Digital Lightbox replaces the conventional light box used to observe analog x-ray images. Connected to the hospital PACS, the new digital platform can be installed both in meeting rooms and in operating rooms, where clinicians can then access, manipulate, and utilize data for surgery planning. By displaying the human body in 3D, Digital Lightbox helps clinicians to more clearly demonstrate to patients what effects a disease can have and which procedures may be necessary.

Digital Lightbox enables clinicians to select the most valuable images from large amounts of existing medical data. Ergonomic touchscreen technology with zoom functionality makes working with data easy and effective.

Clinicians can intuitively navigate within pictures and between settings. Image scrolling can be performed with one finger; zooming in and out of images with two. Images from different sources can also be fused easily. A measure functionality enables clinicians to set size and other dimensions.

By integrating the communication platform iPlan® Net from BrainLAB, clinicians can perform treatment planning with Digital Lightbox or any PC connected to the hospital network. This eliminates bottlenecks, as busy planning stations are rendered obsolete. iPlan Net helps to simplify the clinical workflow and save costs, as well as strengthen and simplify interdisciplinary collaboration between neurosurgery, nuclear medicine and radiology departments.

Digital Lightbox can be installed in any hospital environment and is compatible with all established image formats, such as DICOM, jpg, bmp, tif, png, avi, wmv. Planning data can be transferred directly from Digital Lightbox to surgical navigation systems designed for precise and minimally invasive procedures.

Video demonstrating the Digital Lightbox:

Press release: World Premiere at University Hospital in Munich: Digital Lightbox...

Product page: Digital Lightbox

Clinicians from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center are studying the two-ring device to see its efficacy and applicability for the African population and beyond.

From the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center press release:

With the recent endorsement by the World Health Organization (WHO) and scientists worldwide of adult male circumcision as an important strategy for HIV prevention, there is increased urgency to develop safe and cost-effective circumcision services. This is especially the case in Africa where HIV/AIDS continues to spread at an epidemic rate.

Studying this method are Dr. Marc Goldstein and physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, who are evaluating an innovative circumcision device developed in China and will initiate a study of the device in Africa in the coming months.

The device, named the ShangRing after its inventor, Mr. Jian-Zhong Shang, consists of two concentric plastic rings that sandwich the foreskin, allowing it to be cut away without suturing and with minimal bleeding. Performed in a clinic under local anesthesia, the procedure takes less than five minutes, compared with approximately 20 to 30 minutes for a traditional "free hands" circumcision that requires suturing. The patient returns in one week for device removal.

"Circumcision with this technique promises to be faster, safer and more acceptable to patients than conventional surgical circumcision methods," says Dr. Goldstein, the study's principal investigator. He is urologist and specialist in reproductive medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, the Matthew P. Hardy Distinguished Professor of Reproductive Medicine and Urology at Weill Cornell Medical College, and senior scientist at The Population Council, Center for Biomedical Research, located on the campus of The Rockefeller University.

The ShangRing has been used to circumcise several thousand Chinese men since 2005. Preliminary reports of 1,200 patients indicate good results with minimal complications. The ShangRing, with 15 patents pending in 85 countries, is currently available only in China. FDA evaluation is under way.

We tried to obtain images of this device, but unfortunately we failed. (Anyone out there can get them for us?)To further understand how the device works, attached is the United States Patent Application recently filed by Mr. Shang with USPTO.

Press release: New Male Circumcision Device for HIV Prevention Studied by NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell...

United States Patent Application # 20080154283:
Apparatus for circumcising a penis

UPDATE: Hurrah! Weill Cornell Medical College has kindly provided us with the picture of ShangRing device.

From the CX50 product page:

Previously available only on our premium iE33 system, PureWave on the CX50 system allows you to get the clear images you need for confident diagnoses on a wide variety of patients, including the difficult-to-image.

The CX50 system was designed for your critical study requirements. In addition to PureWave, its premium imaging and Doppler performance are possible because of its digital broadband beamformer and XRES technology. Easily perform advanced echo analysis with integrated QLAB and stress echo capability.

