No one that has to wear an insulin pump is terribly excited by it, but parents of a Canadian boy with Type 1 diabetes managed to turn lemon into lemonade by tattooing pumps onto their own bodies in a show of camaraderie.  Berci Mesko over at ScienceRoll proposes this as the cutest story of the year and we tend to agree.  How often does one see Medtronic devices on tattoos?

Full story from The Canadian Press: Parents get insulin-pump tattoos to support diabetic son

(hat tip: ScienceRoll)

Hip replacement surgery has become a common procedure for people in advanced stages of arthritis, but the implants that are used continue to suffer from relatively short lifetimes that often lead to further surgeries. A central mystery of their failure has been the nature of the lubricating layer that forms on both the ball and socket of the joint. Metal-on-metal implants have demonstrated lower wear than metal-on-polymer devices and can be made with larger femoral heads to prevent dislocations, but the reason for the extended lifetime has not been clear.

Now researchers at Northwestern University, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, and the University of Duisburg-Essen Germany have reported in the journal Science that, unlike previously thought, graphitic carbon seems to be a key ingredient in the lubricating layer that forms around the implants.  This surprising discovery should help implant designers develop longer lasting devices that take advantage of the graphitic carbon lubricant.

Earlier research by team members Alfons Fischer at the University of Duisburg-Essen and Markus Wimmer at Rush University Medical Center discovered that a lubricating layer forms on metallic joints as a result of friction. Once formed, the layer reduces friction as well as wear and corrosion. This layer is called a tribological layer and is where the sliding takes place, much like how an ice skate slides not on the ice but on a thin layer of water.

But, until now, researchers did not know what the layer was. (It forms on the surfaces of both the ball and the socket.) It had been assumed that the layer was made of proteins or something similar in the body that got into the joint and adhered to the implant’s surfaces.

The interdisciplinary team studied seven implants that were retrieved from patients for a variety of reasons. The researchers used a number of analytical tools, including electron and optical microscopies, to study the tribological layer that formed on the metal parts. (An electron microscope uses electrons instead of light to image materials.)

The electron-energy loss spectra, a method of examining how the atoms are bonded, showed a well-known fingerprint of graphitic carbon. This, together with other evidence, led the researchers to conclude that the layer actually consists primarily of graphitic carbon, a well-established solid lubricant, not the proteins of natural joints.

Press release: Hips that Function Better and Last Longer

Abstract in Science: Graphitic Tribological Layers in Metal-on-Metal Hip Replacements

Studying the growth of nerve cells is a difficult proposition because one has to isolate them from surrounding tissue and then analyze the very fine slices under the microscope. This process can be time consuming and prone to mistakes and errors.

An international team of researchers headed by neurobiologists at Max-Planck-Institut für Neurobiologie have developed a method of making the spinal cord transparent so that slicing and their 3D reconstruction is not necessary.

Details from the announcement:

Spinal cord tissue is opaque due to the fact that the water and the proteins contained in it refract light differently. Thus, the scientists removed the water from a piece of tissue and replaced it by an emulsion that refracts light in exactly the same way as the proteins. This left them with a completely transparent piece of tissue. “It’s the same effect as if you were to spread honey onto textured glass”, Ali Ertürk, the study’s first author adds. The opaque pane becomes crystal clear as soon as the honey has compensated for the surface irregularities. The new method is a leap forward in regeneration research. By using fluorescent dyes to stain individual nerve cells, scientists can now trace their path from all angels in an otherwise transparent spinal cord section. This enables them to ascertain once and for all whether or not these nerve cells recommenced their growth following injury to the spine – an essential prerequisite for future research.

Link: Scientists succeed in making the spinal cord transparent

Researchers at University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign developed an amazing little bandage, which they call a “microvascular stamp”, that promotes angiogenesis while guiding exactly where the vessels should go.

It is imbued with living cells, positioned in a defined pattern, that release growth factors around a wound and cause vessels to grow where intended.  The study will be appearing in next month’s issue of Advanced Materials.

From the announcement:

The stamp is nearly 1 centimeter across and is built of layers of a hydrogel made of polyethylene glycol (an FDA-approved polymer used in laxatives and pharmaceuticals) and methacrylic alginate (an edible, Jell-O-like material).

The stamp is porous, allowing small molecules to leak through, and contains channels of various sizes to direct the flow of larger molecules, such as growth factors.

The researchers tested the stamp on the surface of a chicken embryo. After a week the stamp was removed, revealing a network of new blood vessels that mirrored the pattern of the channels in the stamp.

The researchers see many potential applications for the new stamp, from directing the growth of blood vessels around a blocked artery, to increasing the vascularization of tissues with poor blood flow, to “normalizing” blood vessels that feed a tumor to improve the delivery of anti-cancer drugs. Enhancing the growth of new blood vessels in a coordinated pattern after surgery may also reduce recovery time and lessen the amount of scar tissue, the researchers said.

