University of Washington engineers hacked a teleoperated surgical robot to test how easily a malicious attack could hijack remotely controlled operations. Incorporating security measures will be critical to the safe adoption and use of the robotic technology.

A group of researchers from Italy's Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies created a robotic arm that bends, stretches, and squeezes through cluttered environments. Inspired by the eight arms of an octopus, the device allows surgeons to easily access remote, confined regions of the body and, once there,...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has withdrawn 47 draft guidance documents published before December 31, 2013, which were never finalized or acted on. The announcement was posted in the Federal Register, stating that this move was made to improve the efficiency and transparency of the guidance...

Here is the latest batch of news from the medical products community. Please click the link for more.

Computer scientists at Stony Brook University are developing a virtual-heart platform to help improve and accelerate medical device development and testing. The CyberHeart project is part of the National Science Foundation’s initiative to advance the state-of-the-art in...

Implanted biomedical devices used for drug delivery, tissue engineering, or sensing can help improve disease treatment. But, often these devices are susceptible to attack by the immune system. To help reduce that immune-system rejection, a team of scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology,...

Medtech companies reshuffle facility locations to capture market opportunities. In this Outsourcing Outlook newsletter, Contributing Editor Steve Halasey examines the latest industry news concerning outsourcing/contract manufacturing.

CT scans provide valuable details of bones and dense body parts that strongly absorb X-rays, however, the techniques struggle with the visualization of soft tissues and organs. A Compact Light Source (CLS) from the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory enables computer tomography scans...

Here is the latest batch of news from the medical products community. Please click the link for more.

A new smartphone microscope uses video to automatically detect and quantify parasites in a drop of blood. The CellScope technology, developed by UC Berkeley engineers, could revive efforts to eradicate debilitating filarial diseases in Africa.

A team of scientists from Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, developed a chest strap device for the long-term monitoring of patients with heart and circulatory problems. The new system records an electrocardiogram (ECG) of the wearer.

A smartphone app created by students at Rice University regulates the flow of blood through the heart. The combined software-hardware interface works with an Android application to monitor and control a high-tech pump residing in the aorta.

Georgia Institute of Technology engineers have built a multi-modality cellular sensor. Arranged in a standard CMOS process, each sensor pixel concurrently monitors multiple different physiological parameters of the same cell and tissue samples.

Scientists from the Pohang University of Science and Technology have developed a simple, thermometer-like device that could help doctors diagnose heart attacks. The technology detects troponin, a protein that rises when blood is cut off from the heart and muscle is damaged.

Using a compact synchrotron source, researchers at the Technische Universität München (TUM) have developed a technology that measures X-ray absorption, phase shifts, and radiation scattering. The technology will help doctors and scientists distinguish between healthy tissue and tumors.

This invention places a drug delivery system inside a prosthetic implant to circumvent the physical issues encountered after fitting the implant. Implants being relatively large in size would be able to house the drug-carrying device inside them without compromising the structural integrity or the...