The CX50 is designed to make portable exams easy and efficient. One-button iSCAN automatically optimizes 2D and Doppler data for new levels of clarity for your portable studies. On-board QLAB provides advanced analysis capabilities during and after exams.

Portable exams are a challenge, and getting clear diagnostic data is complicated by many factors. Now you can have the image quality you need for the diagnostic confidence wherever you need it – take the CX50 to your patients.

The CX50 system can be used on a specially designed cart, hand carried to your patients, or packed in its special travel case for easy transport to remote destinations.

Press release: Philips new handheld ultrasound system offers premium image quality in a portable system

Product page: CX50 CompactXtreme Ultrasound System

The video below shows off the technology and demonstrates various cuts using the PlasmaBlade compared to scalpels and bovies.

Peak Surgical homepage...

Press release: PEAK Surgical Receives 510(k) Clearance to Market PEAK® Surgery System for Use in General Surgery...

Flashback: Peak PlasmaBlade Wants to Be The New Bovie

Some of the features from the product page:

Adult and pediatric dosing for FDA-approved and off-label indications

Black box warnings, contraindications, and cautions

Serious and common adverse reactions, and drug interactions organized by clinical category

Pill pictures within the drug monograph showing you and your patients exactly what each drug looks like

Safety and monitoring information, such as pregnancy risk categories, lactation safety ratings, monitoring parameters and therapeutic drug levels

Manufacturer information, approximate retail pricing, and FDA/DEA status

Pharmacology information, including metabolism, excretion (i.e., half-life), drug class, and mechanism of action

Notes section for your personal notes

Press release: Epocrates Drug and Formulary Application on Apple App Store

Product page: Epocrates Rx for iPhone

From the announcement by European AlphaGalileo Foundation:

...a research group from the University of Alcalá managed by Professor Juan Manuel Bellón from the department of surgery of the UAH has developed and patented a new device to prevent the occurrence of incisional hernias. This prevention is carried out by the incorporation of prosthesis into the suture of the abdominal wall which is designed to increase the cohesive forces of the scar. The new design and concept of the prosthesis, named Laparomesh has the shape of a upside down T and is made with silicone and polypropylene, which are biomaterials that will not be absorbed by the body.

The goal of the Laparomesh is to create a reinforcement much like a tendon in the linea alba that would efficiently consolidate the suture of the laparotomy and significantly reduce the cases of incisional hernias. Different to the other prostheses of its type, the design by Professor Bellon and his team is placed neither above nor below, but it encloses both apertures of the abdominal wall, attaching itself to the different anatomical planes by means of a polypropylene suture.

Professor Bellón, stated that the current average number of cases of incisional hernias is around 15% to 20%, and it is estimated to reduce these numbers to 3%-4% using this newly patented mesh.

Press release: New patented prophylactic mesh for the repair of defects in the abdominal wall...

Image caption: T shaped prosthesis for the reinforcement of medium laparotomies 1. Vertical branch of the T. 2. Horizontal branch. 3 Silicon cover (peritoneum), 4. Union between polypropylene and the silicon (thermoseal or suture). (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Alcal)

From the press release:

As a testament to the growing demand to improve patient care while reducing healthcare costs, Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. has installed the Aquilion ONE™ dynamic volume CT system at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School in Boston.

"In one of the country's leading medical teaching hospitals, we hope the Aquilion ONE's ability to image an entire organ and show function for the first time will mean faster, more accurate diagnosis, better patient outcomes and ultimately lower healthcare costs for our patients," explained Dr. Vassilios D. Raptopoulos, interim radiologist-in-chief, Department of Radiology and director, CT services, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "We are grateful to be one of the first teaching hospitals in the United States using this advanced technology."

Toshiba's Aquilion ONE dynamic volume CT system utilizes 320 ultra-high resolution detector rows (0.5 mm in width) to image an entire organ in a single gantry rotation. The result is unparalleled in diagnostic imaging today and produces a 4D clinical video showing up to 16 cm of anatomical coverage, enough to capture the entire brain or heart, and show its movement such as blood flow.

