Features

Dental Material Resists Plaque, Kills Microbes

Researchers have evaluated a new dental material tethered with an antimicrobial compound that not only kills bacteria but also resists biofilm growth. In addition, unlike some drug-infused...

3D Printed Microfibers Could Provide Structure for Artificially Grown Body Part

Much as a frame provides structural support for a house and the chassis provides strength and shape for a car, a team of engineers believe they have a way to create...

3D Printing Creates Super-Soft Structures that Replicate Brain and Lungs

Researchers have developed a new method for creating 3D structures using cryogenics (freezing) and 3D printing techniques. This builds on previous research but is the...

From the Editor – FDA Ushers in a New Era of 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing

FDA is monitoring the emerging field of 3D printing and additive manufacturing, an area FDA once considered a “futuristic technology on the distant...

Force-Sensitive Resistors: Making Medical Devices Easier to Use

For many of us, life is complicated enough without having to be constantly reminded about our medical situations. Living with a disease that requires frequent doctor visits and...

Critical Cooling in Medical Devices – Part 1

Active thermal management is vital in a number of medical device applications including patient core temperature management, skin cooling, medical device cooling, and laboratory equipment cooling....

Pre-Engineered Fluid Control: The Next Breakthrough in Dental System Design

A design engineer at a dental equipment company is handed a challenging assignment. The firm’s development team must devise a suite of products that includes a new...

Highly Sensitive Optical Fiber Pressure Sensors with Potential for Cardiology and Other Medical Applications

Optical fibers. To the average person, the phrase might conjure up an image of glowing hairs twisted artistically into a beautiful...

Design Controls: Addressing Changes in ISO 13485

When ISO 9001 was produced by the International Standards Organization, it put forth the general quality standard that organizations could adopt to ensure that the organization is focused on...

Considerations for Specifying Ultra-Engineering Polymers for Extruded Medical Applications – Part 2

With the shift in the medical industry to more minimally invasive, quicker, and more effective procedures, the goal is to minimize patient...

Making the Gas Assist Plastic Molding Process Work for Medical Applications

Gas assist molding offers a variety of process and design advantages for medical equipment applications. It produces parts that are smooth and extremely cleanable,...

Product of the Month

DC Micro Welder Amada Miyachi America, Monrovia, CA, offers a linear DC micro welder paired with an electronic resistance spot welding head. The UB29 also features the company’s Advanced Data Analysis Monitor (ADAM). The...

Package Engineering for Sterilization

After years of research and development, surveys and polls, functional device testing, and countless other preparatory actions, your medical device is almost ready to go to market. You have determined your...

Biocompatibility Evaluation of Breathing Medical Devices: Understanding ISO 18652

Traditionally, toxicologists and biocompatibility experts considered the materials in breathing gas pathways as external communicating devices and evaluated these...

Metasurface-Based Technology Enables Safe MRIs for People with Implants

An international research team has developed a device capable of improving the performance of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) units. The technology is based on local...

Surgical Sealant Derived from Human Protein Seals Without Sutures

A newly engineered material could become the first suture-less sealant for wound closure. In laboratory tests of the material, known as a MeTro sealant, the team demonstrated...

Soft Robotic Solution Aids in Surgery for One-Sided Heart Failure

Soft robotic actuators have recently emerged as an attractive alternative to more rigid components that have conventionally been used in biomedical devices. However, researchers...

Chip-Based Sensors Offer Incredible Sensitivity

An optical whispering gallery mode resonator can spin light around the circumference of a tiny sphere millions of times, creating an ultrasensitive microchip-based sensor for multiple...

Light-Triggered Nanopill Could Transform Medicine

Plasmonic nanovesicles can navigate the bloodstream, and, when hit with a quick pulse of laser light, change shape to release their contents. It can then exit the body, leaving only the desired...

Combining Machine and Nanoparticles for Better Transplant Outcomes

By combining the use of drug-carrying nanoparticles with an organ-preserving machine, researchers have developed a procedure that could help improve long-term outcomes for...

Mapping Brain Activity Improves Prosthetic Design

Researchers have demonstrated how brain activity is used to identify different terrains — level ground and stairs, for example — a key step in developing prosthetics that allow the user’s...

'Painless' Patch Delivers Insulin When Needed

Treatment for certain diabetes cases involves constant monitoring of blood-glucose levels and daily insulin shots. Scientists from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC), North...

From the Editor — Are Medical Robotics About to Change the Face of Healthcare?

The integration of robotics into medical devices has seen explosive growth in recent years with new applications in areas such as prosthetics and rehabilitation,...

Considerations for Specifying Ultra-Engineering Polymers for Extruded Medical Applications – Part 1

There has been a profound shift is taking place in the medical industry of more minimally invasive, quicker, and more-effective procedures....

Orthopedics: Springs Provide Precision, Cleanability

When engineers develop orthopedic surgical devices, they must often think beyond the design of the device, and find a way to make its installation easier, safer, and more accurate. Sometimes...

Tackle the Intricacies of Medical Device Development with a Solid Platform

Small, intelligent medical devices worn on the body and/or kept in the home — in addition to those used in hospital networks — are not just saving lives. They are...

New Products & Services

Packaging System CleanCut Technologies, Anaheim, CA, has added a new packaging system to the company's portfolio of packaging products. The Vault packaging system is designed as an alternative to pouch-style packaging...

Designing for Mechanical and Signal Integrity in Handheld Medical Treatment Applications

Handheld medical devices must perform across a wide range of device specifications and end-user environmental conditions. Mechanical and signal integrity...

New Device Helps Diagnose and Treat Neurodegenerative Diseases

École Polytechnique Fédérale de LausanneLausanne, Switzerlandhttps://actu.epfl.ch Neurologists often use electrical impulses to stimulate and read brain signals. But the...