INSIDER

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...

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...

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...

It's almost Halloween and, to honor that, there’s news that researchers at The University of Manchester in the UK have demonstrated that a technology that can analyze millions of gene sequences can quickly and accurately identify diseases even in old skeletons. The scientists used a next...

Great news for the end of Breast Cancer Awareness Month! Scientists say that they have developed a technology to produce 3D x-ray breast images with a radiation dose much lower than the currently used 2D radiography. This new method enables the production of 3D diagnostic computed tomography (CT) images...

Singer Art Garfunkel, Sanford Greenberg, chairman of the Wilmer Eye Institute's Board of Governors, and Jerry I. Speyer, a New York-based real estate tycoon, have joined in donating $2 million in gold bullion to inspire researchers to cure blindness by 2020, establishing through Johns Hopkins Medicine,...

Using “lean” manufacturing principles to speed up treatment times for stroke victims may improve the effectiveness of a clot-busting protein used to treat to treat and reduce brain injury after embolic or thrombotic strokes, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal...

A five-minute eye scan using optical coherence tomography (OCT) to scan nerves deep in the back of the eye, can be used to accurately determine brain damage in people with the autoimmune disorder multiple sclerosis (MS). It can also be used to predict how quickly the disease is progressing, say researchers in...

A team of scientists from the University of Maryland, College Park, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, were awarded a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue their work on developing a small robot that may someday air neurosurgeons in removing difficult-to-reach brain...

A team of researchers from Duke University, Durham, NC, speaking at the ANESTHESIOLOGY 2012 annual meeting revealed that they have created an advanced tool to permit trainees in transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) to use an Apple iPad to obtain real-time instruction in viewing and interpreting 3D...

A study presented by Raymond Glassenberg, MD, from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, during the ANESTHESIOLOGY 2012 annual meeting demonstrated that an iPhone application called iLarynx™ he created was extremely effective at simulating a fiberoptic bronchoscopy. When students...

Researchers in the Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology Group of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya BarcelonaTech (UPC), in Barcelona, Spain, have improved the antimicrobial properties of medical textiles using an enzymatic pre-treatment combined with simultaneous deposition of nanoparticles and...

Disease and damage to the cornea can cause blindness. While corneal transplants could save sight, donor corneas may be hard to come by, and may not be tolerated. A safe artificial cornea could be a solution to saving the vision of those affected. In cooperation with the Aachen Centre of Technology...

A technology derived from NASA’s Robonaut 2 project could help astronauts stay fit in space and may someday aid paraplegics in walking on Earth. Working with the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Pensacola, FL, and engineers from Oceaneering Space Systems of Houston, NASA...

A team of researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, has used a technique called parametric response mapping (PRM) to analyze scans of the lungs of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as COPD. By analyzing the computed tomography (CT) scans of...

North Carolina State University, Raleigh, will lead a national nanotechnology research effort to create self-powered medical monitoring devices to help people monitor their own health. The National Science Foundation Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of...

Manufacturers are always trying to find ways to make things better, faster, and cheaper. In a search to find new ways to make medical tests meet that criteria, a University of Washington, Seattle, bioengineer developed a way to make plain paper stick to medically interesting molecules that may be used to create...

Medical Design Briefs News Online is kicking off Breast Cancer Awareness Month with new optical imaging technology developed at Tufts University School of Engineering, Medford, MA, that may provide doctors with new ways of both identifying breast cancer and monitoring individual patients' response to initial...

Asthma? There’s an app for that. Currently, those who suffer from asthma or other chronic lung problems only get a measure of their lung function at the doctor’s office a few times a year by blowing into a specialized piece of equipment – the spirometer. But, more frequent testing at home could detect...

Researchers at the University of Illinois (UI), Champaign, in collaboration with Tufts and Northwestern universities, have created a new class of electronic devices: biocompatible and biodegradable electronics for medical implants that can dissolve completely in water or in body fluids. “We refer to this type of...

Robotic surgery though the mouth is a safe, effective way to remove tumors of the throat and voice box, according to a study published in in the journal, Head and Neck, by surgeons at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, OH, Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J....

For a skilled surgeon performing general surgery, tiny hand tremors are usually not a serious risk for patients. But what if the surgeon is operating inside the human eye or repairing microscopic nerve fibers? Scientists from the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering and Johns Hopkins...

An experimental MRI method may be safer and just as swift as standard X-ray procedures in guiding surgical interventions in the heart. The finding, from a small clinical study by scientists at NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), suggests that MRI might one day offer a radiation-free...

Biomechanical engineers at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, determined that thigh size in obese people is a reason their hip implants are more likely to fail. In a study, the team simulated hip dislocations as they occur in humans and determined that increased thigh girth creates hip instability in...

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...

Millions of injections are given annually, from annual flu shots to childhood immunizations. However, while hypodermic needles deliver controlled, precise injections, the pain they deliver continues to make them unpopular among recipients, especially children. Now, a new laser-based system, being developed by...

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...