The robot, named da Vinci, was employed at the San Anotonio Methodist Hospital. Dr. Nathan Hales performed the surgery, which involves inserting the tiny robot into the patient’s mouth and then remotely controlling it with a sophisticated computer terminal. He said instead of being admitted to the hospital for 7-10 days, the patient will likely be ready to leave in as little as three days.

In addition, she was able to eat and drink almost as normal within the next day. Patients of traditional throat cancer surgeries have to wait for up to a week before that’s possible. “As a head and neck surgeon, having one more tool or one more method that we can address these cancers, it’s advantageous for all of us. It gives us one more way to provide hope and help for patients,” Hales said.

[via KENS]

It’s not just anecdotal to say the robot looks like a crab. The story goes that inventors Lawrence Ho and Louis Phee came up with the idea after eating seafood and realizing how masterful crabs were at using their pincers to grab the most precise objects. The robot, which has similar pincers to grab the infected area, also contains a tiny camera that allows the surgeon to remotely operate the procedure.

To get into the patient, it goes down through their mouth and takes the same track that any other object would take to get to the stomach. If you can “stomach” that, then this procedure could be the next big thing in robotic surgery. It has already been used on upwards of five patients in Asia. At this point, it appears the crab-robot cancer-remover will be commercially available in around three years.

[via Medgadget]

There’s a promotional video for this project that you’ll be able to see below, and the folks at Gizmag had a talk with Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research Connections Desney Tan to see what they’re all about. This isn’t the first set of experimental contact lenses that’d be able to help out those with diabetes make their life simpler, but it’s certainly the most advanced. As Tan notes:

“There are now various groups working on non-invasive measurement of tear glucose. Professor Zhang’s lab has been largely using nanostructured optical probes embedded in hydrophilic hydrogen lenses, and they’ve had some successes recently. This required a whole new engineering process, since traditional integrated circuit processes would not work. …

[We've] only begun to scratch the surface of the opportunities that exist with this type of platform. The most important challenge is really in the deep exploration of all the things not yet imagined with this platform, and new platforms enabled by this new-found capability to create other technology of this form.” – Tan

This project is creating what they’ve tentatively named Functional Contact Lenses, and within them is an enzyme which interacts with tear fluid. As the enzyme reacts, specific measurements are made as changes in current occur, this monitoring done by bio-compatible electrodes on the lens. As this project creeps ever closer to completion, Tan notes that its certainly possible that “as soon as everything is ready” the first models will report information wirelessly to a device inside its range, a device which “could be an augmented smart phone.” We’ll see about that!

[via Gizmag]

The photo above is the researchers implanting the sensor into the ear of a bald test mouse. The photo in the gallery of the angry mouse shows the sensor in the mouse ear glowing in response to blood sugar. The new sensor is made of a glucose-responsive fluorescent hydrogel encapsulated in a fiber structure. The fiber is 1mm in diameter and is designed to be easily injected under the skin and removed with tweezers.

In testing on mice, the sensor was found to be accurate and stable for up to 140 days. The team is working on further calibration and testing of the sensor. The goal is to create a sensor that can be implanted of the long term for continuous glucose monitoring. I think many diabetics will agree that a sensor like this is much more appealing than sticking themselves with lancets several times a day.

[via Medgadget]

A 14-year-old boy named Matthew James was born with a congenital defect that meant his left arm only developed to the wrist. The teen sent a letter to Ross Brawn, the head of the Mercedes F1 team and offered to allow the team to advertise on his bionic hand if they would pay the £35,000 that the hand costs.

The teen’s letter was “intelligent and moving” according to Mercedes so they contracted with Touch Bionics to get the boy a custom i-LIMB Pulse artificial hand. The teen says that he can do just about anything with the new hand and that his old hand only had a simple close and release mechanism. The hand is even Bluetooth enabled to allow the teen to connect the limb to his computer to control the strength and speed of the hand. Each of the fingers on the hand is powered by its own motor.

[via Telegraph]

First off, who thought it would be a good idea to program a robot to literally gouge needles into someone’s scalp, ripping out their hair one strand at a time? I know that’s not something I would ever think about, ever. This idea is terrifying to me. But, it is an impressive technical feat, so… There’s that.

