Tech Briefs

High-Tech Bandages Could Fend Off Infections, Improve Healing

When wounds happen, we want them to heal quickly and without complications, but sometimes infections and other complications prevent it. Binghamton University Prof. Seokheun “Sean” Choi has some ideas about how to improve the healing process. Read on to learn about them.

Noninvasive Method First to Continually Measure True Blood Pressure

A team of Caltech researchers has figured out a method to noninvasively and continually measure blood pressure anywhere on the body with next to no disruption to the patient. A device based on the new technique holds the promise to enable better vital-sign monitoring. Read on to learn more.

Wearable, Stretchable Sensor Detects Solid-State Skin Biomarkers

Researchers have developed a novel sensor that enables the continuous, real-time detection of solid-state epidermal bio-markers, a new category of health indicators. Read on to learn more.

Streamlining Medical Device Development and Manufacturing Using Silicone Elastomers

This article compares high consistency silicone rubbers, liquid silicone rubbers, and low consistency elastomers, analyzing their characteristics and the implications in selecting each during different phases in the development of silicone medical devices. Read on to learn more.

Tunable Lasers Expand for Time-Resolved Spectroscopy

Many research labs are turning to tunable lasers, or optical parametric oscillators (OPOs), for nanosecond time-resolved spectroscopy. OPOs have long been utilized in sophisticated test and measurement applications such as mass spectrometry and photoacoustic imaging. Read on to learn why these tunable pulsed lasers are being utilized.

Implant Powers Healing after Spinal Cord Injury

A research team has developed a new implant that conveys electrical signals and may have the potential to encourage nerve cell repair after spinal cord injury. Read on to learn more.

New Imaging Device Improves Ear Disease Diagnosis

Read on to learn about a groundbreaking advancement from the University of Southern California’s Caruso Department of Otolaryngology: a portable OCT otoscope that integrates optical coherence tomography with the traditional otoscope, to improve diagnostic capabilities in hearing clinics.

A Look at Vaporized Hydrogen Peroxide as a Sterilization Option

The changing regulatory landscape and innovation of medical products is driving an interest in additional options for medical product sterilization. Read on to learn what this means.

Addressing Challenges in Primary Packaging Testing for Medical Devices

Developing and evaluating primary packaging for medical devices continues to be an area ripe for innovation, with ample opportunity to improve existing processes. Read on to learn more about the topic.

Tendon Healing: Nanoparticles for Precision Drug Delivery

Researchers at the University of Rochester and University of Oregon combined their expertise in tendon cell biology and drug-delivery systems to find a better way to deliver therapies that can reduce scar tissue and facilitate improved healing. Read on to learn what they found.

Wearable Devices Get Signal Boost from Innovative Material

An international team of researchers developed the material by embedding clusters of highly dielectric ceramic nanoparticles into an elastic polymer. The material was reverse-engineered to not only mimic skin elasticity and motion types, but also to adjust its dielectric properties to counter the disruptive effects of motion on interfacing electronics, minimize energy loss and dissipate heat.

Researchers Create GPS-like Smart Pills with AI

Beyond the use of this device for early detection of peptic ulcers, gastritis, and gastric cancers, there is potential to monitor brain health. How? Read on to find out.

SCD Device Treats Injury from Sepsis

The FDA has granted a Humanitarian Device Exemption Approval for a therapeutic device invented and developed at the University of Michigan for use in children with acute kidney injury and sepsis or a septic condition requiring continuous kidney replacement (dialysis with the artificial kidney) therapy in the intensive care unit. Read on to learn more about it.

Sensor Packaging: Critical MEMS Considerations

While MEMS sensors are revolutionizing various industries with their precision and miniaturization, they can present unique product development challenges and risks during design, development, and manufacturing. Read on to learn more.

The Role of Sensors in the Big Picture of Sustainability

In the big picture of medical equipment sustainability, sensors play an important role. That’s right, something so miniature can have quite the impact on maintaining and improving sustainability — from the product design phase to use in equipment in the home. Read on to learn more.

