Tag: Featured

  • Teleneurology for remote, underserved populations

    Teleneurology for remote, underserved populations

    Neurodegenerative disease cases have, unfortunately, far outpaced the number of neurologists able to diagnose and treat patients, particularly in rural areas. A recent study highlighted 20 states that were or would become “dementia neurology deserts,” Remote tele-neurology is being introduced to fill the gap. The American Academy of Neurology has announced a new curriculum to train students and…

  • Robot “patients” for medical research, training

    Robot “patients” for medical research, training

    In addition to robots with increasingly human-like faces, being used as companions, “patient” robots are being developed to test medical equipment and procedures on babies and adults. Yoshio Matsumoto  and AIST colleagues created a robotic skeletal structure of the lower half of the body, with 22 moveable joints.  Its skeleton is made of metal, and its skin,…

  • Prosthetic “skin” senses force, vibration

    Prosthetic “skin” senses force, vibration

    Jonathan Posner, with University of Washington and UCLA colleagues, has developed a flexible sensor “skin” that can be stretched over prostheses to determine force and vibration. The skin mimics the way a human finger responds to tension and compression, as it slides along a surface or distinguishes among different textures. This could allow users to sense when…

  • VR + neurofeedback for movement training after stroke

    VR + neurofeedback for movement training after stroke

    USC’s Sook-Lei Liew is using VR to help motor-impaired stroke patients promote brain plasticity. The goal is to train them to move their limbs again. Her REINVENT study  uses BCI to control an avatar. Electrical signatures of brain activity are meaured with EEG, and muscle activity with EMG. When signals in brain or muscle activity that correspond…

  • Pressure sensors generated from pattern-forming bacteria

    Pressure sensors generated from pattern-forming bacteria

    Paul Ruffin Scarborough, Stefan Zauscher, and Duke colleagues have programmed bacteria with a synthetic gene circuit to turn them into working devices. As a bacterial colony grows into the shape of a hemisphere, the gene circuit triggers the production of a protein, to distribute within the colony, that recruits inorganic materials. Gold nanoparticles enable  the…

  • Video: Boston VC’s on funding digital health innovation

    Video: Boston VC’s on funding digital health innovation

    Video:  Flare Capital’s Bill Geary, Bessemer’s Steve Kraus, Oak HC/FT’s Nancy Brown, and Optum Ventures’ Michael Weintraub on funding and commercializing innovation. Recorded at ApplySci’s Digital Health + Neurotech conference at the MIT Media Lab, September 19, 2017 Join ApplySci at Wearable Tech + Digital Health + Neurotech Silicon Valley on February 26-27, 2018 at…

  • Ingestible, flexible sensor to diagnose gastrointestinal disorders

    Ingestible, flexible sensor to diagnose gastrointestinal disorders

    Canan Dagdeviren, Giovanni Traverso, Bob Langer, and MIT and Brigham and Women’s colleagues have built a swallowable, flexible sensor that adheres to the stomach wall or intestinal lining to measure digestive track contractions.  It could be used to help diagnose gastrointestinal disorders or to monitor food intake. The piezoelectric device generates a current and voltage when…

  • Sensor-embedded prosthetic monitors gait, detects infection

    Sensor-embedded prosthetic monitors gait, detects infection

    Jerome Lynch, with ONR and Walter Reed researchers, has developed a “smart” prosthetic leg, with embedded sensors that monitor a wearer’s gait, the condition of the device, and the risk of infection. The Monitoring OsseoIntegrated Prostheses uses a limb which includes a titanium fixture surgically implanted into the femur. Bone grows at the implant’s connection…

  • Piezoelectric sensor determines antibiotic efficacy in 1 hour

    Piezoelectric sensor determines antibiotic efficacy in 1 hour

    Ward Johnson and NIST colleagues have developed a piezoelectric sensor to rapidly determine whether an antibiotic combats an infection. Quartz-crystal resonators, with varying vibrations, measure surface particle changes, to quickly sense mechanical fluctuations of bacterial cells and changes induced by an antibiotic.  Results are provided in less than an hour.  Current antimicrobial tests require days…

  • Radar monitor uses appliances to track health wirelessly

    Radar monitor uses appliances to track health wirelessly

    Toru Sato and Kyoto University and Panasonic colleagues have refined a wireless, radar-based  vital measuring device they developed last year. The original sensor combined a radar with signal analysis algorithms to measure how the body moves as the heart beats. Software filters isolated the heart’s minute motions while the body moved.  However it was extremely…

  • Implanted vagus nerve stimulator partially reverses vegetative state

    Implanted vagus nerve stimulator partially reverses vegetative state

    A person described as being in a vegetative state for 15 years showed partial signs of consciousness after a vagus nerve stimulator was implanted.  University de Lyon’s Angele Sirigu led the research. This challenges the belief that those unconscious for more than 12 months could not be revived.   It also poses a potential challenge…

  • App uses phone’s camera to monitor heart health

    App uses phone’s camera to monitor heart health

    Mory Gharib and Caltech colleagues have developed an app which uses a phone camera to monitor heart health.  When held to the neck, it infers  the left ventricular ejection fraction  of the heart by measuring the amount that the carotid artery displaces the skin of the neck as blood pumps through it. According to Gharib:”What is…