Zac Vawter considers himself a test pilot. After losing his right leg in a motorcycle accident, the 31-year-old software engineer signed up to become a research subject, helping to test a trailblazing prosthetic leg that's controlled by his thoughts. He will put this groundbreaking bionic leg to the ultimate test Sunday when
A new study shows that jumping can be much more complicated than it might seem. In research that could extend the range of future rescue and exploration robots, scientists have found that hopping robots could dramatically reduce the amount of energy they use by adopting a unique two-part "stutter jump."
Brushless DC (BLDC) motors need to operate more efficiently as energy and cost savings become bigger concerns for designers of electronic devices. One way to help ensure greater efficiency is by selecting the correct bipolar latching Hall-effect sensor IC for electronic commutation in BLDC motors.
ZOLL Medical Corporation, a manufacturer of medical devices and related software solutions and a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of Asahi Kasei, has established Asahi Kasei ZOLL Medical Corporation (AZM) as its Japanese subsidiary effective November 5. AZM will advance the expansion and development...
When you are a patient in a hospital, you tend to expect that the electronics are either top of the line or at least functioning correctly. You expect that the devices doctors implant in your body are reliable and safe. These seem like safe assumptions. Unfortunately, you could be mistaken.
The November issue of ECN focuses on the power application area. Executive Editor Chris Warner discusses net neutrality, Jon Titus presents his annual Kits for Kids column, and the Brainstorm Q&A section asks “What is the most significant challenge in the miniaturization of medical devices?”
Lantronix announced the launch of its new xDirect device server -- a compact serial-to-Ethernet device server that provides quick and easy connectivity to virtually any device or machine with a serial interface. With plug-and-play simplicity and a small form factor, xDirect is suitable for a variety of markets from security to industrial automation to medical and more.
With the recent downturn in the global economy, countries throughout the world have struggled to celebrate growth opportunities within their various industrial sectors. The medical device market has not been immune to the downturn, but has been able to persevere better than most industries.
Artificial muscles and self-propelled goo may be the stuff of Hollywood fiction, but for UC Santa Barbara scientists Omar Saleh and Deborah Fygenson, the reality of it is not that far away. By blending their areas of expertise, the pair have created a dynamic gel made of DNA that mechanically responds
Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE: MDT), today announced the Japanese regulatory approval and launch of the Advisa DR MRI™ SureScan™ pacing system. The Advisa MRI system is the first and only MR-Conditional pacemaker available to patients in Japan, the world’s second largest market for medical devices.
Excitement around the potential for targeted nanoparticles (NPs) that can be controlled by stimulus outside of the body for cancer therapy has been growing over the past few years. More specifically, there has been considerable attention around near-infrared (NIR) light as an ideal method to stimulate nanoparticles
One of the biggest challenges in immobile patients is bedsores. Because patients usually end up laying in a bed or sitting in a wheelchair, a lot of pressure is exerted on the skin and tissue over bony areas of the body like the heel, ankle, hips, or buttocks. That unrelenting pressure can often result in bedsores, a difficult- to- treat condition.
NASA has been known to make pretty large contributions to society. But they might have outdone themselves on this one. The agency is currently in the research and development phase for a powered armor suit that could one day allow paraplegics to walk. The suit, called X1, is a robotic exoskeleton designed to be worn over the body to assist in leg movements.
The use of electronic health records is linked to significantly higher quality care, according to a new study¹ by Lisa Kern and her team, from the Health Information Technology Evaluation Collaborative in the US. Their work appears online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine², published by Springer.
An independent, nonprofit institute that conducts research about and assesses best practices in patient safety and quality has given one of its premier awards to a group of Johns Hopkins nurses, physicians and engineers that significantly reduced the number of distracting, non-critical bedside alarms
PITTMAN Motors has introduced configurable DC motor 3D model downloads. The 3D model system is an online system through the PITTMAN website (www.Pittman-Motors.com) that allows an engineer to fully configure a DC brush motor with a wide variety of optional components such as planetary and spur gearboxes, brakes, and encoders.
The 2012 Edition of NFPA 99 Healthcare Facilities Code reflects the new format of using a risk-based approach for determining the level of protection. An example is the definition of wet locations. The new code, in absence of any government regulations, gives the responsibility to the governing body of the healthcare organization to designate wet procedure locations.
One of the key achievements of the nanotechnology era is the development of manufacturing technologies that can fabricate nanostructures formed from multiple materials. Such nanometer-scale integration of composite materials has enabled innovations in electronic devices, solar cells, and medical diagnostics.
It sounds like a scene from a TV show: Someone sends a discarded coffee cup to a laboratory where the unwitting drinker's DNA is decoded, predicting what diseases lurk in his or her future.A presidential commission found that's legally possible in about half the states -and says new protections to ensure the privacy of people's genetic
By this point, you’ve probably heard that Felix Baumgartner is planning to skydive from 120,000 feet above the earth. For the record, that’s about 23 miles from solid ground. The jump was originally supposed to happen on October 9, but because of 14 mph wind speeds—they needed speeds of less than 2 mph to jump safely
Researchers have developed an advanced computer simulator to help in decision-making processes (DSS, or decision support system) which could aid emergency service units in their operations management. The model was designed based on real data, using modelling and simulation techniques adapted to each individual.
The world's leading mass spectrometer manufacturers have agreed to license technology that enabled University of Southern California researchers to develop software that, for the first time, allows scientists to easily use and share research data collected across proprietary platforms...
Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka warned patients on Tuesday about unproven "stem cell therapies" offered at clinics and hospitals in a growing number of countries, saying they were highly risky. The Internet is full of advertisements touting stem cell cures for just about any disease...
Almost every patient who enters a hospital can benefit from capnography. It’s a technology that has enabled better patient care through consistent monitoring, with measurement of carbon dioxide output, and feedback on ventilation, metabolism and circulation. Industry recognition of capnography is causing it to spread rapidly throughout the medical world.
A computerized approach to examining patient bone X-rays for diagnosis of osteoporosis could side-step the subjectivity associated with visual examination, allowing for much earlier diagnosis to be made, therefore giving patients the opportunity to be treated more successfully.