With the year 2010 coming to a close, we’ve composed a list of the 10 best new medical technologies and devices of the past twelve months. As part of our job as Medgadget editors, we look at thousands of new products, news stories and press releases and from these we distill the most noteworthy for your reading pleasure. This year our efforts resulted in a total of approximately 1800 posts, so there was no lack of material to choose from for this best of list. Many new devices and technologies were creative, innovative, expected to make a long-lasting impact, and some others were plain silly. Here, in no particular order, are those that clearly stood out this year in a positive way:
GE V-scan Portable Ultrasound
In February, GE introduced its Vscan, a pocket-sized ultrasound device. It changed the definition of portable ultrasound, which previously referred to rather large laptop-sized devices. Despite its small dimensions, the Vscan includes features such as power-doppler, and the device is powerful enough for most applications, including emergency medicine, cardiac and obstetric ultrasounds. Although it is still far too expensive to give out to every doctor in those specialties, it is not hard to envision it becoming a tool as indispensable as the stethoscope one day.
The iPad
The hype around the iPad has not gone unnoticed in the medical world. Previous (medical grade) tablets did not make a significant impact. However, the iPad has sparked a rich collection of medical apps and even some add-on medical devices. We had over 50 posts referring to the iPad one way or another. Highlights include the introduction, the first clinical tests, the first appearance in an operating theater and several great apps including reference apps, radiology viewers and electronic health records. With the iPad 2 expected in 2011 we expect no end to to the stream of news about this wonderful device. Also tablets from competing manufacturers are starting to mature and might stiffen up the competition in the next year.
Artificial life
In May, the J. Craig Venter Institute announced it had for the first time replaced the DNA of a bacterium with a complete set of synthetic DNA. This was the result of 15 years of work, with the aim of creating a living, replicating cell. The process currently still means recreating an existing genome rather than designing one from scratch, and still needs existing cells to put the DNA into. Meanwhile, some living tissues were connected to chips in order to better study them. In June, a living and breathing lung on a chip was announced, with the researchers working on getting other organs connected as well. Other scientists managed to grow individual neurons on microchips and neurons within neural networks got pinned down for study.
Retinal Implant
In March, the company Retina Implant AG from Reutlingen, Germany reported the first results of human trials with the firm’s subretinal electronic chips in blind volunteers. Implantation was successful in 11 patients without any adverse events. In November actual results of the performance of the implant itself in the first three volunteers were published. The previously blind persons could locate bright objects on a dark table and one of them could name objects like a fork or knife and differentiate between various kinds of fruit. After the pacemaker and the cochlear implant, this may well be the next electronic device to be widely implanted in patients.
Hemolung Respiratory Dialysis
Mechanical ventilation is often a life-saving intervention in critically-ill patients. However, it has some serious drawbacks, including the need for sedation, the risk of ventilator associated pneumonia, and intubation or tracheostomy related complications. ALung Technologies’ Hemolung overcomes many of these drawbacks by using dialysis to perform respiratory gas exchange in a process similar to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. During therapy, the patient can stay awake, allowing him to eat and communicate. In February, the first patient was successfully treated with the device, and clinical trials are currently underway. If successful, this could revolutionize the practice of medicine in the ICU.
Ardian Symplicity
The best innovations are simple and effective, and these criteria both seem to apply to the Symplicity catheter system.
In addition, it targets one of the most common chronic conditions affecting the western population: hypertension. By reducing or eliminating the sympathetic innervation of the renal arteries, it reduces both the pathologic central sympathetic drive to the kidney and the renal contribution to central sympathetic hyperactivity. In an initial clinical trial, the procedure reduced blood pressure by 30/10 mmHg without causing any serious complications. A one time catheter treatment versus lifetime-long treatment with antihypertensive drugs might be a realistic choice soon.
