Engineers at Oregon State University, Corvallis, have developed an implantable device using a simple pulley mechanism to improve hand function after surgery. They say that this is one of the first instruments ever created that could improve the transmission of mechanical forces and movement while implanted...

Chips that could use light, instead of electricity, to move data would consume much less power—a growing concern as chips’ transistor counts rise. Of the three chief components of optical circuits—light emitters, modulators, and detectors—emitters are the toughest to build....

Silicon is generally the material of choice in the electronics industry. Yet transistors, the switchable valves that control the flow of electrons in a circuit, cannot simply keep shrinking to meet the needs of powerful, compact devices. Physical limitations like energy consumption and heat...

A team of scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, invented a Wearable Artificial Kidney device, designed to untether patients from large dialysis machines. The device can give patients with end-stage renal failure a degree of mobility and freedom for such routine activities as...

By creating easy to snap together components, a team of scientists at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering, Los Angeles, say that it is now possible to build a 3D microfluidic system quickly and cheaply. Microfluidic systems are used to precisely manipulate small volumes of...

While wearable electronic activity monitors may help users reach their fitness and health goals, choosing the right one and remaining motivated enough to wear it may be the bigger hurdle. A team of researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston took on the task of analyzing more than a dozen...

When a patient has sepsis, in which bacteria or fungi multiply too swiftly in a patient's blood for antibiotics to help, the result is often deadly. However, a new device inspired by the human spleen and developed by a team at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Boston, MA,...

To get an accurate MRI, the patient must lie completely still for a long period in a confined space, be able to hold their breath on command, and withstand loud banging noises. That’s why it’s often very difficult to get young children to comply, even though they may need the scans for their healthcare.

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

A team of scientists in a collaboration between the Cambridge Graphene Centre at the University of Cambridge, UK, and Plastic Logic Ltd., also in Cambridge, have created a prototype of a flexible display incorporating graphene in its pixels’ electronics, marking the first time that graphene has...

Researchers in the George Washington UniversitySchool of Engineering and Applied Science, Washington, DC, have created a smartphone-controlled liquid handling system that could make handheld diagnostic testing a reality. Their technology is operated by a smartphone, using a mobile app that they also designed,...

QNX Software Systems Limited, Ottawa, Canada, a subsidiary of BlackBerry, announced a new release of its OS for medical devices. The QNX® OS for Medical 1.1 complies with the IEC 62304 medical device standard and is designed to help manufacturers reduce the cost of developing robotic surgical instruments, patient monitoring...