Robotics

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 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...

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...

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....

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...

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has created coated sutures with sensors that could monitor wounds and speed up healing. The electronic sutures, which contain ultra-thin silicon sensors integrated on polymer or silk strips, can be threaded through needles and, in animal tests,...

To head off possible postoperative problems, undergraduate biomedical engineering students at Johns Hopkins University have invented a disposable suturing tool. Their invention, called FastStitch, guides the placement of stitches and guards against accidental puncturing of internal organs after abdominal...

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional economic organization consisting of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam is developing a combined regulatory system for medical devices to cover all member countries. The ASEAN Medical...

Scientists at North Carolina State University have developed highly conductive and elastic conductors made from silver nanoscale wires that may be used to develop stretchable electronic devices. Stretchable circuitry has many potential uses in the medical field, such as providing an electronic...

Could the demise of the scalpel be close at hand? Researchers in Europe are developing innovative micro-robotics technology could make surgeries less complicated, invasive, and costly — benefiting surgeons and patients alike.

You just never know what will get the creative juices flowing. It could be a slight aberration from your morning routine. Or it could be something as basic as the entree you order at dinner. The latter is actually what inspired the invention of a crab-like miniature robot that could help surgeons remove early-stage...

Barrett Technology Inc., of Cambridge, Massachusetts, completed three Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts with Johnson Space Center. In 1989, the company worked with NASA on a Phase II to create a robotic arm, and in 1991, was again awarded a Phase II to create a hand. Nearly a...

Raven II, a robotic surgery system developed at UC Santa Cruz and the University of Washington, is being shared on an open-source basis with five other universities. Researchers hope that this will enable users to share software, replicate experiments, and collaborate in other ways — and ultimately...

A first-of-its-kind clinical trial of robot-assisted brachytherapy for treating prostate cancer will take place at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Prostate brachytherapy, which requires accurate insertion of some 60 to 120 radioactive seeds in very specific places in the prostate, calls for a high...