Medical Gadgets - SlashGear

‘Medical Gadgets’ Stories

San Antonio surgeons perform first successful robotic throat cancer surgery

Mark Raby, Feb 6th 2012 Discuss [0]

A woman is recovering today after having a cancerous tumor removed from the back of her throat. Actually, there is probably more than one woman in that situation, but not many of them are waking up today without an incision scar somewhere on her head. She's the first successful patient to undergo robotic surgery for throat cancer, and her doctors are optimistic about her prognosis. Read The Full Story

Singapore researchers design crab-shaped cancer-removing robot

Mark Raby, Feb 2nd 2012 Discuss [0]

If you are diagnosed with stomach cancer in the early stages, getting back to full health may be as easy as swallowing a tiny crab. Well, not really a crab, and not really "swallowing," either. But that is the general principle behind a new robotic device, developed in Singapore, that is able to grab cancerous tissue and pull it out of the body. The idea of removing cancer from the stomach without needing to cut open the body is revolutionary. Read The Full Story

Microsoft, U of W Functional Contact Lens set to report blood sugar wirelessly

Chris Burns, Jan 5th 2012 Discuss [1]

The University of Washington and Microsoft Research have released information on a project they've been working on for some time now, one that should, if completed, allow those with diabetes to monitor their glucose levels through special contact lenses. After reporting weeks and weeks of tech news without such a thing, it's nice to write about a medical breakthrough that comes in the form of gadget advancements in such an elegant vehicle as a contact lens. Without a doubt, if such a project can succeed, there's no doubt we're in the future - now we just need a pair that'll allow me to see when a can of caffeine will have the best effect. Read The Full Story

Researchers in Tokyo working on new fluorescent implantable glucose monitor

Shane McGlaun, Aug 19th 2011 Discuss [2]

A group of researchers at the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo have been hard at work trying to perfect a new blood glucose sensor that can be implanted and glows when the blood sugar changes. The sensor is designed for long-term in vivo glucose monitoring. The study on the sensor was published earlier this month. Read The Full Story

Mercedes team buys teen £35K artificial hand

Shane McGlaun, Aug 15th 2011 Discuss [4]

It has been more than a year now since we talked about the awesome high-tech and very expensive artificial limbs made by a company called Touch Bionics. These hands are able to sense the electrical pulses from the muscles in the arm of users and activate artificial bionic hand. The artificial hand is so high-tech that the user can do just about anything they are able to do with a normal hand. Read The Full Story

Hair Follicle Harvesting Robot Approved by FDA

Kevin Fubar, Apr 25th 2011 Discuss [0]

Baldness is one of those things that our capitalist society manages to rail against something fierce. We have foams, drugs, surgeries, and old-wives tales all centered around the dreaded idea of losing your hair. I think hair loss is similar to how silverback gorillas go silver when they're all alpha-male and in-charge. One time I read it had something to do with testosterone. That said, Restoration Robotics just received clearance to market a new robotic system called the ARTAS. It's designed to assist in the hair transplant process by precisely ripping out a hair follicle and storing it until the doc can manually transplant it into the area where the hair is thin. Read The Full Story

Inhalers for asthmatics getting a GPS update

Shane McGlaun, Apr 15th 2011 Discuss [1]

Years back before I became a full time geek I worked in the hospital for over a decade mostly with people that had breathing problems like asthma. The thing with asthma is that the triggers can vary greatly for many people and the first thing you need to do to control your asthma is to figure out what triggers your attacks and avoid it. Read The Full Story

Microsoft Research: Medical Imaging Search Engine

Kevin Fubar, Mar 18th 2011 Discuss [2]

Right now, we're living in a world where we look at more computer generated imagery than anything else. Doctors are reaching a critical point where the amount of medical imagery generated during something like a routine CT scan is daunting to navigate. Kenju Suzuki at the University of Chicago says, "As medical imaging has advanced, so many images are produced that there is a kind of information overload. The workload has grown a lot." Antonio Criminisi leads a group at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, U.K. working on a system that will make it easier for doctors to work with databases of medical imagery. The system indexes the images generated during the scans. It automatically recognizes organs, and they are working to train the system to detect certain kinds of brain tumors. Read The Full Story

Skin Gun Is Star Wars Level Medicine

Rue Liu, Feb 2nd 2011 Discuss [0]

Scientists have developed a skin gun that could radically change the recovery times of burn victims. Doctor Jörg C. Gerlach has developed a spray-on skin gun that operates much like how an airbrush works, only much larger and looking very sci-fi. Read The Full Story

Doctors in Germany Create Swallowable, Remote-Controlled Stomach Submarine

Evan Selleck, Jan 19th 2011 Discuss [2]

Right now, doctors only have a couple of choices when it comes to looking into the human body. Trying to discover a person's ailment in their intestines is tough, as it usually means that an endoscopy has to happen. Inputting a camera, connected to a long cable, down someone's throat isn't always what a patient is looking forward to, and the alternative isn't any better. And while capsules with cameras in them exist today, it's hard for doctors to see what's happening inside, as the movement is controlled by the person's innards. But, doctor's from Germany are looking to change that with a new remote-controlled capsule that can be swallowed. Read The Full Story

Witlings Blood Pressure monitors plugs into your iPhone

Shane McGlaun, Jan 5th 2011 Discuss [0]

You might recognize the Withings name as the company that introduced that cool scale back in late 2009 that works with an iPhone app to track your weight and can tweet your weight if you want. Withings is back with another new health related gadget for the iPhone called the Withings Blood Pressure Monitor. Read The Full Story

ECG device connects to your iPhone to keep track of heart

Shane McGlaun, Dec 31st 2010 Discuss [2]

We always see some crazy gadgets at CES and sometimes the ones that sound really odd can be the most help to a few out there. Take this new gadget for the iPhone that will be showing up at CES next month. It comes from a company called Alivecor and it is an ECG system for the iPhone made in partnership with Oregon Scientific. Read The Full Story