Restoration Robots is based in Mountain View CA. They hope to streamline the hair transplant process, of which there were more than 100,000 in 2009. They claim that the ARTAS robot will shave (pun intended) hours off of the procedure.

[via Forbes]

The inhaler has been around for years and while they all look basically the same, there are many different medications. What all inhalers do have in common is that they do not store any detail on when they are used. A company called Asthmapolis has a cool new inhaler that uses GPS. The point of adding a GPS device on the inhaler is that it can see when the user activates the inhaler and then map it and compare the data to the thousands of other asthmatics to see if attacks are commonly occurring in one place.

The idea is that if the attacks are happening near some sort of industry the trigger of the asthma attacks can be identified and possibly stopped. The system would also allow the user to know more precisely, what their triggers are too. For instance if you have asthma and use your inhaler at 3:30 each day in the office you might correlate that with the time of the day you make copies and then realize the ozone and toner dust is a trigger.

[via Economist]

Criminisi’s team has developed a piece of software that takes the collection of 2-D and 3-D images and indexes them together. There is a short demonstration video on MIT’s post where he describes a number of the different features currently available in this piece of software. Currently it can give doctors the ability to quickly search and index a database of images by organ. The system puts the indexes together through an analysis of the images taken. Currently, medical imaging databases use the text comments linked to the image for doctors to search. This gives them the ability to search, but it takes time because not all of the results are relevant. These kinds of systems will allow doctors to easily navigate from new images to old images in the same patient, side-by-side. It will also allow doctors to easily pull up images from other patients for comparison.

The team is also working on integrating the technology found in Microsoft’s Kinect. This will give surgeons the ability to navigate through the images with gestures. This will give them access to the images mid-procedure without them having to touch a mouse, keyboard, or even a touch screen. As these are all things that could compromise the sterility of the operation, this will be a very useful tool. Criminisi’s team plans for this tool to be implemented at a large scale, making automatic indexes of images as they are scanned and tying them into the greater database seamlessly.

[via MIT: Technology Review]

The procedure is still in experimental stages but has been successful in over a dozen burn victims. The process takes healthy stem cells from the victim’s skin and combines it in a solution. It is then sprayed directly onto the victims wounds to begin healing. Creating and grafting skin is not new, but it used to take weeks and months to generate new skin and for it to heal. This new process takes about one and half hours to spray the solution according to Gerlach.

The solution is purple in the video and it only adds to the futuristic nature of the story. If the trials continue to be a success this could be a huge breakthrough for burn victims. Now we just need to work on bacta tanks and bionic limbs.

[Via NatGeo on Youtube]

Doktor Jutta Kella of the Hamburg uni internal-medicine department, along with her colleagues, are the brains behind the new swallowable capsule. The capsule is controlled on the inside of a person’s body courtesy of a powerful external, hand-held magnet. This makes it possible for doctor’s to pinpoint where, exactly, they want the capsule to go, and record images of the internals with the integrated video camera.

The doctor’s created the new device by altering the body of a current probe. They installed magnetic discs to the outside of the capsule. The doctors in Germany were able to test out the new capsule in 10 healthy individuals, who had to swallow sherbet powder, along with the magnetized probes. The powder would help the patient’s stomachs loosen up, letting doctors see inside much easier.

The results showed that the little capsule was able to send pictures at 4 frames per second, which provides the doctors a real-time look inside someone’s body. The initial tests within the 10 individuals was meant to test the safety of the device, and to find out if it worked better, or just as well, than the current options doctors have for looking into the human body.

[via The Register]

This gadget is just what it sounds like, a blood pressure system that works with the iPhone. You connect the cuff device to the iPhone charge and sync port and then an app on the iPhone gives you the BP readouts and your pulse. The app can also store the readings to compare over time and share with a doctor for managing your blood pressure.

The app also interfaces with the Withings API that allows it to upload those BP readings to the Microsoft HealthVault or Google Health. The gadget will also work with the iPad or the iPod touch and will sell for $129 with availability set for this month.

Each of the iPhone ECG units is expected to be about $100 and can take accurate readings of the heart that a medical professional can look at to determine if there is a serious heart issue that needs to be addressed in the hospital.

