Medical

Time may not heal all wounds, but a proprietary mix of peptides and gel developed by U of T Engineering researchers heals most. A team led by Professor Milica Radisic has demonstrated for the first time that their peptide-hydrogel biomaterial prompts skin cells to "crawl" toward one another, closing chronic, non-healing wounds often associated with diabetes, such as bed sores and foot ulcers.

At electronica, imec Holst Centre, and TNO have introduced their next-generation health patch. The small form-factor comfortable to wear health patch has been optimised for low power consumption and is the first of its kind to track physical and cardiac activity, while monitoring bioelectrical impedance. A key building block in the pursuit of improved and more accurate mobile health solutions, the patch is available for licensing by partner ...

Leti, an institute of CEA Tech, will demonstrate at CES 2017 a wearable device that takes measurement of brain-activity – alpha waves – out of the clinic and puts it into the hands of consumers. Using electroencephalography (EEG) to record the brain’s alpha-wave activity, the lightweight headgear called RELAX measures the level of alert relaxation with an embedded electrode system that does not require the sensors to be att...

Doctors at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center have implanted a spinal stimulator that is showing early promise in returning hand strength and movement to a California man who broke his neck in a dirt-biking accident five years ago. Brian Gomez, 28, became one of the world's first patients to undergo surgery for the experimental device in June 2016. UCLA scientists positioned the 32-electrode stimulator below the site of Gomez's spinal-co...

Using massive data sets, machine learning, and high-performance computing, health analytics and informatics is drawing us closer to the holy grail of health care: precision medicine, which promises diagnosis and treatment tailored to individual patients. The information, including findings from the latest peer-reviewed studies, will arrive on the desktops and mobile devices of clinicians in health care facilities large and small through a new gen...

Doctors knew long before Owen Webb was born that they were racing against the clock to save his life. Tests had confirmed the developing child suffered from Krabbe disease, a genetic disorder that causes toxins to build up in the nervous system, progressively damaging the brain. Just days after he was delivered, a medical team at Duke University began Owen on nine days of chemotherapy. His body was then infused with stem cell-rich donor...

Researchers led by ETH Professor Martin Fussenegger at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE) in Basel have produced artificial beta cells using a straightforward engineering approach. These pancreatic cells can do everything that natural ones do: they measure the glucose concentration in the blood and produce enough insulin to effectively lower the blood sugar level. The ETH researchers presented their development in the l...

A technique offers better sensitivity and accuracy in detecting an essential biomarker of cancer and inflammatory diseases. Hypochlorous acid HOCl is one of the reactive molecules that our immune system dispatches to attack invading pathogens or potentially harmful irritants. The oxidant is also generated as a result of tissue damage that causes – or even exacerbates – inflammatory diseases such as lung and liver disease, heart a...

Using LED lights flickering at a specific frequency, MIT researchers have shown that they can substantially reduce the beta amyloid plaques seen in Alzheimer’s disease, in the visual cortex of mice. This treatment appears to work by inducing brain waves known as gamma oscillations, which the researchers discovered help the brain suppress beta amyloid production and invigorate cells responsible for destroying the plaques.

A partnership has been announced between Virtual Technology Cluster Group (The VTC Group) and Deloitte, to create a Deloitte Healthcare Virtual Technology Cluster (Deloitte VTC). The Deloitte VTC will aim to advance the digitisation of healthcare providers through improving access to human, digital capabilities and adoption of new technologies.