The market for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) used as pressure sensors in medical electronics is likely to grow by 7 percent this year, aided by the use of disposable devices as well as respiratory monitoring, according to iSuppli, El Segundo, CA, a global leader in technology value chain research...

In Brussels, Belgium, the PVCMed Alliance was launched to promote the use and value of PVC in healthcare applications. PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, is the third-most widely produced plastic. The PVCMed Alliance is a coalition of PVC resin and plasticizer producers and PVC converters. The Alliance’s...

Engineers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, tested an energy-harvesting device that uses piezoelectricity — an electrical charge generated from motion — to convert energy from a beating heart to provide enough electricity to power a pacemaker. As reported in a study presented at the American Heart...

The Cleveland Clinic, a nonprofit multispecialty academic medical center in Cleveland, OH, has announced its list of Top 10 Medical Innovations that will have a major impact on improving patient care within the next year. The list is made up of devices, including a handheld optical scan for...

Within all polymers, there are structural flaws at the molecular level. In an ideal network, each polymer chain would bind only to another chain. In reality, though, many of the chains bind to themselves, forming floppy loops that can weaken the network. A team of chemical engineers at Massachusetts Institute of...

The US Food and Drug Administration has set new review timeframes and performance goals for 510(k) premarket notification reviews of medical devices following Congressional approval of the Medical Device User Fee Amendments of 2012 (MDUFA III) earlier this year. By 2017, the agency intends to reduce the...

Researchers at Aalto University, Otaniemi, Espoo, Finland, have developed a durable and affordable nanofibrillar cellulose(NFC) film platform to support medical testing. New environmentally friendly, reliable NFC platforms are more diverse than plastic films, they report. The new type of film can be...

The long awaited proposed Regulations for Medical Devices (and active implantable medical devices) and IVDs were released by the EU Commission. A new free white paper from the Emergo Group, Austin, TX, which provides regulatory consulting, explains several detailed items in the proposed...

Currently available commercial medical tapes work well to keep medical devices attached to the skin. But removing them can sometimes lead to skin tissue tearing, especially in babies and the elderly — those with the most fragile skin. Skin tears in babies and the elderly can range from skin irritation...

A newly released annual report from Ernst & Young, Pulse of the Industry, reveals that publicly traded medtech companies in the US and in Europe turned in a solid performance in 2011, with revenue growth outpacing 2010 rates and delivering a third consecutive year of double-digit net income...

For decades, overtightening was blamed for causing surgical screws and plates used in bone repair to irreversibly fuse together, making subsequent removal difficult for the surgeon and traumatic for the patient. But a new study from the University of Dayton Research Institute, Dayton, OH, explains...

According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, somewhere between 236,000 to 327,000 people in the US are living with serious spinal cord injuries. About 155,000 have paraplegia. But being able to stand and walk again is something that may someday come to be realized, say engineers at the...

Several technological enhancements have been made to METI’s commercial Emergency Care Simulator (ECS) with regard to how microgravity affects human physiology. The ECS uses both a softwareonly lung simulation, and an integrated mannequin lung that uses a physical...