'IVF chip' helps capture images of sperm fusing with egg

Every mammal on this planet starts in the same way: a sperm encounters an egg and fuses with it. This process is familiar to every eighth grade biology student, and pictures of the event can be found in every biology text book. However, despite this ubiquity, the detailed mechanics of the process itself is still somewhat of a mysteryNow, new techniques - featuring an "IVF...

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Easy to Use Navik 3D Cardiac Mapping System Cleared in U.S.

APN Health, a firm based in Wisconsin, got hold of an FDA clearance to introduce its Navik 3D cardiac mapping system in the U.S. The system provides live tracking of catheters in 3D gathered from fluoroscopic 2D images, and combines that with the electrical cardiac signals to create volumetric maps of the heart. The system uses existing fluoroscopes and ECG that are available...

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New Flexible Electronic Films for Body-Worn Medical Devices

At the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland researchers have created a new method for making stretchable electronics that may end up being integrated into wearables and medical devices. The prototype films can stretch up to four times their original shape and relax back without suffering any degradation in its electrical properties. The researchers’ main...

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Medtronic’s CRT-Ds Now Approved for 3 Tesla Scanning in Europe

Medtronic won European CE Mark approval for a number of its cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators (CRT-Ds) to be safe for use under MRI imaging of up to 3 Tesla. The approved devices include the Claria MRI Quad CRT-D SureScan, Amplia MRI Quad CRT-D SureScan, and Compia MRI Quad CRT-D SureScan pacers. Additionally, all previously approved MRI-conditional cardiac...

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FDA Approves New ScandiDos System That Measures XRT Dose

When radiation treatment is delivered by a medical accelerator, the amount of exposure that is actually absorbed by the patient has been estimated based on dosage administered and other parameters. The Delta4 Discover, a product from ScandiDos, a Swedish firm, has received FDA clearance to be used to accurately measure the amount of radiation that moves past the patient and...

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Automatic Suturing by Robotic Surgical System

At Case Western Reserve University engineers are working on integrating autonomous suturing abilities into the da Vinci robotically-assisted surgical system from Intuitive Surgical. The team managed to purchase a used da Vinci on eBay and are now developing autonomous algorithms to control the device while doing routine suturing. Here’s a couple of the team members presenting...

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Top 5 Medical Technology Innovations

Against the backdrop of health care reform and a controversial medical device tax, medical technology companies are focusing more than ever on products that deliver cheaper, faster, more efficient patient care. They are also making inroads with U.S. Food & Drug Administration regulators to re-engineer the complex review and approval process for new medical devices. Many...

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Scientists improve DNA technology for detecting, treating disease

One of the drawbacks of DNA aptamers - synthetic small molecules that show promise for detecting and treating cancer and other diseases - is they do not bind readily to their targets and are easily digested by enzymes in the body. Now, scientists have found a way to produce DNA aptamers without these disadvantages.The team - from the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology...

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Heart Disease Detection Goes High Tech

Experts review the latest techniques that reveal whether you have heart diseaseWhen former President Bill Clinton was diagnosed with heart disease and underwent a quadruple bypass operation to clear his blocked heart arteries in 2004, some Americans panicked and opted to undergo all sorts of tests to find out if they, too, had heart disease. This hysteria -- and call to...

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Brain Cell Mutations Make Us All Unique

It seems there are trees in the brain, and they help make each of us unique. In fact, we are all basically mutants, and according to a new study by Michael Lodato and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School, mutated genes in brain cells proliferate throughout the brain’s development. Genes directly or indirectly make the brain’s chemicals, as well as the locks that these...

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Hospital paid 17K ransom to hackers of its computer network

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The chief executive of a Los Angeles hospital says it paid a ransom in bitcoins equivalent to about $17,000 to hackers who infiltrated and disabled its computer network. Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center CEO Allen Stefanek said in a statement Wednesday that paying the ransom of 40 bitcoins was "the quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems...

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