Emergency Medicine / Military Medicine

Army’s New Standard Issue Individual First Aid Kit

by Gene Ostrovsky on Feb 3, 2012
Army's New Standard Issue Individual First Aid Kit

The U.S. Army has been trying to improve first aid medical response of soldiers in the field, and has developed the latest Individual First Aid Kit, or IFAK, to meet the unique needs that presented themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But the IFAK is bulky and gets in the way of other equipment, so developers at Natick Soldier Systems Center have completely redesigned the pack to store it in the small of the back while making it easily accessible from either side by the soldier injured or another trying to help him.

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GI / Medicine

Check-Cap X-ray Radar Pill Sliding Toward Commercial Introduction

by Gene Ostrovsky on Feb 3, 2012
Check-Cap X-ray Radar Pill Sliding Toward Commercial Introduction

GE has announced investing into an Israeli company called Check-Cap that’s developing swallowable endoscopic capsules for imaging the insides of the GI tract.  Check-Cap seems to be a direct competitor of the better known Given Imaging, also an Israeli firm, that’s been producing its own PillCams for visualizing everything from the esophagus to the small intestine and beyond.

While PillCams use light in the visible spectrum and a traditional image sensor, the Check-Cap delivers low energy X-rays that provide a much different look at the internal anatomy.  Because X-rays penetrate through soft material, food intake shouldn’t be a problem for the device, and all the typical preparation for a GI tract analysis may not have to apply.

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Art

Heart Stop Beating, a Film by Jeremiah Zagar

by Gene Ostrovsky on Feb 3, 2012 •

Drs. Billy Cohn and Bud Frazier at the Texas Heart Institute were faced with a patient last March who’s heart was about to succumb to the point that even a left ventricular assist device wouldn’t be sufficient to keep him alive. Described as a story of “two visionary doctors from the Texas Heart Institute who in March of 2011 successfully replaced a dying man’s heart with a ‘continuous flow’ rotor-driven device of their own design, proving that life was possible without a pulse or a heartbeat,” the film was directed by Jeremiah Zagar, whose feature-length documentary “In A Dream” was nominated for two Emmy’s in 2010.

More from the Texas Heart Institute: Successful Implantation of a Continuous-Flow Total Artificial Heart in a Patient at The Texas Heart Institute

Product page of the devices used in the procedure: The HeartMate II from Thoratec Corporation

Ophthalmology

Next Generation LipiFlow for Evaporative Dry Eye Cleared in U.S.

by Gene Ostrovsky on Feb 3, 2012
Next Generation LipiFlow for Evaporative Dry Eye Cleared in U.S.

TearScience of Morrisville, NC received FDA clearance for the new version of the LipiFlow Thermal Pulsation System for evaporative dry eye. The condition leaves patients with too few tears, making the remaining ones feel too salty. The system heats and massages the eyelids, helping unblock the flow of lipids from the meibomian glands found under the eyelids.

The new generation of LipiFlow provides the ability to two treat both eyes simultaneously, cutting treatment time in half, to about 12 minutes. It also sports a new interface that displays treatment temperature, pressure sequence and treatment time remaining, while recording all the data for easy sharing with the clinic’s electronic medical record system.

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Anesthesiology / Cardiac Surgery / Critical Care / Neurological Surgery / Neurology

Continuous Near-Infrared Regional Cerebral Perfusion Monitoring Shows Promise in Stroke Patients

by Jan Sinnige on Feb 3, 2012
Continuous Near-Infrared Regional Cerebral Perfusion Monitoring Shows Promise in Stroke Patients

Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida have shown that cerebral optically-based near infra-red spectroscopic oximetry applied to patients who have suffered a stroke can help monitor regional cerebral perfusion in real time, and thus “may serve as a useful, noninvasive, bedside intensive care unit monitoring tool to assess brain oxygenation in a direct manner.” The study looked at the device called Fore-Sight from Casmed of Branford, CT, that measures blood oxygen, similar to a finger clip pulse oximeter. The Mayo study results have been published in Journal of Neurosurgery this month.

Regional cerebral blood flow monitoring devices such as Fore-Sight are already in wide deployment in cardiac surgery, where they are thought to prevent brain ischemia in patients undergoing major surgeries on bypass (valve replacements, aortic arch surgeries, etc.).

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Cardiology / Radiology

Boston Sci’s PROMUS Element Plus PtCr Stent Debuts in Europe

by Brian Klein on Feb 2, 2012
Boston Sci’s PROMUS Element Plus PtCr Stent Debuts in Europe

Bostton Scientific has announced the European market launch of the PROMUS Element Plus everolimus-eluting platinum chromium coronary stent. Professor Antonio Colombo, MD, director of the cardiac catheterization lab at Columbus Hospital and San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, recently implanted the first patient in Europe with the device. The stent incorporates platinum chromium (PtCr) alloy and features a catheter delivery system designed to facilitate deliverability in treating patients with coronary artery disease. Boston Scientific plans on marketing the stent in select European and other CE Mark countries immediately. A full market launch will follow in the second quarter of 2012.

“The PtCr alloy and stent architecture used in the Element platform offer significant advantages in conformability and radiopacity compared to other stent platforms,” explained Dr. Colombo in a press release. “I believe the improved deliverability of the PROMUS Element Plus Stent System will add another significant benefit, especially when accessing challenging lesions. This innovative stent is also supported by strong clinical outcomes from the PLATINUM trials, which demonstrated very low rates of revascularization and stent thrombosis at one year.”

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Dentistry

Next Generation DentalVibe Pain Relieving Device Unveiled

by Gene Ostrovsky on Feb 2, 2012
Next Generation DentalVibe Pain Relieving Device Unveiled

A new generation of the DentalVibe dental injection pain relieving device has recently been released.

The new version of the device, which vibrates the gums to drive the brain’s attention away from the pain caused by the injection needle, sports more power, deeper penetration, and a couple other features to make it a more effective tool in the dental office.

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Anesthesiology / Cardiac Surgery / Emergency Medicine / Medicine / Neurological Surgery / Ob/Gyn / Orthopedic Surgery / Plastic Surgery / Surgery / Thoracic Surgery / Urology

Cardinal Health Releases Smart-Seal Surgical Mask

by Gene Ostrovsky on Feb 2, 2012
Cardinal Health Releases Smart-Seal Surgical Mask

Cardinal Health has made available its Smart-Seal surgical mask that improves both its fit and reduces interior fogging while providing a high level of filtration and resistance to liquids.

From the announcement:

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in the news...

NASA’s Smartphone Attachment Smells, Identifies Chemical Compounds

by Gene Ostrovsky on Feb 2, 2012
NASA's Smartphone Attachment Smells, Identifies Chemical Compounds

Gizmodo is profiling work being done at NASA Ames Research Center to develop a mobile phone powered sensor that could be used for a variety of applications from detecting chemical attacks in future military conflicts to testing blood glucose indirectly by measuring acetone in exhaled breath.

The device takes advantage of the same kind of nanosensors that are already in use on the International Space Station detecting chemicals that are effectively dangerous pollutants in the orbiting enclosed space.  It works as an attachment to a smarphone (looks like an iPhone), and we are excited to hopefully one day see this technology built right into the body of the phone to provide basic diagnostic capabilities.

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