July 2014

Stories

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From the Editor: Medical
From the Editor — Interesting Times, Indeed
There’s an old saying “May you live in interesting times.” While it is meant to sound like a blessing, some say that is actually an ancient curse. Ancient or not, the saying was included by the late Robert F. Kennedy in a 1966 speech to students in Cape Town, South Africa. I was reminded of his...
Features: Medical
This article discusses ways to set up new projects for success and covers ideas for material selection, dimension and tolerance, and critical feature selection. Designing a silicone...
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Features: Medical
From image-guided surgery to vision-equipped service robots, real-time video is enabling new levels of precision and treatment while driving fundamental changes in how healthcare services are...
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Applications: Medical
According to the Journal of Patient Safety, a whopping 210,000 to 440,000 deaths attributable to medical errors occur in hospitals every year. Clearly, there is a...
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Briefs: Medical
Electrolytes, such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, and other salts are essential in carrying nerve impulses that tell the heart and other muscles when to contract or relax. A proper...
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Briefs: Medical
HeartBeatID – Heart Electrical Actions as Biometric Indicia
One or more biometric indicia, such as fingerprints, voice prints, retinal scans, and facial features, are often used to identify or authenticate the identity of a user seeking access to a given resource. Cardiac muscle is myogenic and is capable of generating an action potential and...
Briefs: Medical
A team of researchers in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, attached short sequences of single-stranded DNA to nanoscale building blocks,...
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Products: Medical
igus, Inc., East Providence, RI, introduces the world’s first plastic filament for 3D printers enhanced with tribological, or low friction, properties. The material,...
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Products: Medical
Werth, Inc., Old Saybrook, CT, announces that its Video-Check® 400 and ScopeCheck 400 universal multi-sensor coordinate measuring machines combine optical and tactile coordinate measuring with a special transmitted...
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Products: Medical
Aerotech, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA, announces that its PlanarSL mechanical bearing, ball-screw-driven XY stages offer exceptional performance in a cost-sensitive, low-profile package. Combining two axes of motion in a...
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Products: Medical
Miyachi America Corporation, Monrovia, CA, announces the availability of a wide range of accessories and customized accessory kits specifically selected to work with its laser welding and marking, reflow...
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Products: Medical
Marubeni Citizen-Cincom Inc., Allendale, NJ, introduces a new level in the Cincom L Series Innovation lineup, the L20 Type XII Swiss-type lathe with new B-axis controllable rotary tools, which allows drilling and...
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Products: Medical
Micronor Inc., Newbury Park, CA, announces its MR330 series Fiber Optic Absolute Position Sensor System now features 14-bit single-turn resolution. Its enhanced performance is accomplished via improved...
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Products: Medical
Molex, Inc., Lisle, IL, launched its innovative HOZOX™ Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Absorption Tape and Sheets. The technology utilizes a unique dual-layer design to maximize EMI...
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Products: Medical
Tech-Etch, Inc., Plymouth, MA, has released its 2014 catalog, which details all standard and custom EMI/RFI shielding product options. Its easy-to-use PDF format lets the user download interactive sales...
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Products: Medical
ADLINK Technology Inc., San Jose, CA, introduces its new offering, the cExpress-HL COM Express® Type 6 Compact size computer-on-module (COM), which uses a mobile 4th generation Intel® Core™ processor to...
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Products: Medical
IPG Photonics Corporation, Oxford, MA, announces the IX-200-F, an advanced fiber laser micromachining system for general purpose, R&D, and batch-scale production applications. The multi-function system...
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Products: Medical
Bodkin Design & Engineering, Newton, MA, introduces a new, advanced medical imaging system that enables researchers to pinpoint data and analyze complex microscopic samples in real time. The VNIR-90...
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Products: Medical
ON Semiconductor, Phoenix, AZ, has added two new devices to its RHYTHM™ family of preconfigured Digital Signal Processing systems designed for use in hearing aid devices. RHYTHM R3920 is a...
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Products: Medical
Element Six, Santa Clara, CA, has developed an all-diamond packaging solution for electroanalytical sensing applications. The solution is comprised of Element Six’s Diafilm EA grade, a freestanding, boron doped...
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Products: Medical
Intelligrated®, Cincinnati, OH, introduces a new software model from its subsidiary, Knighted®. Knighted fulfillment execution system makes automated, real-time decisions based on constant analysis...
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Products: Medical
VARTA Microbattery Inc., Rye, NY, presents the new power one wireless approved mercury-free Type 13 and 312 hearing aid batteries designed for the latest generation of wireless devices and hearing aids, as...
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Products: Medical
Cirris Systems Corp., Salt Lake City, UT, introduces Smart-Lights, inexpensive devices that provide intelligence to fixtures and mating cables, enabling “plug in anywhere” functionality. Smart-Lights utilize a...
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Products: Medical
EM Microelectronic, Marin, Switzerland, announces the EM4237, the first high-secure ISO/IEC15693 compliant device offering unequalled RF performances and enabling efficient and secure solutions for...
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Technology Leaders: Medical
There are so many motors on the market today, from heavy-duty AC motors to tiny DC brushless and stepper motors. To choose a motor, users must have a full understanding of the application...
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Technology Leaders: Medical
If your application demands a reliable, time-tested, low cost motor, then brushed DC motor technology may be what you’re looking for. The key here is simplicity. A brushed motor is...
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Mission Accomplished: Medical
