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While computerized smart systems can deliver drugs intravenously in exact volumes to hospital patients, the systems cannot recognize which medications are in the tubing nor can they determine the concentration of the drug in the tubing, which could lead to serious medication...

A team of scientists from Graz University of Technology, Austria, together with colleagues from the Medical University of Graz, Vienna University of Technology, and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, are developing absorbable implants to promote bone healing that can be broken down...

Implanted medical devices like defibrillators and insulin pumps now include wireless connections to let doctors or technicians update software or download data—but such improvements could open the door to life-threatening wireless attacks. Security researchers have shown that they can...

Researchers at Nottingham Trent University and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust in the UK say that they are developing the world’s first electronic smart pump, which could increase survival chances of victims of chronic heart failure. The smart aortic graft would be...

An innovative new heart catheter, the IntellaTip MiFi™ XP catheter, pinpoints areas for therapy delivery. The device was given FDA approval in the United States in August for the treatment of atrial flutter, an arrhythmia that affects nearly one million people in the United States.

Computerized smart systems can deliver drugs intravenously in exact volumes to hospital patients. However, the systems do not recognize which medications are in the tubing, nor can they determine the concentration of the drug in the tubing. This can lead to medication errors including incorrect...

Aydogan Ozcan, a professor of electrical engineering and bioengineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, and his team have created a portable smartphone microscope attachment that can be used to detect viruses and bacteria without the need for bulky and...

Eden Steven, a physicist at Florida State University Magnet Lab, Tallahassee, conducting innovative experiments with spider silk, wanted to see what would happen when strands of spider’s silk were coated with carbon nanotubes. Using drops of water to adhere the powdery carbon nanotubes to the spider...

The Altair Robotics Laboratory at the University of Verona, Italy, has developed and is making available its Xron, a new simulator for training in robotic surgery. With Xron, a trainee controls the virtual robots in a realistic environment using stereoscopic rendering and advanced input devices.

The stench released by disease-causing bacteria is the basis for a faster and simpler new way to diagnose blood infections and pinpoint the specific microbe, scientists reported at the 246th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society. The new test produces results in 24 hours,...

Scientists and engineers funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NABIB) are teaming up with neurosurgeons to develop technologies that enable less invasive, image-guided removal of hard-to-reach brain tumors. Novel imaging techniques allows...

A new prototype device for rapid and safe IV insertion has been designed to reduce pain in hospitalized children. Inserting an intravenous (IV) catheter to administer fluids to patients can be difficult, particularly in children and infants, and often causes pain, distress, and frustration. To...

A research team from the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Faculty of Engineering has created efficient artificial, or “robotic” muscles, which, they say can carry an object 80 times its own weight, and be able to extend to five times its original length when carrying the load—a first in...

Materials science engineers at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, have created a transparent audio speaker consisting of a thin sheet of rubber sandwiched between two layers of a saltwater gel that can carry a high-voltage signal across the surfaces and through the layers forcing the...

Women differ from men in many ways, including anatomy, physiology, risk factors, and disease symptoms. They are also likely to use more medical devices over the course of their lives than men do, says the FDA. That’s why the FDA is actively trying to learn more about how medical devices uniquely...

In the US, there are millions of sports-related concussions yearly, and a large percentage go unreported or undiagnosed because many high school, college, and professional athletes do not report them. Balance tests are the primary method to detect concussion. However, the current means of...

A team of researchers at The Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) and Materials Science Department, University Park, have seen the Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) minimally invasive heart pump they developed between 2005 and 2011 transitioned to its first...

Every year, millions of people get a tuberculosis (TB) skin test to determine if they have the bacterial infection, which usually attacks the lungs. But the standard diagnostic test is difficult to give, because a hypodermic needle must be inserted at a precise angle and depth in the arm to...

New research conducted by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, reported online in the Journal of Vascular Surgery, suggests that people who undergo minimally invasive placement of stents to open clogged leg arteries are significantly less likely than those who have...

Until now, surgeons had to memorize the precise location of important blood vessels in organs and where tumors were likely to be found. But, a new app for tablet computers developed by Fraunhofer MEVIS research institute in Bremen, Germany, could help surgeons reduce the rate of complications during...

A team of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, have discovered a way to detect early-stage malarial infection of blood cells by measuring changes in the infected cells’ electrical properties. The researchers built an experimental microfluidic device that uses a single drop of...

Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, are working to develop a tiny chip that could quickly determine whether someone has been exposed to dangerous levels of ionizing radiation. The first-of-its-kind chip has an array of nanosensors that can measure the concentrations of...

In a study to evaluate the feasibility of a wearable artificial pancreas system, researchers from the University of Virginia (UVA), Charlottesville, Center for Diabetes Technology, concluded that smartphones work well enough to provide nearly continuous, closed-loop, outpatient control of...

A new image-guided surgical system is under development at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, that employs steerable needles to penetrate the brain with minimal damage and suction away the blood clot that has formed. Part of an ongoing collaboration between a team of engineers and physicians, the steerable needle...

The National Space Biomedical Research Institute, (NSBRI) is soliciting research proposals to augment the project portfolios of its Cardiovascular Alterations, Human Factors and Performance, Musculoskeletal Alterations, Neurobehavioral and Psychosocial Factors, Sensorimotor Adaptations, and Smart...

A new transparent, bio-inspired coating makes ordinary glass tough, self-cleaning, and incredibly slippery. Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Boston, say that the new coating could be used...

A team of researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, and Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, says that they have developed a quantitative screening method to diagnose and track autism in children after age 3. The technology works by tracking a child’s random movements...

An interactive 3D simulation software platform gives surgical residents the unique opportunity to practice diagnostic and patient management skills, and then have their skills evaluated, according to a new study appearing in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Using an online...