology to put a complete lab on a single printed circuit board. It also can strip away single strands of DNA, which greatly reduces the preparation required for test samples. They have created the MinION device that connects to a laptop using a USB cable to produce immediate results. This amazing device fits in your hand, and is already commercially available. The big news, however, is that they have shrunk the technology even f...

A team of European researchers, supported by the European Commission and Siemens, is developing a smart walker that will bring sensor and tablet technology to bear helping improve mobility in older adults. The "FriWalk" (short for Friendly Robot Walker) includes cameras and sensors for detailed gait analysis, a heart rate sensor, and a tablet interface that can provide activity coaching. FriWalk is a high-tech mobility aid that contains depth sensors and cameras to help support the user and m...

Ulcer is something that affects everyone just about as they get older. Scientists believe that inactivity and constant sitting can also be one of the reasons of causing ulcers. The Leaf Healthcare Sensor is designed to alert a person when it is time to turn and do some moving in order to combat no moving around. The tri-axial accelerometer that is in the sensor can monitor the position that a person is in and then help assist them in proper ways to turn. It even works with optimizing tissue pres...

Japan's Riken Brain Science Institute and rubber manufacturer Sumitomo Riko have built an experimental robot bear nurse that is able to lift patients and gently transfer them between beds and wheelchairs. Ageing populations are an increasing concern and in Japan, hospital staff and carers in nursing homes are required to lift patients about 40 times a day, which is strenuous and can cause lower-backpain. To aid carers, the Riken-SRK Collaboration Center for Human-Interactive Robot Research...

Harnessing the power of 3DP to develop innovative medicines Powder-liquid three-dimensional printing (3DP) technology was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s as a rapid-prototyping technique. This technology uses an aqueous fluid to bind together multiple layers of powder using a unique, patent-protected process to create a wide range of products. This work was expanded into the areas of tissue engineering and pharmaceutical use from 1993 to 2003....

Scientists have developed an "intelligent knife" that can tell surgeons immediately whether the tissue they are cutting is cancerous or not. In the first study to test the invention in the operating theatre, the “iKnife” diagnosed tissue samples from 91 patients with 100 per cent accuracy, instantly providing information that normally takes up to half an hour to reveal using laboratory tests. The findings, by researchers at Imperial College London, are published today in the journal Scienc...

University of California, San Diego has developed a sensor capable of detecting single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), a type of DNA mutations. Research team has created an electrical graphene chip that is able to detect mutations in DNA. Researchers say the technology could be used in a wide range of medical applications in the future, including blood testing for early cancer screenings, tracking disease biomarkers and even real-time detection of viral and even microbial sequences. Profe...

Tumor analysis is a key part of the cancer diagnostic workflow for all patients. Once a mass is removed from a patient, microscopic analysis is used to determine if it is cancer, as well as its characteristics and grade. Typically, protein or DNA changes in sections of the sample are measured to determine the patient’s potential drug response. Samples with insufficient information, however, can be a major problem for pathologists and oncologists who are challenged with increasing numbers of the...

Open Bionics, who have previously collaborated with Disney for Marvel and Star Wars-inspired prosthetics, will produce an arm based on the game's protagonist Adam Jensen. The Deus Ex video game franchise, which is itself set in a world where human augmentation through mechanical prosthetics is the norm, seems like a natural source of inspiration for prosthetic design. Together, Eidos Montreal, Square Enix, and OpenBionics are working on the development of two Deus Ex inspired bionic arms, ...

Doctors have a powerful arsenal of cancer-fighting chemotherapy drugs to choose from, though a key challenge is to better target these drugs to kill tumors while limiting their potentially harmful side effects. Now, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are helping to develop and test materials for a new device that can be inserted via a tiny tube into a vein and soak up most of these drugs like a sponge. That’s after a separate tube de...

Your brain is made up of billions of brain cells called neurons, which use electricity to communicate with each other. The combination of millions of neurons sending signals at once produces an enormous amount of electrical activity in the brain, which can be detected using sensitive medical equipment (such as an EEG), measuring electricity levels over areas of the scalp. The combination of electrical activity of the brain is commonly called a brainwave pattern, because of its cyclic, "wave-l...