Telemedicine
Telemedicine has been a promise for many years, slowly coming to fruition. This year some significant leaps were made. Airstrip technologies, which previously released a remote obstetric monitoring app, in August released remote critical care and cardiology monitoring solutions for the iPhone. Basically, it gives you a vital signs monitor for any connected ICU or cardiac patient right in your pocket. Meanwhile, Littmann keeps improving its teleauscultation offering, adding scope-to-scope teleauscultation. On the treatment front, we saw the first remote cardiac catheterization, transcontinental anesthesia and all-robotic surgery and anesthesia.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
MRI is one of the most advanced diagnostic techniques in clinical use. It is still undergoing rapid development giving rise to new applications, better image quality and shorter acquisition times. A few of the highlights this year were real-time MRI of moving organs, further digitalization of the hardware, combined PET/MRI devices and, as the most curious of all, a live birth within an MRI scanner.
Skin Bioprinting for Burn Wounds
Burn wounds are something that modern medicine has not yet found many effective treatments for yet. However, this year we saw a device that could print skin grafts to cover the burn wounds, accelerating recovery and minimizing scar tissue. The prototype device was tested on artificially created full-thickness skin wounds in nude mice, resulting in much faster wound recovery.
General Purpose Pathogen Detector
Identifying the causative organism of an infection often takes several days, while broad spectrum antibiotics are given in the meantime. The Lawrence Livermore Microbial Detection Array might change all that. It promises to detect about 2,000 viruses and 900 bacteria within 24 hours. Current methods are limited to detecting any from about 50 organisms in one test. And the next-generation of the device is already in development, with 2.1 million probes, able to detect thousands of bacteria and viruses and in addition thousands of fungi and about 75 protozoa.
That’s it! If we missed anything, the comments section is open for your additions. With this list, we wrap up the year 2010. In 2011 we will be back with more news and some major improvements to our website. We wish you all a happy new year!
Archives: 12/2010
As this year is about to enter history books, all of us here at Medgadget wish you a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year! Thank you for your readership and support, and we’ll continue bringing you the latest in medical technologies from across the world.
– Medgadget Editors
Seattle, Washington based Alivecor will be showing off its new iPhonECG system at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The company has partnered with Oregon Scientific to manufacture the units, which are expected to sell for under $100 a piece.
Link: AliveECG…
Blinput Turns Smartphones Into Navigation, Interaction Tools for Blind Persons
by on Dec 30, 2010 • 10:56 amBlinput is an idea for a context aware information system that blind people would use to navigate and interact with the outside world. Though super futuristic looking, the it seems possible that we’ll be seeing such technology become commercialized in the near future.
Link: Blinput…
Flashback: Android Smartphone Apps Help Blind Navigate Around
(hat tip: Core77)
An international team of researchers has developed a rather reliable test that predicts the future improvement of reading abilities in dyslexic kids. The method uses functional MRI and diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI) to scan the brain, and data crunching software to interpret the data. The researchers hope that the finding will help parents and therapists uniquely identify which learning tools are best for each child.
From the announcement by Vanderbilt University :
The 45 children who took part in the study ranged in age from 11 to 14 years old. Each child first took a battery of tests to determine their reading abilities. Based on these tests, the researchers classified 25 children as having dyslexia, which means that they exhibited significant difficulty learning to read despite having typical intelligence, vision and hearing and access to typical reading instruction.
During the fMRI scan, the youths were shown pairs of printed words and asked to identify pairs that rhymed, even though they might be spelled differently. The researchers investigated activity patterns in a brain area on the right side of the head, near the temple, known as the right inferior frontal gyrus, noting that some of the children with dyslexia activated this area much more than others. DTI scans of these same children revealed stronger connections in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus, a network of brain fibers linking the front and rear of brain.
When the researchers once again administered the reading test battery to the youths two and a half years later, they found that the 13 youths showing the stronger activation pattern in the right inferior frontal gyrus were much more likely to have compensated for their reading difficulty than were the remaining 12 youths with dyslexia. When they combined the most common forms of data analysis across the fMRI and DTI scans, they were able to predict the youths’ outcomes years later with 72 percent accuracy.
The researchers then adapted algorithms used in artificial intelligence research to refine the brain activity data to create models that would predict the children’s later progress. Using this relatively new technique, the researchers could use the brain scanning data collected at the beginning of the study to predict with over 90 percent accuracy which children would go on to improve their reading skills two and a half years later.
In contrast, the battery of standardized, paper-and-pencil tests typically used by reading specialists did not aid in predicting which of the children with dyslexia would go on to improve their reading ability years later.