Link: Team designs a bandage that spurs, guides blood vessel growth

(hat tip: CNet)

Medgadget has been featuring a large number of medical apps and their developers over the last year – apps that are slowly changing the delivery and quality of healthcare in their own way. One such company is eMedia Interactive, a medical education app publisher based in Galway in the West of Ireland, with a strong focus on user-centered design. eMedia’s flagship product, Pocket Body, is a detailed 3D anatomy learning app, which we have been following at Medgadget since its release in 2010.

We visited eMedia’s headquarters earlier this month to catch up with CEO Mark Campbell and members of their interaction design team (who supplied a unique team photo just for Medgadget) to find out a little bit more about what’s involved in producing their intuitive and content rich anatomy apps. As a holiday season/New Year token of goodwill, and to coincide with our MedGadget feature, Mark and his team are offering a 50% discount for the Pocket Body for the iPad (normally $29.99) and iPhone (normally $19.99) until early January on the iTunes store.

Medgadget: Where did the idea for Pocket Body come from?

Mark Campbell: The idea for Pocket Body came about while getting to know, understand and observe how medical students, healthcare professionals, and the general public learn, communicate and visualize the complexities of the human body.

Our team’s background stems from multimedia design and development for university schools of medicine, private medical companies and hospitals. With the emergence of the iOS, it was a nice next step for us to migrate from creating detailed 3D animations and web-based medical eLearning courseware for our healthcare clients, to publishing our own unique suite of mobile medical education apps.

Medgadget: What is the major primary and secondary markets Pocket Body is targeting and how is it benefiting these end-users?

Mark Campbell: Our primary market is the medical student seeking an intuitive anatomy study aid. Our app is hugely popular with this cohort. We’ve also found it interesting to learn that this group use the app a lot in informal learning settings – i.e. using our multiple choice quizzes for self-testing and revision when on a coffee break, waiting for a bus or taking the subway.

Outside of this core group we are noticing increased inte

rest and use from residents looking to refresh their gross anatomy while working in a clinical setting.

Lastly, we regularly receive feedback from healthcare professionals who are using Pocket Body to engage with their patients when communicating a diagnosis. Instead of pointing to a wall chart or plastic model, they are using our app. Furthermore, not only do patients better understand their diagnosis, but they also find it easier to relay their condition to their families.

What is common to each of these groups is that they all share an interest in visualizing the human body.

Medgadget: You have mentioned user-centered design as a core value for eMedia. How do you carry out your end user validation of your products?

Mark Campbell: We see ourselves as being different in that we co-develop with medical students and professionals for medical students and professionals. In the creation of Pocket Body, we deliberately set out to engage with our primary audience – the medical student. We worked with groups of medical students to show us how they currently learn anatomy and what resources they use (i.e. flash cards, study notes, highlighter pens, video, cadaver lab notes, online quizzes, as well as existing web and mobile apps.) We discussed the positive and negative aspects across ea

ch resource and wondered, “…how can we bring about something meaningful and beautiful, that will complement these learning behaviors, and create a powerfully engaging learning experience using this new iOS technology?”

The validation process began in 2009 with our continued close relationships with local and US-based medical students and professionals, and has continued through the daily feedback we receive, enabling us to push out meaningful updates to our community of users worldwide. In 16 months, this community has benefited from nine major updates to our Pocket Body app, with 90% of these changes emanating from medical practitioners’ and students’ feedback and suggestions. With each update freely available, it’s a “win-win” for all concerned. Many of our new users hear about us through word-of-mouth from existing users who are pleased to see us responding to the community’s collective needs.

Medgadget: How do you develop the models and content for you products?

Mark Campbell: Content and models within our apps are developed both in-house as well as licensed externally.

Medgadget: What is the challenge for the relatively small team at eMedia in producing such significant products to a wide audience?

Mark Campbell: Our unique mix of pedagogy, medical expertise, software development and user-centered design works really well for us, as it allows us to build in the individual feedback we receive into our user-centered design and agile software development processes.

We are in a growth stage right now, and our major challenge is to continue to make advancements, while maintaining our creative dynamic and user-centered spirit. We also want to continue to work with our community of users in developing first-class medical education software…but these are nice challenges to have.

Medgadget: Where would you see eMedia Interactive and Pocket Body 2-3 years from now?

Mark Campbell: I think the introduction of game-based learning, gamification techniques, and social learning technologies into the medical education sphere is where things are going. We want to be there too, as that’s where we see medical education moving towards in the coming years.

We love what we do and if we can still get the same satisfaction out of what we do in 3 years’ time, as a creative company, punching above our weight, building beautiful and meaningful medical education apps, then great!

Link: Pocket Anatomy…