September 2012

Stories

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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Due to the complex requirements of the medical device industry, the internal resources of device OEMs are drawn primarily to the device R&D and regulatory arenas. However, once the device R&D is...
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Briefs: Materials
Bioengineers have developed a new silk-based microneedle system able to deliver precise amounts of drugs over time and without need for refrigeration. The tiny needles can be...
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Briefs: Medical
Portable Intravenous Fluid Production Device for Ground Use
There are several medical conditions that require intravenous (IV) fluids. Limitations of mass, volume, storage space, shelf-life, transportation, and local resources can restrict the availability of such important fluids. These limitations are expected in long-duration space exploration...
Briefs: Medical
Current blood testing procedures are expensive and time consuming, and the equipment required is often bulky and difficult to transport. A new low-cost, portable...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in humans, with annual rates continuing to climb from their current estimate of just over three million new cases each year. Although all skin...
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Features: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Noxilizer has developed a room temperature sterilization process for medical devices that is based on nitrogen dioxide (NO2) gas. Currently, industrial...
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Global Innovations: Medical
Hohenstein Institute, Bönnigheim, Germany www.hohenstein.de Scientists from the Hohenstein Institute in Bönnigheim have developed textile cooling pads to be used to prevent neurological...
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Features: Medical
Most major diseases are somehow linked to metabolic alterations. But being able to see the changes as they occur and to see if a treatment is working in ‘real...
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Features: Imaging
For decades now, the medical industry has been automating to improve throughput, yield, and performance of medical devices. Slide scanning, for example, has been...
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Features: Packaging & Sterilization
Single- and multiple-use medical devices typically require sterilization prior to their use in order to provide for patient safety....
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Applications: Medical
Morgan Technical Ceramics (MTC) (Cleveland, OH) worked with the UK-based University of Hull to develop a new valve used to restore vocal function for patients with throat cancer. The new...
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Applications: Materials
PVC has long been the material of choice for tubing. Increasingly, however, issues such as those focusing on the phthalate plasticizers used to make PVC flexible are causing some tubing...
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Mission Accomplished: Materials
In between the vertebrae of the human spine are 23 Oreo™ cookie-sized, cartilage-filled discs that hold the vertebrae together and allow for spine movement.
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Products: Medical
Linemaster Switch Corporation (Woodstock, CT) has introduced the Universal Serial Bus (USB) foot switch, offered in various wired and wireless configurations to suit most applications. It performs multiple...
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Products: Medical
PAGE International Hose of Parker Hannifin Corp. (Fort Worth, TX) offers USP Class VI certified RCTW (Rubber Covered Fluoropolymer Hose) to transfer materials without contaminating the integrity of the product....
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Products: Medical
Keystone Electronics (Astoria, NY) has introduced a new selection of polarized SMT and THM CR2 and CR123A lithium battery holders. With polarized contacts, these holders accommodate all CR2 or CR123A batteries from major...
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Products: Medical
The EC 90 flat motor from Maxon Motor (Fall River, MA) is now equipped with the EC 90 flat MILE (Maxon’s Inductive Little Encoder), offering precision with resolutions of up to 3,200 impulses per turn, and a...
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Products: Medical
Mill-Max Mfg. Corp. (Oyster Bay, NY) has added right angle options to its line of .070" pitch connectors. These single-row right-angle sockets and headers can be combined with vertical .070" pitch connectors for a variety of...
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Products: Medical
Fluid Metering (Syosset, NY) has introduced its low-volume valveless metering pump for precision dispensing of air-sensitive, crystal-forming fluids. These “H” Series pump heads are now available with an...
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Products: Medical
B. Braun (Bethlehem, PA) offers an array of standard and custom fluid administration sets to meet a variety of needs. The OEM Division has manufacturing facilities flexible enough to produce everything from...
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Products: Medical
Compass Technology from Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Healthcare Markets (Northboro, MA) is a new co-development for silicone extrusion. With Compass Technology, a closed-loop system automatically adjusts the...
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Products: Medical
Thomas Division (Sheboygan, WI), a Gardner Denver Company, has introduced the 1410 Series DC miniature diaphragm pump for medical and other applications requiring a compact package. At 3.3" × 1.2" × 2.1", this pump is...
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INSIDER: Medical
Heat-Extraction Glove Improves Performance
Biologists at Stanford University, Stanford, CA, pursuing a model for studying heat dissipation, have created a glove that can rapidly cool down athletes’ core temperatures and dramatically improve exercise recovery and performance. A version of the heat-extraction glove is currently nearing...
INSIDER: Medical
Reporting Adverse Events in Pre-Market Device Trials
Medical device makers should report all adverse events in pre-market clinical trials, including serious health threats, unanticipated serious effects, as well as any deficiencies that might lead to a serious adverse event, states the Global Harmonization Task Force’s (GHTF) final guidance on...
