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Implants & Prosthetics

Learn more about the materials and properties of today's advanced implants and prosthetics. Examples include cardiac pacemakers, defibrillators, and orthopedics.

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INSIDER: Medical
What’s the Buzz? Fly Sound Processing Could Help Humans

A team of engineers at The University of Texas at Austin has developed a tiny, low-power device that mimics a fly’s hearing mechanism, which could be used to build the next generation of hypersensitive hearing aids with intelligent microphones that could adaptively focus only on those...

R&D: Test & Measurement

A team of engineers at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, say they have developed a technique that could produce “soft machines” made of elastic materials and liquid metals for potential...

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INSIDER: Materials
Untangling the Secret of Barnacle Superglue

The strength of barnacle cement is unbeaten when compared to anything man-made, say researchers at Newcastle University, UK. It can stick to any surface, under any conditions. But exactly how it works has been a mystery. The international team of scientists have shown for the first time that barnacle...

R&D: Medical

A team of scientists at MIT has developed a new sensor that, they say, can enable long-term monitoring of oxygen levels in cancerous tumors, which may advance diagnosis and treatment.

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R&D: Electronics & Computers

A team of scientists from the University of Texas, Dallas, along with colleagues at the University of Tokyo, Japan, have created biologically adaptive transistor devices that have the ability to...

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R&D: Medical

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched its Revolutionizing Prosthetics program to advance the field of modular upper-limb prosthetics and committed to making the...

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INSIDER: Medical
Treating PTSD with Removable Brain Implant

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently received $5.6 million from the Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop an implantable neural interface that can record and stimulate neurons within the brain to treat neuropsychiatric...

News: Regulations/Standards
FDA Issues Draft Guidance on Cybersecurity

Recognizing that the need for effective cybersecurity to ensure medical device functionality has become more important with the increasing use of wireless, Internet- and network-connected devices, and the frequent electronic exchange of medical device-related health information, the FDA has issued a...

INSIDER: Medical
Bionic Pancreas Provides Dramatic Results in Clinical Trials with Type 1 Diabetics

A team of researchers from Boston University and Massachusetts General Hospital report their study results in a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine, that reveals that the latest version of a bionic pancreas device was successfully tested in type...

INSIDER: Medical
Improving Retinal Prostheses and Artificial Vision

Researchers at Stanford University say that they used electrical stimulation of retinal cells to produce the same patterns of activity that occur when the retina sees a moving object. They say that this is a step toward restoring natural, high-fidelity vision to blind people.

INSIDER: Materials
Nature-Inspired Model for Low-Friction Bearings

The natural mechanical properties of natural joints are considered unrivalled. Cartilage is coated with a special layer of lubrication that allows joints to move virtually friction-free, even under high pressure. Using simulations on supercomputers, scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich in...

INSIDER: Materials
Introducing the Bionic Man

The NIH’s Bionic Man site helps viewers visually explore some of the latest bioengineering creations from research funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. From prosthetics to artificial kidneys, these technologies are changing lives now and in the future.

R&D: Electronics & Computers

An interdisciplinary research team from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Arizona, Tucson, has developed a flexible medical implant...

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INSIDER: Medical
Implantable Cuff to Lower Blood Pressure

A team of microsystems engineers and neurosurgeons at the University of Freiburg in Germany are working to develop a new implantable cuff equipped with electrodes that, they say, can lower blood pressure without causing side effects. While doctors usually prescribe drugs against high blood pressure, in...

INSIDER: Medical

A clinical study at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, found that patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) have significantly lower risk of death and...

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INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

Three biomedical engineering seniors in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, MO used a 3D printer to design and create a robotic prosthetic arm out...

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R&D: Medical

Professor Gil Weinberg, founding director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, has created a robotic drumming prosthesisthat can be attached to amputees’s arms and powers...

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R&D: Medical

When a surgeon needs to repair a broken bone requiring screws and plates to help bond the broken sections so the fracture to heal, the "fixation devices" are usually made of metal alloys. But metal...

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R&D: Medical

Spinal injuries can damage the nerve supply to the bladder, meaning that people cannot tell when their bladder is full and needs to be emptied. This can create excessively high pressure on the bladder,...

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Briefs: Electronics & Computers

A team of mechanical and materials engineers in Iowa State University say that they have a new way of looking at electronics—as impermanent materials that can completely dissolve once they are...

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From the Editor: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Transcending Disabilities to Walk and to Dance

Move over Iron Man! There’s a new engineering superhero who’s part bionic, able to change his height, and scale vertical rock and ice walls with a simple change of leg prosthetics that he designed himself. Not only that, but he designs bionic limbs for others, too.

INSIDER: Software

Researchers and medical professionals from Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe, and Phoenix Children’s Hospital have performed what they believe is the first virtual implantation of a...

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INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Tasked with developing intelligent prosthetic knee joints that are capable of detecting early failure before a patient suffers, a team of scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de...

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INSIDER: Medical

Hugh Herr, an associate professor of media arts and sciences at the MIT Media Lab, who designs, creates, and wears bionic prosthetic lower limbs, has become somewhat of a celebrity in this field, and...

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INSIDER: Medical
Microchip Can Detect Implant Infections

A team of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have developed a tiny microchip that, they say, may save joint implants before they’re overcome by infection. This chip, which is engineered to detect pH levels in the body, can alert doctors to encroaching bacterial infection, which causes acidosis,...

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
Energy Generator Powered by Saliva

An international team of engineers from Penn state University, University Park, PA, and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, have discovered that saliva-powered micro-sized microbial fuel cells can produce minute amounts of energy—enough to run on-chip applications, they say. This...

R&D: Medical

A specialized 3D printing extruder developed by a sophomore and collaborator at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) could lower the costs of printing cellular structures for use in drug...

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R&D: Materials

Materials scientists at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany, have examined implants made of nickel-titanium alloy in a long-term study and have determined that the release of nickel...

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R&D: Electronics & Computers

A team of researchers and engineers at the Swiss Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Center for Neuroprosthetics and SSSA (Italy) have developed a revolutionary sensory...

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Ask the Expert

Ralph Bright on the Power of Power Cords
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Understanding power system components and how to connect them correctly is critical to meeting regulatory requirements and designing successful electrical products for worldwide markets. Interpower’s Ralph Bright defines these requirements and explains how to know which cord to select for your application.

Inside Story

Inside Story: Developing a Package Performance Testing Plan
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To find out more about the expertise required to develop a testing plan for package performance testing, MDB recently spoke with Sunny Modi, Director of Package Testing for Eurofins Medical Device Testing in Lancaster, PA.

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