Thank you, spiny-headed parasitic worms. We are improving the ability of bandages to stay on wet, living tissue because of you. “There’s a huge unmet medical need for better adhesives, to patch leaks in places where they can be catastrophic,” says bioengineer Jeffrey Karp, co-director of the Center for Regenerative Therapeutics at Brigham and Women’s [...]
Medical Monitoring Device Is Implantable
March 27, 2013 By 1 Comment
Humans are merging with machines. If you don’t believe it, take a look at the new medical device — a computer chip — that is implanted under the skin to monitor the carrier’s health. The chip, designed by scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, is like a portable personal blood-testing [...]
Medical Device Tax Repealed. Symbolically.
March 26, 2013 By Leave a Comment
The medical device tax has been repealed. At least symbolically. The Senate voted 70-29 on March 21 to repeal the 2.3% sales tax on medical devices that was part of the Affordable Care Act to help cover the uninsured. However, the vote came in a budget amendment in a non-binding resolution so there was no real [...]
Use of Dissolvable Arterial Stents Growing
March 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Dissolvable arterial stents laced with polymers to prevent blood clotting seem to be catching on throughout the world. Just not here. Yet. Global pharma company Abbott has released its “Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold” in India and in Europe. Meanwhile, Japan’s Terumo Corporation is tauting its dissolving arterial stent as just as good as Abbott’s. However, the [...]
Polymer Membrane Speeds Healing of Bone Breaks
March 22, 2013 By 1 Comment
People who suffer bad bone breaks or have chronic spine and craniofacial conditions may eventually have those problems heal much faster, if a human clinical trial produces good results. An Israeli company has made a polymer membrane implant that heals broken bones 40% faster than traditional methods. The company, RegeneCure, based in Jerusalem, tested the [...]
Hair-Thin Endoscope Developed
March 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment
If there is a growth in the near future in the understanding of cellular biology in the brain and muscles or a greater ability to detect cancer earlier than we can now, we may thank Joseph Kahn and his research team at Stanford University. The team has developed a prototype of a single-fiber endoscope that [...]
Polymer Filter Detects True Colors
March 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment
What is something’s true color? Sounds philosophical, right? But in the real world, knowing an item’s exact color can be useful. Researches at the University of Buffalo (UB) have developed a filter made from polymers that can identify the true color of everyday items, such as paint and medicine. The ability to have an accurate [...]
Verdict Reached in All-Metal Hip Implant Case
March 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment
The manufacturer of a metal-on-metal hip implant, Johnson & Johnson, was ordered by a Los Angeles jury to pay more than $8.3 million in damages to a Montana man for the defective device. The verdict’s damages included $338,000 to cover the medical expenses for Loren Kransky, a retired prison guard, who received the implant, known [...]
Expert Witness Says Hip Implant Harmless
March 4, 2013 By 2 Comments
An expert witness in a trial over recalled hip implants was extensively cross-examined as to whether he had a bias in favor of the manufacturer of the medical devices, after he claimed that the implant was harmless. Dennis Paustenbach said in the trial in Los Angeles that the patient, Loren Kransky, was not harmed by [...]
Hydrogel Repairs Heart Muscle
March 1, 2013 By 1 Comment
When people have heart attacks, they have a significant risk of having another one because the first one damages the heart tissue. But scientists at the University of California San Diego have developed a biomaterial that, when injected next to the heart, can repair the damaged heart muscle and promote the growth of new, healthy [...]