INSIDER: Medical
Stem Cell Powered Othopedic Implant
Scientists at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, have found a way to use the regenerative power of stem cells to improve orthopedic implant surgery. They are collaborating with surgeons at Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital to develop a new type of orthopedic implant that could be stronger and more...
INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control
Smart Sutures Can Detect Infections
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has created coated sutures with sensors that could monitor wounds and speed up healing. The electronic sutures, which contain ultra-thin silicon sensors integrated on polymer or silk strips, can be threaded through needles and, in animal tests,...
INSIDER: Medical
Self-Charging Power Cell Converts & Stores Energy
Scientists at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, have invented a self-charging power cell that directly converts mechanical energy to chemical energy, storing the power until it is released as electrical current. By eliminating the need to convert mechanical energy to electrical energy for...
INSIDER: Medical
Mini Wirelessly Powered Cardiac Implant
A team of engineers at Stanford University, Stanford, CA, has demonstrated that a tiny, implantable cardiac device can get its power from radio waves transmitted from a small power device on the surface of the body. The implanted device could fit on the head of pin. In their paper, published in the journal...
INSIDER: Medical
Federal Lab-Developed Tech Now Easier to Find
Did you know that you can use federal laboratory-developed technologies to grow your business? The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer has created a free, online “One-Stop Shop” to quickly find the right opportunity for you — no matter which federal lab it comes from. The new...
INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
New Process for Flexible Electronics
An associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, has developed a silicon-on-insulator (SOI)–complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process for fabricating flexible electronics. As reported in Applied Physics Letters, the technology may some day be...
Industry News: Medical
September Mid-Month Industry News
It's mid-September and there have been many new leadership changes, expansions, and mergers. To see what's happened in the industry in the past two weeks, see below.
INSIDER: Medical
Predicting Memory Storage
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, believe that it’s possible to predict how well people can remember information by monitoring their brain activity while they study. A team in Sandia’s cognitive systems group monitored test subjects with electroencephalography (EEG) sensors while they...
INSIDER: Medical
Taking the Ouch Out of Injections
Millions of injections are given annually, from annual flu shots to childhood immunizations. However, while hypodermic needles deliver controlled, precise injections, the pain they deliver continues to make them unpopular among recipients, especially children. Now, a new laser-based system, being developed by...
INSIDER: Medical
Making Ultrasound Affordable & Accessible
What if every pregnant woman in the world had access to ultrasound technology to examine the health and development of their unborn child? That’s what engineers at Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, wondered. They have developed a portable and easy-to-use ultra-low cost scanner that can be...
INSIDER: Medical
Diagnosing Ear Infections with an iPhone
Any parent who’s had to deal with a screaming child with a painful ear infection knows that getting a quick diagnosis and medication if needed is the key to regaining a happy home. What if they were able to skip taking the upset child to the doctor for that diagnosis? That is the question posed by...
INSIDER: Medical
Larger Thigh Size Can Cause Hip Implant Failure
Biomechanical engineers at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, determined that thigh size in obese people is a reason their hip implants are more likely to fail. In a study, the team simulated hip dislocations as they occur in humans and determined that increased thigh girth creates hip instability in...
INSIDER: Medical
Real-Time MRI Catheterization Shows Promise
An experimental MRI method may be safer and just as swift as standard X-ray procedures in guiding surgical interventions in the heart. The finding, from a small clinical study by scientists at NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), suggests that MRI might one day offer a radiation-free...
News: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Reshoring Initiative Celebrates First Anniversary
The Reshoring Initiative, whose ongoing mission is to broadcast the benefits of reshoring or bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States, celebrated its first year of incorporation, as well as the achievement of significant national attention and support of its efforts. The number of...
News: Medical
FDA Compiles FAQ List for Device Listing Changes
The FDA has compiled a list of FAQs provided to assist medical device establishments with understanding the new requirements and responsibilities for registration and listing that become effective today, October 1, 2012. The information includes a list of changes to medical device listing and...
Industry News: Medical
September Industry News Wrap-Up
Here is a compilation of changes in leadership, expansions, mergers, and acquisitions that have taken place in the medical device industry during the second half of September. If you have news to be included in this section, please send it to the editor, Beth Sisk, at beth@techbriefs.com.

Ask the Expert

John Chandler on Achieving Quality Motion Control
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FAULHABER MICROMO brings together the highest quality motion technologies and value-added services, together with global engineering, sourcing, and manufacturing, to deliver top quality micro motion solutions. With 34 years’ experience, John Chandler injects a key engineering perspective into all new projects and enjoys working closely with OEM customers to bring exciting new technologies to market.

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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