Something like this could save a user with heart problems a lot of time and money on trips to the doctor or emergency room if they think their heart might be acting up. Check out the video below to see the thing in action.

Via ,a href=”http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2010/12/ecg_attachment_for_your_iphone.html”>MedGadget

This chip was designed by biomedical, electrical, and mechanical engineers in Australia and will be inserted into the body with a biocompatible device (so your body doesn’t reject it.) The device will be sewn into a 1.22mm-wide polymer yarn fixed with electronic wires. Each of these wires are sewn directly unto the human spine without causing a bit of damage. The device is hooked then to a separate device which contains a wirelessly chargeable battery and a processor so that the initial device can be monitored and its output adjusted as necessary.

This device is being developed by NICTA CTO implant technologies and is about the size of a matchbox. In addition to helping with chronic back pain, this device, NICTA says, could help with leg pain, pain from nerve damage, migraines, Parkinson’s disease tremors, and epileptic seizures!

[Via Nexus404]

At least, the technology that makes the sonic screwdriver in the show useful. Some engineers believe that ultrasonic waves can, and will, be used to move, and manipulate, small objects. Using the waves, which are operating beyond what human’s can hear, students are investigating how they can be used to turn things like screws. And some medical researchers are using ultrasonic waves to actually separate diseased cells within the body from healthy ones.

Could those in the medical field, or even those in the manufacturing field, start using devices like Doctor Who‘s sonic screwdriver before too long? It seems certainly possible. Especially considering the fields are already using ultrasonic waves to make things happen. Plus, who wouldn’t want a sonic screwdriver?

[via DVICE]

These fine folks from the Institute note that “any loss of full-thickness skin of more than 4 cm in diameter will not heal by itself,” and that with this device, (refined and tested extensively, of course,) skin that might have been otherwise damaged horrifically can now be patched up to a much higher level of healthiness. Testing has occurred on mice revealing advanced healing by the second and third week of recovery and complete closure of the skin by the end of week three on wounds that would otherwise still be open to infection.

The printer works with two heads, one that dispenses skin cells mixed with fibrinogen (a blood coagulant) and type I collagen (connective tissue’s main component in scars), the other which sends out thrombin (another coagulant.) Together these create a chemical reaction and form fibrin, another protein that works on the clotting of blood. On top of this is one more layer printed by the printer: keratinocytes – the outer layer of skin we’ve all got right this moment.

Future research will be done on the pigs who, if you know your Gangs of New York lore, are great to practice stabbing on because they’ve got skin that very closely resembles human skin. Will this device ever hit your local wartime hospital or town hospital? Who can tell?

It’d certainly be great for my future kid or kids to be growing up knowing that when they flip over their bike handlebars, that their scun-up knees will be able to be printed out at the local doc-shop. Maybe in fun new colors? CMYK! Check out more information about the presentation over at the website for Clinical Congress.

[Via Technology Review]

According to MIT, Poh managed to make his camera “learn” how to study someone’s face, and then measure “slight variations in brightness produced by the flow of blood through blood vessels in the face.” In the design stage, this was the step that caused Poh the most trouble, but as soon as he figured out how to account for variations in lighting and image quality, everything else came together.

And, while it may seem like a gimmick, it isn’t. According to tests, the webcam was able to come to the same results as FDA-approved pieces of technology. It only gets better when Poh reveals that he has only used technology you can find in most homes, and hasn’t been working with some government grants using never before seen tech. The result, of course, is the possibility that this system could easily be installed in homes, or hospitals, or anywhere else for that matter pretty easily.

Poh believes that this new webcam-based system would be a lot more preferable to patients, where putting on sensors may not be the route they want to go. Something as simple as a webcam, put anywhere, could mean that patients all over the world are a lot more comfortable when they go into the doctor’s office. But, Poh believes that this technology could be used to expand on this idea, and even tell when you’re lying about something, or nervous. Check out the video below to see how the webcam would work installed in your normal bathroom mirror.

[via Fast Company]

The research is being funded by DARPA and is looking to perfect the brain prosthetic interface and the program has been granted $5.6 million to continue its research. Allowing the brain to control prosthetics isn’t the only thing the technology has a potential use for. The tech could also be used for other man to machines applications like brain implants to control tremor, neuro-modulators to control chronic pain, and implants for people with spinal cord injuries.

