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...

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...

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...

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,...

As diabetes becomes more prevalent across the globe, it is clear that a new method to test blood glucose levels needs to be found. Sampling with needle pricks is pricks is unpleasant at best and places a significant burden on the patient population. Researchers at Purdue University, West Lafayette,...

Electrical and computer engineers at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, are developing a technology to predict when a person might fall. They created a small prototype wireless sensor that analyzes posture and gait, and sends an alert when there is a break in routine. The alert could signal muscle or vision changes, or may...

Computer scientists at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, are working to develop a wearable electronic device that identifies a person’s unique physiological responses, such as heart rate, skin response, or other physiological data. The worn device could then use that information to coordinate and protect the...

A team of engineers at the University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC) have built a laboratory-scale device that sensitively detects what are called “soft X-rays” that they say offers tremendous potential in breast cancer detection and treatment. There’s nothing available on the market that...

Pulse oximetry is widely accepted as a standard measurement of a patient’s oxygen saturation and heart rate because it can give clinicians an early warning of low arterial oxygen saturation levels. But low body temperature and low blood perfusion can cause conventional pulse oximeters to report inaccurate...

Current transcranial color Doppler (TCD) transducer probes are bulky and difficult to move in tiny increments to search and optimize TCD signals. This invention provides miniature motions of a TCD transducer probe to optimize TCD signals.

The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) is soliciting ground-based, analog definition and flight definition proposals. NSBRI is soliciting proposals for six of its seven research teams. Topic areas include smart medical systems and technology to refine and validate plug-and-play sensor and...

Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have developed the world’s first device designed to map the human brain combining whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology. MEG measures the electrical function and MRI visualizes the structure of the...

The new Anti-Doping Science Centre in Harlow, UK, considered the most advanced drug testing laboratory in the history of the Olympics, will be conducting tests using equipment like a GE ImageQuant™ LAS4000 biomolecular imager, to detect performance-enhancing drugs during the...

Researchers at GE Global Research were awarded a three-year grant to develop and test an ultrasound probe and measurement techniques for NASA that could be used in space to monitor how microgravity affects astronauts' vision. The new probe will be designed to deliver real-time, 3D pictures, showing...

While medical devices that work with computing systems save countless lives, just how secure and private is the information they provide? An interdisciplinary team of medical researchers and computer scientists from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and the University...

This device provides non-invasive beat-to-beat blood pressure measurements and can be worn over the upper arm for prolonged durations. Phase and waveform analyses are performed on filtered proximal and distal photoplethysmographic (PPG) waveforms obtained from the brachial artery. The phase analysis is used...

Following an orthopedic procedure, surgeons usually rely on X-rays or MRIs to monitor the progress of their patients' recovery. A new implantable sensor developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute could provide surgeons with detailed, real-time information from the actual...