Ultrasound Beam Triggers ‘Nanodroplets’ to Deliver Drugs

What if drug delivery could be targeted at exactly the right spot? This would allow the total dose to be dramatically lower, thus minimizing side effects. Now, U.S. scientists have found a way to perfect a promising, emerging method that does just that. Read on to learn more.

Soft Implantable Polymer Balloon Enables Controlled and Targeted Drug Delivery

In a paper published in Biomaterials Research, a team led by researchers from the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology present data on their nonbiodegradable, ultrasoft, and flexible balloon implant for drug delivery. Their findings demonstrate the balloon’s effectiveness in delivering a model drug both in the laboratory setting and in animal models. Read on to learn more.

Shaping the Future of Polymer Nanocarriers

Scientists have taken a significant step toward the development of tailor-made chiral nanocarriers with controllable release properties. These nanocarriers, inspired by nature’s helical molecules like DNA and proteins, hold immense potential for targeted drug delivery and other biomedical applications. Read on to learn more.

Future Medications Could Be Personalized on a 3D Printer

In 2015, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first 3D-printed drug, Spritam (levetiracetam), for epilepsy. Several other manufacturers and drug companies are develop.ing their own ones. But the widespread adoption of 3D drug printing will require stringent quality control measures to ensure that people get the right medication and dosage. Read on to learn more about the subject.

Advanced Medical PCB Tech: Precision Cleaning Challenges

With the evolution of PCB materials to meet the stringent demands of medical device applications, the challenge lies in effectively removing contaminants without compromising the integrity of delicate components. Read on to learn more about the process.

Five Breakthrough Medical Technologies Set to Transform Patient Care in 2024

A new report from Clarivate Plc, London, UK, offers a predictive analysis of high-growth medical technology markets poised to generate over $1 billion in value or achieve double-digit growth within the next five years. The report, “Medical Technologies to Watch in 2024” underscores critical areas of significant investment. Read on to learn more.

Smart Implant Holds Promise for the Blind

By sending electrical impulses via an implant to the visual cortex of the brain, an image can be created, and each electrode would represent one pixel.

Powering Wearable Devices with High-Performing Carbon Nanotube Yarns

The proposed novel approach holds promise for enhancing the thermoelectric performance of CNT materials from yarns to films and bulk structures.

Wearable Ultrasound Patch Enables Continuous, Noninvasive Monitoring of Cerebral Blood Flow

Engineers have developed a wearable ultrasound patch that can offer continuous, noninvasive monitoring of blood flow in the brain. The soft and stretchy patch can be comfortably worn on the temple to provide three-dimensional data on cerebral blood flow — a first in wearable technology.

Elastomer Material Flexibility Optimizes Performance

When specifying a high-performance material for a medical device application, temperature, chemical environment and compatibility, hardness, compression set resistance, and certification considerations quickly build stringent material requirements. Expert suppliers consult with OEMs to think creatively, support product development, and collaborate to find solutions that will deliver necessary results.

The Role of Photochemical Etching in Thermal Management

The PCE process efficiently manufactures precise metal parts for thermal management in micro electronic devices, ensuring high accuracy without stress or deformation. It handles diverse metals, creating tailored thermal solutions like heat sinks and TIMs for everything from smartphones to powerful computers.

Targeted Drug Delivery: Nanomedicine Paves the Way for Treatments

In a study published in Advanced Materials, researchers have demonstrated that an innovative nanovector (nanogel), which they developed, is able to deliver anti-inflammatory drugs in a targeted manner into glial cells actively involved in the evolution of spinal cord injury, a condition that leads to paraplegia or quadriplegia.

Advancing Medtech Requires Advanced Battery Technology to Match

In the coming years, companies will continue to evolve ultrasonic metal welding technologies to answer the needs of an ever-changing field of medical devices and the batteries that power them. Developing new assembly technologies will maximize the performance and precision of ultrasonic metal welding to satisfy the new design, size, and power requirements of advanced-performance medical devices.

Thermally Engineering Templates for Highly Ordered Self-Assembled Materials

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Michigan Ann Arbor have developed a template material that carries almost no heat and therefore stops heat transfer between the template material itself and the solidifying eutectic material.