Inside Story: Ensuring Reusable Devices Are Safe for the Next Patient

To find out more about the expertise required to establish safe processes for cleaning and disinfecting reusable medical devices, MDB recently spoke with Elizabeth Sydnor, Director of Microbiology Medical Device Testing, Eurofins Medical Device Testing (Lancaster, PA).

Designing Lenses for Near-Infrared and Fluorescence Endoscopy

Fluorescence endoscopy is becoming increasingly important in many medical diagnostic tests. Based on the molecular absorption of light, this technique works by revealing tissue...

Additive Manufacturing: New Frontiers for Production and Validation

Over the last few decades, additive manufacturing (AM)/ 3D printing has fundamentally changed the way that manufacturers approach product development. Industry is now...

Micro-CAL Process Prints Fine Features in Glass Microstructures

Researchers have developed a new way to 3D print glass microstructures that is faster and produces objects with higher optical quality, design flexibility, and strength. They...

Nanomaterial Improves Insulin’s Effects

Researchers have developed a compound consisting of insulin bound to a string of amino acids that includes an antioxidant group. An earlier study in mice suggested this nanomaterial’s...

Folding Design Leads to Heart Sensor with Smaller Profile

As advances in wearable devices push the amount of information they can provide consumers, sensors increasingly must conform to the contours of the body. One approach applies the...

Microchip Detects Prostate Cancer Markers

Measuring devices that perform disease tests simply and quickly from small amounts of blood, urine, saliva, and other bodily fluids are extremely important for accurate diagnosis and verifying the...

Flexible Backing Improves Brain-Computer Interface

Engineering researchers have invented an advanced brain-computer interface with a flexible and moldable backing and penetrating microneedles. Adding a flexible backing to this kind of...

New 3D Printing Technique: A Game Changer for Medical Testing Devices

Microfluidic devices are compact testing tools made up of tiny channels carved on a chip, which allow biomedical researchers to test the properties of liquids, particles, and...

Smartphone-Powered Microchip Enables At-Home Medical Diagnostic Testing

A research team has developed a new microfluidic chip for diagnosing diseases that uses a minimal number of components and can be powered wirelessly by a smartphone. The...

How Data Can Help Solve Manufacturing’s Waste Problem

In reshaping the world toward a new, post-pandemic normal, the industry must leverage digital transformation at an accelerated pace. This shift is already happening — according to IBM,...

New Products and Services

Heavy-Duty Enclosures Bud Industries, Cleveland, OH, has introduced a series of heavy-duty plastic enclosures that are designed to provide flexibility in installing printed circuit boards and other components. The...

Product Focus: Tubing

Plastic and Insert Molding Okay Industries, New Britain, CT, has added plastic molding and insert molding to its metal tube forming, laser tube cutting, and precision stamping and machining operations. The new...

What Medical Device OEMs Should Know About Outsourced MIM

The basis of metal injection molding (MIM) technology involves fine metal powders, which are combined with thermoplastic binders and surfactants, allowing injection in a plastic...

From the Editor - The Power of the Smartwatch: Bridging Consumer and Medtech Innovation

Smartwatches: These ubiquitous wearables have become a powerful tool for diagnosis and health monitoring in areas ranging from cardiology to diabetes to the...

How Miniaturized Liquid Flow Sensors Are Revolutionizing Subcutaneous Drug Delivery

The COVID-19 pandemic has strengthened the push toward digitalization as well as patient-centric solutions in healthcare. The increasing demand for...

Product of the Month

Honeywell, Morris Plains, NJ, has expanded its medical-grade biofiber portfolio with a blue-hued fiber that provides a strong visual aid to better differentiate between multiple suture sets in more complex surgeries.

Summer 2022 Resource Guide

In our summer edition of the MDB Resource Guide, learn about new cleaning requirements and find the right company to match your medical-design needs.

Multitasking Wearable Continuously Monitors Health

A prototype wearable can continuously monitor several health stats — glucose, alcohol, and lactate levels — simultaneously in real time. The device is about the size of a stack of six...

Smart Pacifier Monitors Infant Health in Hospitals

A wireless, bioelectronic pacifier could eliminate the need for invasive, twice-daily blood draws to monitor babies’ electrolytes in Newborn Intensive Care Units (NICUs).

Silk Layer Improves Function of Surgical Masks

A double layer of silk in combination with a surgical mask can enhance its ability to prevent the spread of viruses like COVID-19.

Copper, But Not Silver, Effective Against Sars-Cov-2 on Surfaces

Silver and copper ions wipe out many pathogens. That’s why implants and medical instruments, for example, are coated with these metals. Researchers have studied whether...

MD&M South Debuts in Charlotte, NC

The all-new IM Engineering South is dubbed the “six-in-one advanced design and manufacturing expo,” which includes MD&M South. The event, which takes place June 14–16, is designed to give...

MD&M Session to Focus on AI’s Transformation of Manufacturing

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is having a significant impact on the future of manufacturing. From robotics to smart factories to data analytics, advanced manufacturing...

MD&M South Keynote: Everything Old is New Again

The global supply chain disruptions of the last two years are spurring major changes across the manufacturing sector. After decades of reshoring, legacy industries, such as textiles, are...

Implant Allows Amputees to Use Mind to Control Robotic Arm

A more accurate, less-invasive technology allows amputees to move a robotic arm using their brain signals instead of their muscles. Researchers have created a small, implantable...

Wearable Robotic Sleeve Treats Lymphedema

A soft robotic sleeve controlled with a microfluidic chip reduces treatment cost, weight, and power consumption. The prototype is more portable than previous devices, and the underlying mechanisms...

Biodegradable Millirobot Releases Targeted Drugs

A nanofiber-based biodegradable millirobot, called Fibot, can move in the intestines and degrade in response to the pH of its environment, thus releasing different drugs in different anchored...

Nanosensor Platform Could Advance Detection of Ovarian Cancer

A new platform uses machine learning techniques to efficiently analyze spectral signatures of carbon nanotubes to detect biomarkers of ovarian cancer and to recognize the cancer...

Biodegradable Bandage Helps Wounds Heal

Researchers have developed a film that not only protects wounds similar to the way a bandage does, but also helps wounds to heal faster, repels bacteria, dampens inflammation, releases active...

Superelastic Metal Alloy Shows Promise in Biomedical Applications

A cobalt-chromium-based biomaterial mimics the flexibility of human bones and possesses excellent wear resistance. The new biomaterial could be used for implants such as hip...

Medtronic Completes Acquisition of Intersect ENT

Medtronic plc has completed the acquisition of Intersect ENT, expanding the company’s comprehensive ear, nose, and throat (ENT) portfolio with innovative products used in sinus procedures...

Boston Scientific Receives FDA Clearance for EMBOLD Fibered Detachable Coil

Boston Scientific Corporation has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance for its EMBOLD™ Fibered Detachable Coil, a device that is...

Education

At the turn of the 19th century, what industry was so dangerous that surgeons became specially trained to address the unique injuries of its employees?