The goal of the project is to develop a compatible link between living tissue and computer technologies to the human nervous system with hundreds or even thousands of sensors embedded in a single fiber optic fiber. The researchers say that the fiber optic tech would not be rejected by the body like other materials and would not be attacked and destroyed by the body’s immune system.

The sana 210 has a 2.8-inch touchscreen and offers the other features that users expect to find in a mobile phone today such as multimedia support, web browser, calendar, and an integrated camera. The handset also has onboard storage systems for people to use for monitoring their blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose, and ECGs.

To get the ECG the user presses two fingers to the side of the phone for 30 seconds and the phone picks up the heartbeat, records it, and then saves it to the phone for sending to the doctor if needed. Pricing and an exact date the phone will land in the UK is not known.

The image may not show it off well enough, but the chair is rigged with a few sensors, and a camera that sits atop that extended piece above the back of the chair. The camera system works to track not only the person that it is following, but also those around it. It’s able to follow someone because it tracks the position of the companion’s shoulders, and anticipates which directly they are facing, so it knows which way to turn, and how far to go. The video showcases why it’s such a great idea: a wheelchair-bound person’s companion usually has to push them around, and therefore if something comes up where they need immediate assistance, they may not be able to get to them fast enough. But, having the wheelchair follow them, and therefore freeing up their hands, makes that assistant all the more helpful.

And thanks to the distance sensor, the wheelchair can avoid not only stationary obstacles, like chairs and desks, but also people. If a group, or an individual, is walking toward the chair, it will automatically avoid that obstacle. And according to the engineers behind the project, apparently they can have two chairs follow a single person. Check out the video below to see it in action, thanks to DigInfoNews out of Tokyo.

[via CrunchGear]

That sling was uncomfortable for him and he hated wearing it the whole time. I kept wondering why no one has come up with a better sling in all these years. Designer Ryan Klinger has done just that with a new sling design concept called the SureSling.

The thing looks like what Tron would have worn to mend his arm after an accident. The sling wraps around both sides of the neck and rests on the shoulders for more comfort. A small pump near the forearm lets you inflate the works for a custom fit. There is even a hot/cold pack insert for the shoulder to help relieve pain. This thing is slick and someone should build it.

The use of a small eye telescope has been approved by the FDA that can be implanted into one eye of a patient. The eye telescope is able to magnify an image by 2.2 or 2.7 times and is implanted to replace the natural lens of the eye.

The reason the eye telescope can only be implanted into one eye is that the other eye is needed for peripheral vision. The device is to be used as a treatment for end stage age-related macular degeneration. The cost of the eye telescope is $15,000 and the chances of insurance covering that are likely to be slim.

VisionCare Opthalmic Technologies got the final word on their telescopic eye yesterday, officially having it approved by the FDA. It’s specifically designed for individuals 75-years or older. Additionally, it’s meant primarily for people who are suffering from end-stage macular degeneration. And yes, as you can see from the image, that’s a real miniature telescope in there. It serves as a magnification unit, projecting the magnified image to healthy parts of the retina so the person can identify what the item is. While it would be great, and dangerously similar to Inspector Gadget, to have these installed in both eyes, right now it’s only capable of being used in one, as the other eye needs to be used for the person’s peripheral vision.

Reports suggest that in a case study of 200 individuals, 75% of them reported that they had improved sight while utilizing the telescopic eye. But, as you might expect, as great as it would be to get these implanted for everyone out there who needs it, medical gadgets aren’t cheap. And the telescopic eye is no different. At $15,000, it won’t be on everyone’s list this Christmas season, unfortunately.

[via CBC News]

Right now, the scientists are currently testing their new invention in rats. They’re calling it a Muscle-Driven In Vivo Nanogenerator, and it works by utilizing a nanowire to convert the motion of flexing muscles (like in your heart) into an electric current. They can achieve this by utilizing piezoelectric energy.

Right now they’re testing a single unit, with a single nanowire, and the scientists are reporting that it’s not generating nearly enough energy to power anything quite yet. So, they’re next step is to put together a wider array of wires, which will hopefully produce enough electricity to power something like a pacemaker. This will hopefully result in the removal of outside power sources for such things. The efficiency of these devices should improve as well, considering their power would be constant, and always present.

