Cardiology
Last year, Medgadget spoke with BioSig Technologies about the company's PURE EP System for detection of cells that cause arrhythmias. PURE EP is a surface electrocardiogram and intracardiac multichannel recording system that acquires, processes, and displays high fidelity cardiac recordings required during electrophysiology studies and catheter ablation procedures. A nationwide survey of electrophysiologists in 2017 highlighted the noise reduction and overall signal clarity and accuracy as differentiating factors setting PURE EP apart from other electrophysiology signal recording and processing systems. Mayo Clinic's Dr. Samuel J. Asirvatham, a BioSig Scientific Advisory Board member has stated...
A team of researchers from Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard, Stony Brook, Caltech, and UC Berkeley have developed a remarkable new microscope for looking at living cells in 3D still inside the body. The microscope relies on a technique dubbed as lattice light-sheet microscopy, which involves passing a plane of light through tissue repeatedly. The beam of light is powerful enough to image the insides of individual cells, but because it's focused into a very narrow sheet it doesn't seem to disturb the processes taking place inside the cells. Here are...
New Organ Preservation Device Keeps Livers Alive Longer and Better for Transplanation
April 20th, 2018 by Tom Peach
The success of a liver transplant is significantly limited by the quality of the donor organ. Currently this results in a severe shortage of acceptable organs, as many potential organs do not tolerate the static cold storage (SCS) of the conventional transplant procedure. Despite significant clinical advances in transplant procedures over the past 30 years, the mechanism for liver preservation has changed very little: the organ is flushed and placed on ice, lowering metabolic activity ten-fold in the hope of reducing damage. However, over time ischemic damage occurs, which reduces...
Scientists working at Hong Kong Polytechnic University have developed a lenses for glasses that are able to slow down myopic progression in children. The center of the lens works as in a common pair of glasses, adjusting for myopia and astigmatism, while around this region the lens consists of dozens of spots of myopic defocus that help with vision correction. These so-called Defocus Incorporated Multiple Segments (DIMS) Spectacle Lenses work at all viewing distances. “We have tried to incorporate myopic defocus optics into different treatment modalities, such as contact lens....
As everyone knows, early diagnosis brings the best chance of fighting cancer. At ETH Zurich, a Swiss technical university, researchers genetically modified skin cells to produce a tattoo that makes itself visible only when the person wearing it has signs of cancer. The technology consists of a "synthetic gene network" that activates the production of melanin pigment when calcium levels rise. Spikes in calcium are related to the growth of some neoplasms, so the technology has the potential to identify the presence of cancer earlier than anything available now. While...
Scientists working at São Paulo State University, Juazeiro do Norte College, ABC Medical School in Brazil and Oxford Brookes University in the UK have shown that music improves the performance of anti-hypertensive medications. The study, published in Nature Scientific Reports, involved 37 patients with high blood pressure that normally responded well to drugs. They listed to music on some days and not others and their blood pressure and heart rate variability were measured at 20 minute intervals following treatment. The results were that for at least an hour following listening to...
Join the Rosenman Symposium on Health Technologies, June 20 at UC San Francisco
April 19th, 2018 by Rosenman Institute
Meet entrepreneurs, engineers, surgeons and other key players in the ecosystem at the Fifth Annual Rosenman Symposium, a half-day conference held at the UCSF Mission Bay campus on Wednesday, June 20. Registration is free. Join the 450+ who have already registered by reserving your spot today. The symposium, a forum for the growing health technology community in San Francisco, features leading speakers from industry, and lightning pitches by founders of selected startups. The event is produced by the Rosenman Institute, a University of California initiative based at UCSF Mission Bay....
The production of emerging virus-based gene therapies, cell therapies, vaccines, and cancer treatments requires new types of facilities for manufacturers to build. GE Healthcare promises to help make it easy by unveiling their KUBio "factory-in-a-box" offering. The company in particular hopes to fill a need for facilities that can produce vaccines quickly and as the need arises. “The investment needed to build these facilities has been high, and the lack of flexibility has hindered the capability to invest," in a statements aid Daria Donati, director of business development and innovation for the BioProcess...
ADVANTAGE PLUS Pass-Thru Automated Endoscope Reprocessor Cleared in U.S.
April 19th, 2018 by Editors
MEDIVATORS, a Cantel Medical company, won clearance from the FDA for its ADVANTAGE PLUS Pass-Thru Automated Endoscope Reprocessor. It works with all kinds of clinical scopes, including duodenoscopes, but what's cool is that it is supposed to be fit into a wall so that anything passing from a "dirty" room to a "clean" room goes through the device. About five endoscopes can be cleaned in the system per hour and it relies on Cantel's own RAPICIDE PA Disinfectant. This avoids many common human errors and will hopefully reduce the chances...
Researchers at University of California, Los Angeles and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied whether certain search terms that are used on Google and topics covered on Twitter can point to a outbreak of a contagious disease. They focused on syphilis and found that by monitoring the incidence of certain terms, such as "STD" and "find sex", they were able to identify hotspots that were eventually noticed by the CDC. The research relied on machine learning algorithms that can crunch through a lot of data and spot correlations within...
