You’ve heard the latest Apple Watch claims and seen the advance sales numbers. No stranger to grand pronouncements about their products, this very “personal” one, the company says, can run its own apps, connect with iPhones, and be both a fashion and status statement.

In December, we asked Medical Design Briefs readers to select the one product from our 12 Products of the Month that you thought was the most significant new introduction to the design engineering community in 2014. Thank you to all of our readers who voted and chose two winners for the 2014 Medical Design Briefs’...

Recently, FDA commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, MD, announced that she was stepping down at the end of March. One of the longest-serving FDA commissioners, Hamburg started in the position in May of 2009. Her job has been demanding and intense, dealing with everything from the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, to...

In April 2013, President Obama announced a highly ambitious multi-year BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative, focused on expanding and revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain. The BRAIN Initiative has five participating federal agencies, including the FDA, the...

High prices are not the only things that can cause a shock at the mall. Most stores now have electronic article surveillance (EAS) gates, designed to deter shoplifting. Of course, you may not have noticed them, as they are often covered with signs indicating sales. But for someone with an implanted electronic...

As of this writing, the midterm election was just held and, as you know, Republicans took control of the Senate while keeping control of the House of Representatives. The United States Supreme Court announced on November 7 that it will hear yet another challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—King v. Burwell,...

At the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) conference held in Chicago in October, several FDA officials participated in panel discussions and Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, FDA Commissioner, was a plenary luncheon speaker for an in-depth discussion of how FDA policies are affecting the industry. FDA...

One of the largest design contests dollar-wise to improve healthcare in the US is focused on creating a medical diagnostic device inspired by Star Trek^®. The Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE is a $10 million multi-year global competition to stimulate innovation and integration of precision diagnostic...

In the late 1960s, Timothy Leary advised people to “Turn on, tune in, drop out” by using psychedelic drugs. Fifty years later, the message might be “Turn on, sync in, stay connected 24/7”.

Remember when you were a child and broke your arm and had to wear a heavy, hot plaster cast in the Summer? Your arm felt heavy and itchy, your muscles atrophied, you had to wear a plastic bag over your cast to shower, and, after a couple of weeks, the cotton padding inside stunk. The only good thing about it, besides...

There’s an old saying “May you live in interesting times.” While it is meant to sound like a blessing, some say that is actually an ancient curse. Ancient or not, the saying was included by the late Robert F. Kennedy in a 1966 speech to students in Cape Town, South Africa. I was reminded of his speech in June on...

Speaking at a plenary panel session on Innovations Shaping the Future of Patient Care at Medical World Americas in Houston in April, Dr. Stephen N. Oesterle, Senior Vice President for Medicine and Technology at Medtronic, Minneapolis, MN, predicted that implantable and wearable sensor technology will be the best way...

It was set to be the “next big thing”. Designed to aid patients suffering from resistive hypertension who failed to respond to conventional medical therapy, the stakes were huge for catheter-based renal denervation to treat one of the most prevalent chronic conditions worldwide— persistently high blood pressure...

While most of the country is in the grip of the polar vortex, I’m thinking warm thoughts about places with palm trees—places like Anaheim, California, where I’ll be this month for MD&M West. February kicks off the first round of medical technology trade shows.

About a month ago, I had a chance to watch the award-winning documentary “The Incredible Bionic Man,” built entirely of prosthetic parts and implantable synthetic organs by leading scientists and roboticists, and hosted by the Smithsonian Channel. I was transported a future that was barely envisioned by the...

The end of the year is practically upon us so let’s take a quick look back at some of the highlights of 2013.

On January 1, 2013, the 2.3% Medical Device Excise Tax, which manufacturers and importers pay on sales of certain medical devices, went into effect to help fund the Patient Protection and...

November is American Diabetes Month and the American Diabetes Association offers some sobering statistics. Nearly 26 million people in the US have diabetes, and as many as one in three adults will have diabetes by 2050.

The school year has barely begun and what are students up to? Pretty amazing things, if they’re anything like the students who won grants from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA). Grants are also awarded to faculty who ignite a passion for innovation and entrepreneurship among science...

The Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance, the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) and the Medical Device Manufacturers Association announced in July that medical device manufacturers have now paid $1 billion to the Internal Revenue Service for the medical device excise tax. Their statement said,...

In mid-June, Charles “Chip” Starnes, a co-owner of Specialty Medical Supplies (SMS), Coral Gables, FL, a manufacturer of disposable medical products, visited the company’s factory in Beijing, China. He intended to personally lay off and distribute severance packages to about 30 employees of its plastic...

Close to twenty years ago, I remember writing about the big news at that time—that Dr. Charles Vacanti of the University of Massachusetts, with the assistance of other researchers including Dr. Linda Griffith-Cima from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), had created a scaffold, seeded it with cells, and grew...

The American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association (AOPA) launched its “Coalition to Walk and Run Again,” an effort to aid uninsured and underinsured victims of the April 15th Boston Marathon terror attack. The bombing killed 3 people and left more than 200 injured, several of whom lost portions of their legs as a...

In the same week in late March, three friends/family of mine entered three different hospitals in three different states. Their illnesses were very different and had varied results.

At the time of this writing I am just back from MD&M West in Anaheim. What a pleasure to meet with representatives from so many of the companies who have graced these pages and more still to come. This, coming right after BIOS/Photonics West in San Francisco, officially kicks off the medical device conference...

In The Evolution of Physics, Albert Einstein says: “To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”

February is American Heart Month—a time to take stock of our heart health and endeavor to improve it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. In fact, heart disease is the number one...

You may have noticed that there have been some changes afoot at Medical Design Briefs. I’m very pleased to have been come aboard as the new Editor effective with the August 2012 issue. It’s an exciting time for the magazine, having just completed its first full year as a monthly, and experiencing rapid...