[via Technology Review]

Over across the pond, in Leicester, UK, a cardiologist working out of Glenfield Hospital has successfully completed the very first heart surgery, using nothing but a remote robotic arm and an Internet connection. The whole thing was made possible by the Remote Catheter Manipulation System, which was built by the Catheter Robotics team located in New Jersey, United States. Apparently though, due to the procedure itself, the patient needs to be under constant X-Rays, to help monitor the situation and the position of the robotic arm.

That seems to be the only glaring problem with the procedure. Well, if you don’t count the fact that the surgeon isn’t in the room, but if you like the whole idea of being worked on by a robot (even if it is just an appendage), then you should head on over to the UK where you can get that kind of thing done. Anyone out there think that this is where modern medicine should be heading?

[via Ubergizmo]

When they finally come up with a drill that doesn’t make that horrible sound and hurt and stuff, I might not hate going to the dentist. Ok, that’s a lie. Over in Germany they are working with a sweet laser drill that is designed to cover treatment of soft tissue.

The device is called the Dio-Lase and has a 7-watt diode laser that is self-contained in a hand held device. Not quite as exciting as a dental laser that can be used to drill teeth, but it’s a start.

Cooper envisages medical staff wandering the hospital halls with these tablets, using voice and handwriting recognition – together with on-screen keyboards – to interact with digital patient records.  Rather than have a number of stationary desktop PCs, instead the hospital would have a number of keyboard base-stations which would wirelessly recharge the tablet together with offering a traditional QWERTY ‘board for speedier note entry.

We’re particularly enamoured by the integrated hand-strap on the back of the Rx Medical Tablet, which looks like it would also work as a pretty decent carry handle.  Unfortunately Cooper doesn’t appear to have any official connection to Toshiba, so we’ll have to wait a little longer to see this in production.

[via technabob]

BBC News reports that a new high tech device dubbed the spider pill may replace the long camera for this procedure making it more comfortable and easier to perform. The Spider Pill would be swallowed by the user and the doctors could then control the camera-equipped device remotely.

I wonder if it can plug into your optic nerve and see what you see — probably not. The protrusions you see around the outside of the device are the legs that propel the camera through your intestine. Presumably, after the trek is over, the cam drops out the bum. I would hate to think these things were reusable.

It sounds, I know, too good to be true, but Panasonic have stepped up their game and included a steam-generator in the EH-SA41.  After all, as the poor machine-translation of Panasonic’s press release says, “We are busy women the the product ‘to the care and efficient’ “Beauty and” meet the needs, habits and proposed a new face.”  Wise words indeed.

You may be full of doubts about turning over desk real-estate to this bloated skin-savior, but Panasonic have no such qualms.  They’re expecting to ship 20,000 of the EH-SA42 units per month when they launch – price to be decided – in Japan this November.

With it, medical professionals can identify malaria parasites in blood smears, together with sickle-cell anemia, while sputum smears could be examined for signs of tuberculosis.  While ambient light is usually clear enough for most samples, a white LED array and filter is also in place for using the system as a fluorescent microscope.

Future developments could include colored LEDs to broaden the range of cells the microscope will work with, and even using the camera’s abilities to label suspect images or geotag samples to track disease outbreak.  More details of the system at the research article here.

[via picturephoning]

I’m wondering if it’s just me that sounds bizarre to, or if everyone is having the same “bwuh?!” moment.  I understand that the US second amendment gives everybody the right to bear arms, but is it their right to claim back the cost of said-arms under health insurance?

Next step before prescriptions can be made is an application – already submitted by manufacturer Constitution Arms – to CMS contractor Noridian “for a DME (Durable Medical Equipment) Coding Verification in order to be assigned an HCPCS code”.  No comment as yet from health insurers themselves.

[via Slashdot]

Both thin and fat clients can be specified, depending on the medical environment and infrastructure.  The MA uses an Intel Atom processor and has a hot-swap battery bay capable of offering full-day power.  As well as the data encryption, there’s also a physical lock which can fix the tablet into its docking station.  An integrated digital camera, RFID transponder and Bluetooth round out the specs.

The Fujitsu ESPRIMO MA will be available in Q2 2009.  No pricing has been announced, but Fujitsu say to expect “that of a high configuration business notebook”.

