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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: Electronics & Computers
New Stretchable Battery for Stretchable Electronics

Researchers at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL and the University of Illinois have demonstrated a stretchable lithium-ion battery can power their innovative stretchable electronics. The stretchable electronic devices now could be used anywhere, including inside the human body, they say,...

News: Medical
Partnership to Develop Better Prosthetics for Veterans

The Florida State University, Tallahassee, and its High-Performance Materials Institute are leading a major partnership to develop the next generation of prosthetic limbs for military-veteran amputee patients, thanks to a new contract with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The...

Mission Accomplished: Medical

An electronic system that stimulates the nerve of the diaphragm muscles received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in patients with Amyotrophic...

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INSIDER: Medical
Treating Seizures with Fiber Optics

University of California-Irvine neuroscientists have developed a unique method to stop severe episodes of epileptic seizures with fiber optic light signals.

Using a mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy, the research team created an EEG-based computer system that activates hair-thin optical strands...

INSIDER: Medical
Creating Artificial Muscle with Graphene

A team of engineers at Duke University, Durham, NC, are layering atom-thick lattices of carbon with polymers to create unique materials with a broad range of applications, including artificial muscles. Because of its unique optical, electrical, and mechanical properties, graphene is used in electronics,...

Applications: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

The Ada-based SPARK programming language and toolset offer strong guarantees about the behavior of software systems. This powerful core underpins Echo, a complete approach to...

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Briefs: Medical

The first full-support, miniaturized ventricular assist device designed to be placed in the pericardial space, was approved by the FDA in late November. HeartWare...

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Briefs: Medical

A new study at the University of Rochester Medical Center Rochester, NY, shows that defibrillators, which are designed to detect and correct dangerous heart rhythms, can be programmed to...

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INSIDER: Medical
Intuitive Control for Implantable Prosthetic Arm

A team of researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, say that they have created the world’s first implantable robotic arm controlled by thoughts.

Prosthetic leg technology has advanced rapidly in the past decade, but prosthetic arm advances have been much...

INSIDER: Medical
Implanted Brain 'Pacemaker' for Alzheimer's Disease

Recently, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD, surgically implanted a pacemaker-like device into the brain of a patient in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, the first such operation in the United States. The device, which provides deep brain stimulation and has been used...

INSIDER: Medical
Developing Propellant-Fueled Prostheses

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta; the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; and Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, announced a four-year joint project to develop a below-knee prosthesis capable of actively powering the ankle joint powered by a gas- or liquid-based...

INSIDER: Medical
Multi-Tasking Implantable Silk Optics

Bioengineers at Tufts University School of Engineering, Medford, MA, have demonstrated that silk-based implantable optics can enhance tissue imaging, administer heat, deliver and monitor drugs. In addition, the devices are biodegradable and biocompatible, harmlessly dissolving at predetermined rates and...

Features: Medical

Speed equates to cost, so faster prototyping and production mean lower costs and faster time to market. Although this statement seems to be fairly easy, there are some considerations to...

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Briefs: Medical

At London’s Paralympic Games in September, USA track and field star Richard Browne took the silver medal in the highly anticipated 100-meter race for below-the-knee amputees. The 21-year-old...

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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
3D Scanning for Post-Mastectomy Custom Breast Prosthesis

Breast cancer is a terrible affliction that affects approximately one in eight women in the US. In 2012, nearly a quarter- million cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed among women. Due to the progress of medicine and associated treatment, the death rate associated with breast...

Applications: Materials

Hearing loss can occur as a result of aging, genetic predisposition, an illness or injury, or over the course of years of exposure to loud sounds, which cause intense vibrations that damage the hair...

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Applications: Manufacturing & Prototyping

ToughWare Prosthetics, an engineering and design group dedicated to developing innovative new assistive technologies, helps satisfy the global need for prosthetic devices that are...

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INSIDER: Medical
Defibrillator Setting Change Leads to Health Gains

A new study shows that many implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), which are designed to detect and correct dangerous heart rhythms, are programmed to too low a setting, delivering painful shocks for heart rhythms that aren’t dangerous. Making a simple change in the way physicians...

INSIDER: Medical
Pacemaker Powered by Heartbeat

Engineers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, tested an energy-harvesting device that uses piezoelectricity — an electrical charge generated from motion — to convert energy from a beating heart to provide enough electricity to power a pacemaker.

As reported in a study presented at the American...

INSIDER: Medical
Proteins, Not Torque Cause Surgical Screw Problems

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,...

Features: Electronics & Computers
SwipeSense
Yuri Malina and Mert Iseri
Evanston, Illinois

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the best way to prevent the two million annual cases of hospital-acquired infections is by increasing...

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Applications: Medical

When engineers at a Swiss medical device company began designing an implantable low-flow pump to treat the condition known as ascites, or peritoneal cavity fluid, they knew they were on...

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Features: Medical

The 10th annual “Create the Future” Design Contest, attracted more than 950 innovative product ideas from engineers and students in 65 countries. The Medical category itself received 92 outstanding entries...

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Features: Medical
Prosthetic Leg Connector
Dave King
Kelowna, BC, Canada

The Medical winner was simply named Prosthetic Leg Connector. Its simplistic name belies the amount of thought and care that went into the...

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Global Innovations: Photonics/Optics
Bionic Vision Australia
http://www.bionicvision.org.au

The main cause of inherited blindness is retinitis pigmentosa, which affects 1.5 million people worldwide and is characterized by the progressive loss of vision....

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Global Innovations: Medical
University of Glasgow
http://www.gla.ac.uk/

Researchers at the University of Glasgow’s Colleges of Science and Engineering and Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences in Scotland are...

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INSIDER: Medical
Developing an Artificial Implantable Cornea

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...

Applications: Materials

The school of thought surrounding most orthopedic implant coatings is that the more porous and “rough” the surface is, the better the implant (hip, knee, etc.) will grip to, and connect...

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Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Tapping into the human brain to understand its functions in daily life — as well as its malfunctions in illness — has long been a challenge for researchers. Mapping brain activity...

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Ask the Expert

Eric Dietsch on the Benefits of Nitinol Wire
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In collaboration with the Fort Wayne Metals Engineering team, Eric Dietsch focuses on supporting customers with material recommendations, product development, and education. Eric is available to help you and your company with any Nitinol-related questions or needs that you may have.

Inside Story

Inside Story: Establishing Safe EO Residual Levels for Medical Devices
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To find out more about the expertise required to establish safe EO Residual levels for medical devices, Medical Design Briefs recently spoke with Leonard Harris, Manager, Chemistry and Container Testing for Eurofins Medical Device Testing (Lancaster, PA).

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