Posts by: Scott Jung

FCC Proposes Allocating Wireless Spectrum Band Exclusively for Medical Devices

by Scott Jung on May 21, 2012

Wireless medical devices might receive a little more love, thanks to a proposal from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission that was unveiled last week that would set aside the 2.36-2.40 gHz band for exclusive use by Medical Body Area Network (MBAN) devices. The goal, of course, would be that physicians would be able to remotely monitor a patient at home or in the hospital using wireless sensors attached to the body, giving patients the mobility to move around and doctors the ability to provide care while physically away from their patients.

According to the FCC, the specific benefits of the spectrum allocation are:

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UCSD Electronic Wireless Tattoo Receives Grant from the Gates Foundation

by Scott Jung on May 18, 2012

Last week, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced its latest round of grant winners for its Grand Challenges Explorations initiative. Among the recipients is a team from the University of California, San Diego and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that is developing a tiny, flexible fetal monitor. We wrote about the technology behind the device back in August and were able to hear from David Icke, CEO of MC10, the company helping to commercialize it, at both FutureMed in February and at last month’s TEDMED conference.

Described as an electronic “tattoo”, the device is a wearable patch of circuits, sensors, and wireless transmitters that sticks to the skin like a temporary tattoo and is able to stretch and flex with the skin. The researchers hope that the final product will continuously measure and monitor uterine contractions, fetal heart rate and oxygen, and maternal heart rate and body temperature.

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FlexLeg Gives Users With Lower-Leg Injuries Increased Mobility (videos)

by Scott Jung on May 17, 2012

Ask anyone who’s ever had to spend part of their life hobbling around on crutches, and they’ll probably agree that it’s a chore. Running, let alone anything faster than a brisk walk, is out of the picture, and ascending or descending stairs becomes an adventure.

A new product, called FlexLeg, from a couple of mechanical engineers from Brigham Young University in Utah, seeks to make life with an injured lower leg a little less burdensome. Looking somewhat like the Cheetah Flex-Foot prostheses that Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius uses, FlexLeg is a hands-free alternative for people with temporary lower-leg injuries to help them walk with a more natural rhythm than using crutches, and for those always on the go, the ability to even run.

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F Cubed’s Pathogen Detector Will Make Swimming Holes Safer This Summer

by Scott Jung on May 17, 2012

During our recent tour of Northeast Indiana, we had the opportunity to visit F Cubed (F3), a startup supported by the Innovation Park at Notre Dame. F3 is developing a portable device that allows for rapid detection of DNA of harmful pathogens in under 30 minutes.

We’ve written about a number of similar lab-on-chip detectors, but what sets the F3 system apart is its biochip technology. F3′s biochip, which is smaller than the size of a thumbnail, allows for the detection of multiple pathogens without the use of expensive and complicated optical devices. According to F3,

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Device Manufacturing 101: Orthopedic Implants and Instruments

by Scott Jung on May 16, 2012

We’re constantly giving you the scoop on the latest in orthopedic devices from our clinical and design perspective, but have you ever wondered about the steps that go into manufacturing these devices? There’s a lot of work in the process that turns an idea into an actual physical product, and often times it’s something we don’t think about.

During our recent trip to Northeast Indiana, we had the opportunity to visit a number of manufacturing sites and learn the high-tech processes and technology that go into producing orthopedic implants and instruments. Here’s how it works!

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An Update on Altapure’s Ultrasonic Clinical Environment Sterilization System

by Scott Jung on May 16, 2012

Back in February, we wrote about Altapure‘s adaptation of military sonar technology to sterilize clinical environments. During our recent trip to northeast Indiana, we had the opportunity to visit Altapure’s home on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.

Since our last mention, Altapure has been able to not only get their product on the market, but is already working on a newer version of the device that clocks in at 1/3 the size of the current model but has the same power.

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A Jet Tour of Northeast Indiana’s Medical Device Hub

by Scott Jung on May 14, 2012

This past week, Medgadget was invited to take a tour of Northeast Indiana, a region of ten counties surrounding and encompassing the city of Fort Wayne. You might already know about Warsaw, about 30 miles from Fort Wayne, as the headquarters for DePuy, Biomet, Zimmer, and a number of other companies that make the city the leading orthopedic device leader in the world. However, the rest of Northeast Indiana has also been evolving into a thriving medical device manufacturing hub, as labor is available, land is plentiful, and the region is very open and friendly toward the medical device manufacturing industry. In fact, according to the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, our host for the two day tour, the region has consistently been a leader in terms of dollars invested and jobs created in the industry. Over two days, we toured a number of different companies and talked to a number of executives about what makes their businesses successful and why they’re at a good place being in Northeast Indiana.

Our first stop was Micropulse, a contract manufacturer of implants and instruments for a number of large medical device clients. Micropulse was originally founded to produce parts for the automotive industry, but in the early 2000′s, founder and CEO Brian Emerick saw his business growing stagnant, and so he switched to medical devices and has never looked back since. What’s interesting about Micropulse is that its facilities are also headquarters to the OrthoVation Center, a new incubator for Emerick’s other medical product ventures. The OrthoVation Center currently is home to four companies: Del Palma Orthopedics, Nanovis, BioSpine, and Sites Medical.

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SOCOM Deploys NeuroTracker System to Improve Commandos’ Cognitive Abilities (video)

by Scott Jung on May 14, 2012

The U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) recently announced plans to deploy CogniSens‘ NeuroTracker system to “improve situational awareness, multiple target tracking and decision making efficiency of soldiers as it relates to combat.” While NeuroTracker isn’t the military’s first computer-based training system, it is the first one that doesn’t involve simulated combat environments.

The premise is simple: the user sits in front of a 3D screen displaying eight moving balls and is then instructed to follow four of the balls for eight minutes, with the remaining four acting as decoys. As the game progresses, it becomes more complex and faster paced. The principle behind the game, according to CogniSens, is that “the brain structurally rewires itself if stimulated intensively and repeatedly…the same way muscle cells improve with physical conditioning.”

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Disney’s Research Arm Develops Technology to Turn Any Surface Into a Touch Sensor (video)

by Scott Jung on May 10, 2012

We’re all fairly familiar with “Imagineering”, Disney‘s R&D branch that develops cutting-edge theme park technology and showcases the latest in moviemaking, but it’s a little known fact that the Mouse House also runs Disney Research, a group that develops technology that isn’t necessarily entertainment related.

Their latest bit of Disney magic is Touché, a technology that greatly enhances touch sensing capabilities making iPads and Androids already feel so 2012. Touché works by turning practically anything into a touch-sensitive interface, including the human body and liquids. All that’s required is a special electrode placed on the object, which in turn becomes a touch-sensitive surface, and a single wire connected to a computer. But Touché goes beyond creating touch-sensitive surfaces; multi-touch and gestures can also be used, which opens a lot of potential interactive applications.

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Ever since Scott had an atresia surgically repaired at age 5, he has been fascinated with the field of medical science. Combining his love of consumer electronics and technology with medicine, Scott pursued a degree in biomedical engineering, earning a bachelor’s degree in 2009 from the University of Southern California. In addition to blogging, Scott enjoys traveling, serving at his church, keeping current on the latest in consumer technology, and proudly cheering on the USC Trojans.

Scott is currently looking for an engineering or marketing position at an innovative and dynamic medical device company. Interested in talking more? Email him at scott@medgadget.com

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