Scientific breakthroughs, especially those that pertain to the medical field never fail to amaze me. And this one is no different. Surgery might look a whole lot different in the future thanks to a tiny new technology called microgrippers.

Microgrippers could be swallowed by a patient and then would be activated by chemicals and magnets within the body. Incisions could become a thing of the past.

These microgrippers could also be programmed to react to specific chemicals within the body, making it target a tumor, let’s say, in one area of the body and then remove it. And the best part is that they pose no harm to the human body. If you ask me, this sounds like the future of surgery, but we will have to see how it is funded and if it is incorporated as a medical mainstay.

[via DVICE]

It will actually strengthen and rehabilitate your hand after you’ve been cracking away at that PSP for several hours. Making it so your hand encounters less stress from those injuries.

This being so new there isn’t a whole lot of info out there as to how effective such a product is. There is also no word on how much something like this would end up costing you. For some, something like this would be worth a great deal though.

[via newlaunches]

Instead they are now using stereo mammograms, which is basically taking X-rays at slightly different angles. Then to see those in 3-D they wear special 3-D glasses.

They did a recent study and discovered that the stereo mammogram increased detection by 23% and decreased false alarms by 46%. Hopefully they will start using this new method more often and soon, since it quite obviously is the more superior way to go.

[via gearlog]

The heat-sensing skin patch records the temperature of the woman wearing it which will help indicate when she is ovulating. Which is nothing all that new, there are cheaper tests out there to do the same thing.

However, this records over 20,000 more temperature readings than the other ones on the market. It also records those readings through a card reader which is included or can also be downloaded on the computer through USB. It is expected to be sold for about $1,000 in Europe sometime later this year.

[via likecool]

My charming Doctor who is always complaining about people who smoke has suggested I wear a face mask on several occasions. I tend to think its more to guilt smokers into not smoking around me. However, being stubborn and not wanting to look like a dork I have learned to deal and refuse to wear one. This little Nose Mask Pit is barely visible and would make it so I could be in smoky places a lot more often without having to worry.

I have to wonder if it would be less help than a typical mask, since normal masks cover both the mouth and nose. Either way it would definitely slow down the sneezes quite a bit. To snag your own it will cost you $14.

[via ohgizmo]

It plays the melody through the headphones, you just try and sync up your breathing to it, and after you do, your blood pressure should drop as that apparently causes your vessels to dilate. So, finally, music has done something good for your body, just be sure not to crank it up too loud, no sense lowering your blood pressure as you destroy your hearing.

If you have blood pressure problems, finding another way to control it and lower your blood pressure is a far better idea, one idea is meditation. However, if you still feel this is the best option for you it costs $290 and that alone ought to make you sign up for those meditation classes.

[via redferret]

The best part is that it tells you to “Please don’t drive” and even throws in a frowny face to emphasize the point. The breathalyzer is located on the drivers side of the device (go figure) and calibrates itself each time to account for the amount of alcohol already in the air.

Then it tells you to blow, to blow on the little air vents for a while and then it comes up with your approximate BAC and whether that’s a safe amount to drive with. You can only get it in Portugal, and its 200 Euro there, so about $300 USD, god this makes me want a beer.

[via navigadget]

Judging from the diagram, it looks like even if they come up with one of these for actual use, it could be a long time before we see them mass produced due largely to the apparent size of the components required. Chances are also good it won’t be cheap, so even if they figure out a way to quickly and efficiently mass produce them, they’ll cost a small fortune.

God knows how reliable such a device would be too, but at the very least it could be used as a quick analysis giving doctors a list of things to check for that could potentially be the cause of the patient’s symptoms. On the flip side though, something like this could make doctors complacent and less likely to find the things that this gadget doesn’t pick up.

[via therawfeed]

Its like a fortune cookie on steroids, and with some actual precision added in. Judging from the looks of the kit, they either want a lot of saliva, or figure people might see the very small tube they actually need and think its not worth it.

Either way, its plain crazy to spend that kind of dough on something like this, unless you have it to spare, and in that case, I probably still wouldn’t spend it on some genotyping. Personally I think they need to come back when they have a method of editing your DNA, now that would be helpful.

[via uncrate]