Category: Medical Tech

Nanorobots hold great potential in the field of medicine. This is largely due to the possibility of highly-targeted delivery of medical payloads, an outcome that could lessen side effects and negate the need for invasive procedures. But how these microscopic particles can best navigate the body’s fluids is a huge area of focus for scientists. Researchers are now reporting a new technique whereby nanorobots are made to swim swiftly through the fluids like blood to reach their destination. Though still an emerging field of science, nanoparticles are gaining something of…

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Scientists at the University of Adelaide and ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics have developed a tiny probe for measuring the temperature inside the brain. As anyone with an extremely high fever will attest to, the brain doesn’t respond well to high heat. Various diseases, drugs, and concussions can create swelling, inflammation, and other temperature changes, and studying how treatment affects these can be helped with an accurate brain thermometer. The researchers used their probe to measure the temperature within small regions of a moving rat’s brain because of its size of less…

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CareTaker Medical, a pioneer in wireless remote patient monitoring devices, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued 510(k) clearance for the company’s Wireless Continuous Non-Invasive “Beat-by-Beat” Blood Pressure (“cNIBP”) and Heart Rate Monitor based on patented Finger Cuff technology. The wearable CareTaker® monitor enables uninterrupted wire-free and electrode-free vital signs monitoring throughout the full mobile continuum of care; within the clinic and hospital, during patient transport, and remotely after patient discharge. Using a comfortable, low-pressure finger cuff, CareTaker’s patented Pulse Decomposition Analysis technology non-invasively measures continuous Beat-by-Beat…

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Using new laboratory technology, scientists have shown that cellular damage is detectable in patients after CT scanning, according to a new study led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.   “We now know that even exposure to small amounts of radiation from computed tomagraphy scanning is associated with cellular damage,” said Patricia Nguyen, MD, one of the lead authors of the study and an assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine at Stanford. “Whether or not this causes cancer or any negative effect to the patient is still not…

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Ultrasound imaging is used around the world to help visualize developing babies and diagnose diseases. Sound waves bounce off the tissues, revealing their different densities and shapes. The next step in ultrasound technology is to image not just anatomy, but specific cells and molecules deeper in the body, such as those associated with tumors or bacteria in our gut.   A new study from Caltech outlines how protein engineering techniques might help achieve this milestone. The researchers engineered protein-shelled nanostructures called gas vesicles — which reflect sound waves — to…

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Prostate exams aren’t exactly an enjoyable experience, but if you ever need one, you’ll want the doctor to know what they’re doing. Unfortunately, the procedure is difficult for med students to learn, thanks to the internal nature of the examination and a lack of willing test subjects. Scientists at Imperial College London wanted to solve that problem by developing a robotic rectum that recreates the feel of the real thing and even provides haptic feedback. The cheek-clench-inducing procedure involves a doctor snapping on a glove and probing a man’s back…

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Researchers from North Carolina State University and Duke University have developed a metamaterial made of paper and aluminum that can manipulate acoustic waves to more than double the resolution of acoustic imaging, focus acoustic waves, and control the angles at which sound passes through the metamaterial. Acoustic imaging tools are used in both medical diagnostics and in testing the structural integrity of everything from airplanes to bridges.   “This metamaterial is something that we’ve known is theoretically possible, but no one had actually made it before,” says Yun Jing, an…

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Congenital heart experts from Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital have successfully integrated two common imaging techniques to produce a three-dimensional anatomic model of a patient’s heart.   The 3D model printing of patients’ hearts has become more common in recent years as part of an emerging, experimental field devoted to enhanced visualization of individual cardiac structures and characteristics. But this is the first time the integration of computed tomography (CT) and three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (3DTEE) has successfully been used for printing a hybrid 3D model of a patient’s heart.…

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