In a 1962 speech, President John F. Kennedy said, “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because...
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R&D: Imaging
A team of researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, have developed a brain-scanning technology that tracks what the brain is actively doing by shining dozens of...
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R&D: Medical
While it may look like a game board and users may find it fun to use, there is a serious intent behind a device created by engineering students at Rice University, Houston, TX, to test the...
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R&D: Medical
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched its Revolutionizing Prosthetics program to advance the field of modular upper-limb prosthetics and committed to making the...
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R&D: Medical
A team of scientists from the University of Texas, Dallas, along with colleagues at the University of Tokyo, Japan, have created biologically adaptive transistor devices that have the ability to become...
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R&D: Photonics/Optics
Researchers at Indiana University, Bloomington, have discovered new early warning signs of the potential sight loss associated with diabetes. This could have a big impact on the...
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R&D: Medical
A team of scientists at MIT has developed a new sensor that, they say, can enable long-term monitoring of oxygen levels in cancerous tumors, which may advance diagnosis and treatment.
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INSIDER: Medical
Low-Cost Optical Imaging Can Evaluate Concussions
Portable, optical brain imaging for concussion was evaluated by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences. They say this is the first step toward demonstrating its use on patients.
INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
Stretchy Yarn Made of Graphene
A collaboration between researchers at Penn State University, and Shinshu University in Japan say that they have developed a simple, scalable method of making graphene oxide (GO) fibers that are strong, stretchable, and can be easily crolled into yarn with strengths approximating that of Kevlar.
INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control
NASA Robot Inspires Exoskeletons and Rehabilitative Therapy
Robonaut, a human-like robot designed by NASA and General Motors, which was developed to serve astronauts in space, has been on the International Space Station since February 2011. Researchers have tested the robot’s ability to perform dull or dangerous tasks that free up human crew time...
INSIDER: Imaging
Touchless Technology in the OR
A collaborative team of UK scientists from the School of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University, along with Microsoft Research, Guy's Hospital, St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, and King's College London has done pioneering research in touchless technology for vascular surgery.
INSIDER: Medical
New Tool Helps Guide Brain Surgery
A study conducted by Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, successfully used a new tool to help brain surgeons test and more precisely remove cancerous tissue during surgery.
Industry News: Medical
July 2014 Mid-Month Industry News
Here is the latest batch of news from the medical products community. Please click the link for more.
INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
Advancing Nonlinear Optical Systems
A research team at the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin has created a new nonlinear metasurface, or meta mirror, that may help advance the miniaturization of laser systems for biomedical research and other applications.
INSIDER: Medical
Navigating and Analyzing 3D Images with ‘Virtual Finger’
A research team at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA, has pioneered a new way, called Virtual Finger, to navigate digital 3D images of tiny structures like neurons and synapses using the flat surface of their computer screens. This cost- and time-efficient technology,...
INSIDER: Materials
Phase-Shifting Materials May Dramatically Improve Surgical Robots
A new phase-changing material built from wax and foam that’s capable of switching between hard and soft states could allow surgical robots to shape-shift and move through the body to reach a particular point without damaging any of the organs or vessels along the way, say engineers...
INSIDER: Test & Measurement
Inexpensive Yet Sophisticated Radiation Detector
A team of nuclear engineers at Oregon State University, Corvallis, say that they have developed a small, portable, and inexpensive radiation detection device to help users understand whether or not their surroundings pose a health risk. They say that the technology used in the new device provides...
INSIDER: Materials
Untangling the Secret of Barnacle Superglue
The strength of barnacle cement is unbeaten when compared to anything man-made, say researchers at Newcastle University, UK. It can stick to any surface, under any conditions. But exactly how it works has been a mystery. The international team of scientists have shown for the first time that barnacle...
News: Regulations/Standards
FDA Recognizes Two UL Battery Safety Standards for Medical Devices
UL (Underwriters Laboratories), Northbrook, IL, announced that the FDA has recognized two UL battery safety standards as consensus standards for medical devices incorporating lithium or nickel-based batteries. The two standards are UL 2054 - Standard for Household and Commercial...
INSIDER: Medical
'Organs-On-Chips' Diagnostic Device from Wyss Institute Launched
Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Boston MA, created an Organ-on-a-Chip cell culture device using microchip manufacturing methods. The device is the size of a computer memory stick, and contains hollow channels lined with...
Industry News: Medical
July 2014 Month-End Industry News
Here is the latest batch of news from the medical products community. Please click the link for more.
INSIDER: Medical
Wearable Optical Device for Early Detection of Diabetic Neuropathy
A team of researchers at the National Taiwan University Hospital and National Chiao-Tung University has developed a new optical technology that can hang on eyeglasses that, they say, may detect diabetic autonomic neuropathy at an earlier stage, when it is more easily treated. This...

Ask the Expert

Eric Dietsch on the Benefits of Nitinol Wire
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In collaboration with the Fort Wayne Metals Engineering team, Eric Dietsch focuses on supporting customers with material recommendations, product development, and education. Eric is available to help you and your company with any Nitinol-related questions or needs that you may have.

Inside Story

Inside Story: Trends in Packaging and Sterilization
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Eurofins Medical Device Testing (MDT) provides a full scope of testing services. In this interview, Eurofins’ experts, Sunny Modi, PhD, Director of Package Testing; and Elizabeth Sydnor, Director of Microbiology; answer common questions on medical device packaging and sterilization.

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