Hair loss is a common side effect of certain types of chemotherapy, commonly associated with the treatment of breast cancer. Hair may fall out entirely, gradually, in sections, or may become thin. Hair loss due to cancer treatment is usually temporary, but minimizing or relieving these kinds of side effects are considered important to overall treatment. “We are pleased to see a product for breast cancer patients that can minimize chemotherapy-induced hair loss and contribute to the quality of...

LifeVest wearable defibrillator is worn by patients at risk for sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), providing protection during their changing condition and while permanent SCA risk has not been established. The LifeVest allows a patient’s physician time to assess their long-term arrhythmic risk and make appropriate plans. The LifeVest is lightweight and easy to wear, allowing patients to return to their common activities of daily living, while having the peace of mind that they are protected from SCA....

Researchers in Switzerland are working to develop magnifying contact lenses that zoom in and out with a wink. The innovative new vision-enhancing system, the first of its kind, includes a set of telescopic lenses and smart glasses that can distinguish between blinks and winks so that the user can easily flick between zoomed and normal vision. The visual aids, which are still in the prototype stage, could be useful for those with visual impairment, which affects some 285 million people worl...

Afrezza® is an inhaled human insulin indicated to help improve glycemic control in adults with diabetes mellitus Inhalable insulin is a powdered form of insulin, delivered with a nebulizer into the lungs where it is absorbed. Inhaled insulin is another option for people with diabetes to control their blood sugar. It works for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The FDA has approved an inhaled, rapid-acting, dry-powder formulation of recombinant human insulin (Afrezza–Mannkind/Sanofi) for tre...

Blood glucose monitoring technology has evolved since the test strip. Now there are electrochemical sensors being developed that employ a two or three electrode system and are convenient to use. (Vashist, Zheng, Al-Rubeaan, Luong, & Sheu, 2011). The Abbott company has been a pioneer in diabetes monitoring systems. They are starting to roll out a new glucose monitoring system in select markets and should be worldwide in the near future. The FreeStyle® Libre Pro Flash Glucose Monitoring...

You’ve injured your knee. A doctor straps a listening device to it, and the noises you hear coming out of it are cringe-worthy. “Crackle! Krglkrglkrgl! Snap!” Your knee isn’t breaking; it’s only bending, and in the future, those sounds could help doctors determine whether the convalescing joint is healthy yet, or if it needs more therapy. Research engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are developing a knee band with microphones and vibration sensors to listen to and measure the ...

  John Rogers, a materials science professor at the University of Illinois with a bold vision: Someday, he believes, we will all have sensors on our bodies that send information to a mobile phone, similar to the way a car’s sensors feed the vehicle’s computer. While all biostamps have a few common characteristics—they stretch like skin, include flexible circuits, and can be powered wirelessly— different functions require different sensors. The butterfly sensor on the left is desig...

Engineers at Michigan State University working with folks at Bell Labs have developed WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY that could help detect health risk, depresion. It may be small, so small it’s hardly noticeable, but it could someday save lives. “It” is wearable technology that can monitor a person’s eating, drinking, coughing and even social habits, and that’s information a health care provider could find useful when treating someone dealing with obesity, diabetes, asthma or even depression. Thi...

Researchers have developed an integrated, wearable system that monitors a user’s environment, heart rate and other physical attributes with the goal of predicting and preventing asthma attacks. The researchers plan to begin testing the system on a larger subject population this summer. The system, called the Health and Environmental Tracker (HET), is composed of a suite of new sensor devices and was developed by researchers from the National Science Foundation’s Nanosystems Engineering Resear...

The iBOT is a powered wheelchair developed by Dean Kamen in a partnership between DEKA and Johnson and Johnson's Independence Technology division. iBOT has a number of features distinguishing it from most powered wheelchairs: By rotating its two sets of powered wheels about each other, the iBOT can "walk" up and down stairs, much like a cog railway or a rack and pinion with the two wheels as the "teeth" of the gear. The wheels can roll slightly at each step to compensate for a wide range ...

iBeat is a new company in San Francisco that hopes to address this problem. They are designing a new smartwatch that will monitor the wearer’s heart activity around the clock, and analyze the results. If it detects a dangerous condition, it can alert the wearer, as well as family members and emergency responders. It will include 3G cellular wireless communication, as well as a medical-grade heart rate sensor. The company has indicated that it will pursue a “Wearable-as-a-Service” business model ...