Link: Brain imaging predicts future reading progress in children with dyslexia…
Open access article in PNAS: Neural systems predicting long-term outcome in dyslexia
Drifting into a peaceful slumber in a city apartment can be a difficult task. Ear plugs can help with the aural side of things, but street light pouring through the windows can mess up the body clock. The LUMI Mask is an idea, just weeks away from a functional prototype, to both provide darkness during sleep and gentle light when waking up.
LUMI is molded from soft neoprene foam, forming an eye cavity to allow for normal blinking and circulation. An adjustable strap allows you to comfortably adjust the mask to fit your face. LUMI’s lightweight design comfortably conforms to your face and the interior is made from soft satin fabric. LED substrate is sewn into the inside of the mask, providing a soft light source for the sunrise sequence. An alarm controller allows you to set your wake time and the light intensity.
We are designing LUMI to be compatible with the iPhone and other mobile devices. The LUMI+ model has a receiver that will allow you to set your wake up time from your mobile device.
Link: LUMI Mask…
While Braille can give the blind the ability to read, much of the text one encounters is not available in Braille (and our increasing dependence on touch-screen smartphones isn’t helping). Two students at the University of Washington hope to solve this problem with their concept device, which they have termed the “Thimble”. The Thimble contains a fingertip camera and an electro-tactile grid which can read text and convert it to touch sensitive Braille. The device can also interface with a user’s smartphone via Bluetooth for reading online content.
Source: “Thimble”: Another smartphone enabled concept for the visually impaired
(hat tip: Engadget)
Researchers from Purdue University and NIST have developed new technology for detection of biomarkers in breath with sensitivity approaching only few parts per billion:
The technology works by detecting changes in electrical resistance or conductance as gases pass over sensors built on top of “microhotplates,” tiny heating devices on electronic chips. Detecting biomarkers provides a record of a patient’s health profile, indicating the possible presence of cancer and other diseases.
The researchers used the technology to detect acetone, a biomarker for diabetes, with a sensitivity in the parts per billion range in a gas mimicking a person’s breath.
The researchers used a template made of micron-size polymer particles and coated them with far smaller metal oxide nanoparticles. Using nanoparticle-coated microparticles instead of a flat surface allows researchers to increase the porosity of the sensor films, increasing the “active sensing surface area” to improve sensitivity.
A droplet of the nanoparticle-coated polymer microparticles was deposited on each microhotplate, which are about 100 microns square and contain electrodes shaped like meshing fingers. The droplet dries and then the electrodes are heated up, burning off the polymer and leaving a porous metal-oxide film, creating a sensor.
Gases passing over the device permeate the film and change its electrical properties depending on the particular biomarkers contained in the gas.
Full story at Purdue: Purdue, NIST working on breathalyzers for medical diagnostics…
The typical course for a patient with a “diabetic foot” generally ends with a trip to the operating room to have it removed. However, at last month’s meeting of the International Cellular Medicine Society, it was announced that a patient with gangrene of the foot related to diabetes was able to avoid amputation through the use of adult-derived stem cells.
The patient, a 72-year old man from South Korea, had the classic podiatric complications of diabetes, including change of color, necrotic tissue, and deep wounds. Apparently, he was about to undergo an amputation of the affected extremity when he was referred to a South Korean company, RNL Bio, that took stem cells from the patient himself and infused about 300 million of them into each foot.
The results are quite remarkable :
"Just 10 days after Cho’s stem cell injection, there was 70-80% improvement in pus and wounds; an improvement of 90% was exhibited 20 days later. As the wounds began to heal, the pain and tingling was no longer evident. "
Dr. Jeong Chan Ra, Chairman of RNL Bio stated, "In cases like Cho’s condition, patients can gain hope through stem cell therapy rather than facing the worst case scenario of having to get one’s leg amputated. There is continuous hope until the day comes where stem cell therapy will be available to anyone worldwide."
RNL Bio has conducted Phase II clinical trials using adult-derived stem cells for Buerger’s disease, osteoarthritis and one Phase I trial for spinal cord injury.
Press release: New Hope for Saving Diabetic Foot from Amputation…
Company page: RNL Bio…