Fluorescent proteins tend to be toxic, so their clinical applications are sometimes limited and suspect. Researchers from Purdue University and the Korean National Institute of Agricultural Research engineered a new material, made of silk and some genetic engineering, that fluoresces well under green light without causing too much toxicity. The technology works thanks to a protein, which glows in the far-red spectrum, whose genetic code was transferred to silkworms that then produced the silk. The researchers have already developed smart bandages that kill bacteria when illuminated by green light. They put E....
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease affects millions of people in the United States. The main method of diagnosis is the pulmonary function tests (PFTs), in which a patient breathes into a machine that measures pulmonary parameters. The disadvantage, however, is that pulmonary function tests take an “average” of a patient’s lung without being able to detect specific areas of lung function and compare them over time. 4Dx is hoping to improve that. Using principles of air flow dynamics and applying them to data from a simple X-ray, the company’s algorithms can...
Medicine
Spying on Your Social Media to Fight STDs
Researchers at University of California, Los Angeles and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied whether certain search terms that are used on Google and...
April 19th, 2018
4Dx Uses Algorithms to Better Visualize Lung Function
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease affects millions of people in the United States. The main method of diagnosis is the pulmonary function tests (PFTs), in which a...
April 19th, 2018
Siemens Gets FDA Cleared for Two New Budget Friendly Yet Powerful CTs
Siemens Healthineers is on an FDA clearing streak of its newest CT scanners. The latest news, following up clearances of the SOMATOM Force and SOMATOM Edge Plus,...
April 18th, 2018
Cardiology
BioSig Technologies Announces FDA 510(k) Submission for PURE EP (A Follow-up Interview)
Last year, Medgadget spoke with BioSig Technologies about the company's PURE EP System for detection of cells that cause arrhythmias. PURE EP is a surface...
April 20th, 2018
4Dx Uses Algorithms to Better Visualize Lung Function
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease affects millions of people in the United States. The main method of diagnosis is the pulmonary function tests (PFTs), in which a...
April 19th, 2018
Researchers Develop Smartphone App to Measure Arterial Stiffness
The stiffness of arteries is an important indicator of cardiovascular health, but this parameter is somewhat difficult to evaluate and requires a specialist to do...
April 17th, 2018
Surgery
New Organ Preservation Device Keeps Livers Alive Longer and Better for Transplanation
The success of a liver transplant is significantly limited by the quality of the donor organ. Currently this results in a severe shortage of acceptable organs, as...
April 20th, 2018
4Dx Uses Algorithms to Better Visualize Lung Function
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease affects millions of people in the United States. The main method of diagnosis is the pulmonary function tests (PFTs), in which a...
April 19th, 2018
Siemens Gets FDA Cleared for Two New Budget Friendly Yet Powerful CTs
Siemens Healthineers is on an FDA clearing streak of its newest CT scanners. The latest news, following up clearances of the SOMATOM Force and SOMATOM Edge Plus,...
April 18th, 2018
Emergency Medicine
Siemens Gets FDA Cleared for Two New Budget Friendly Yet Powerful CTs
Siemens Healthineers is on an FDA clearing streak of its newest CT scanners. The latest news, following up clearances of the SOMATOM Force and SOMATOM Edge Plus,...
April 18th, 2018
ECGlove Helps Medical Personnel Rapidly Monitor for Arrhythmias
Last month, Medgadget had the opportunity to visit the great state of Texas for the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) event. We had a chance to chat with Yoku Méndez,...
April 16th, 2018
Defibrillator Pads with Needles to Deliver More Effective Shocks
External defibrillators that shock hearts out of life threatening arrhythmias are pretty brutal devices. They have to deliver a great deal of electrical energy into...
April 13th, 2018
Radiology
4Dx Uses Algorithms to Better Visualize Lung Function
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease affects millions of people in the United States. The main method of diagnosis is the pulmonary function tests (PFTs), in which a...
April 19th, 2018
LivaNova's SenTiva Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Epilepsy Cleared in Europe
LivaNova won European CE Mark clearance for its SenTiva generator and accompanying Programming System for treatment of epilepsy in patients that don't respond well...
April 18th, 2018
Siemens Gets FDA Cleared for Two New Budget Friendly Yet Powerful CTs
Siemens Healthineers is on an FDA clearing streak of its newest CT scanners. The latest news, following up clearances of the SOMATOM Force and SOMATOM Edge Plus,...
April 18th, 2018
Anesthesiology
4Dx Uses Algorithms to Better Visualize Lung Function
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease affects millions of people in the United States. The main method of diagnosis is the pulmonary function tests (PFTs), in which a...
April 19th, 2018
ECGlove Helps Medical Personnel Rapidly Monitor for Arrhythmias
Last month, Medgadget had the opportunity to visit the great state of Texas for the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) event. We had a chance to chat with Yoku Méndez,...
April 16th, 2018
Defibrillator Pads with Needles to Deliver More Effective Shocks
External defibrillators that shock hearts out of life threatening arrhythmias are pretty brutal devices. They have to deliver a great deal of electrical energy into...
April 13th, 2018
Your information will never be shared with any third party.