"The Aquilion ONE has the potential to provide a single, comprehensive exam that can replace a variety of duplicative and invasive procedures," added Dr. Raptopoulos. "Its versatility and ability to diagnose disease fast will be used within our radiology department to detect and treat life-threatening conditions, including cancer, heart disease, stroke and other neurovascular conditions."

To get impressed, head on to the Aquilion ONE Clinical Movie Theatre at Toshiba, and check out some of the studies presented there...

Product page: Aquilion ONE...

Here's what Philips says about its Brilliance iCT with Essence technology:

... customers tout the system’s ability to provide greater dimension and depth across a range of clinical areas such as whole brain perfusion, cardiac CT with Step & Shoot technology that images the heart in two beats while reducing dose, head and neck angiography, full field of view lung studies, virtual colonoscopy and abdominal and pelvic imaging. Brilliance iCT with Essence technology offers an impressive combination of speed, power and coverage to improve image quality while incorporating the latest dose reduction technology. Overall patient experience is improved through shorter scan times.

In addition to the 256 slice intelligent Brilliance iCT, the Brilliance 64-channel configuration is also designed with Essence technology. Unique and proprietary to Philips, Essence technology brings advances to the X-ray tube, detector system, and reconstruction engine while offering a scalable platform to enhance image quality and dose efficiencies.

“With Brilliance iCT, the superb image quality aids our clinicians in the diagnosis of complicated health conditions,” said Dr. Nathan Peled, head department of radiology of Carmel Medical Center in Haifa, Israel. “The system has delivered increased rotation speeds and improved image quality and clinical performance for diagnostic confidence in routine and advanced radiological imaging.”

Below you can find the technical backgrounder paper distributed by the company:

Product page: Brilliance iCT...

Press release: Philips accelerates plans to install Brilliance iCT around the world...

Here's what the company says in its press release about the long term morphology and performance of Tengion Neo-Bladder Replacement™:

The preclinical study presented at AUA [the Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) in Orlando, Florida --ed.] was a six-month, single-arm study to evaluate the application of Tengion's technology to regenerate an entire urinary bladder. Neo-Bladder Replacements were produced from autologous bladder cells seeded onto a biodegradable scaffold and were then surgically implanted into 23 large mammals.

Study results show that:

Tengion's Neo-Bladder Replacement was able to regenerate an entire urinary bladder within six months after implantation

The regenerated bladder demonstrated near-baseline capacity and cystography by six months after implantation

The regenerated bladder wall structure consisted of three layers: urothelium, muscle, and serosa by approximately two months after implantation

The regenerated bladder wall showed near native pharmacological and electrophysiological functional responses by six months after implantation

Press release: Preclinical Data Demonstrate Ability to Regenerate an Entire Bladder with Tengion Neo-Bladder Replacement™ ...

Tengion technology page...

Elder men with voiding symptoms, such as a weak urinary stream and frequent voiding, often suffer from an enlarged prostate, clinically known as 'Benign Prostatic Enlargement' (BPE). However, a weak urinary stream and frequent voiding can also be caused by a weak bladder, for which a prostate operation does not help.

If BPE is suspected in a patient, the bladder pressure during voiding is measured using a catheter inserted into the bladder via the urethra. The urinary flow is simultaneously recorded. This investigation is time-consuming, painful and carries a risk of infection. On top of this, it is not carried out in all patients with BPE symptoms. Consequently, there is a need for a simple, painless measurement method for determining the resistance of the urethra and its location.

Tim Idzenga came up with the idea of using the sound produced by the urinary flow in the urethra as a measure of the urethral resistance. He performed the measurement by placing a microphone against the perineum, between the scrotum and anus. The frequency spectrum of the sound was found to correlate with the narrowing of the urethra. The degree of narrowing can therefore be determined from the recorded urinary sound.

A patent for this invention is being applied for in cooperation with the company IQ+ Medical BV. The method will be tested at the urology outpatient clinic of the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. Besides the standard method, patients with voiding symptoms will also be asked to urinate with a microphone against the perineum.

NWO press release: Listening to the urinary stream...

Image credit: Wellcome images: Anatomy of the prostate. Colour artwork....

(hat tip: MTB Europe)