Medicine – Page 20

3D Printer, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Medicine

Patient receives 3D-printed rib implant in breakthrough procedure

January 11, 2019

3D printing made some big advances in the medical domain last year, and it seems like that trend isn’t going to slow down any time soon. Proving that point is an impressive procedure recently carried out in Bulgaria, in which a patient received one of the first 3D-printed ribs as part of a potentially lifesaving operation. It demonstrated a new approach to create rib implants, using a process called fused deposition modeling (FDM), which is cheaper in both machine and material costs than other similar attempts.

“[The] patient, Ivaylo Josifov, was diagnosed with a rib deformation,” Mateusz Sidorowicz, director of marketing at 3DGence, the company which made the 3D printer, told Digital Trends. “The doctors were concerned that the deformity may progress, and decided to replace the rib with an implant. Unfortunately, traditional implants — made from titanium, for example — are very expensive. Also, the titanium itself is not a perfect material for replacing ribs.”

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3D Printer, Health & Fitness, Healthcare, Medicine, Science & Technology News

Scientists find a way to 3D print one pill for all that ails you

January 9, 2019

Multiple medications with different release times—all in one pill.

Last year, the FDA approved a 3D-printed pill for the first time. And now, researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a method to make 3D printing medicine even better. NUS Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Assistant Professor Soh Siow Ling, with the help of PhD student Sun Yajuan, created a cheap, simple way to prompt a 3D printer to create multiple medications with different release formulas—all in one pill.

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Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Medicine, Science & Technology News

Goodbye surgery? Scientists just made eye drops that dissolve cataracts

January 8, 2019

It could mean a cheap, painless way to restore vision to thousands.

Most of us take our vision for granted. As a result, we take the ability to read, write, drive, and complete a multitude of other tasks for granted. However, sight is not so easy for everyone. Indeed, for many people, simply seeing is a struggle.

There are more than 285 million people worldwide who have vision problems. According to the Fred Hollows Foundation, an estimated 32.4 million people around the world are blind. Ultimately, 90% of these people live in developing countries, and more than half of these cases of blindness are caused by cataracts. Indeed, cataracts are the leading cause of blindness in the world.

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App, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Medicine, Science & Technology News

Ingestible capsule can be controlled wirelessly

December 26, 2018

Electronic pill can relay diagnostic information or release drugs in response to smartphone commands

Researchers at MIT, Draper, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have designed an ingestible capsule that can be controlled using Bluetooth wireless technology. The capsule, which can be customized to deliver drugs, sense environmental conditions, or both, can reside in the stomach for at least a month, transmitting information and responding to instructions from a user’s smartphone.

The capsules, manufactured using 3-D-printing technology, could be deployed to deliver drugs to treat a variety of diseases, particularly in cases where drugs must be taken over a long period of time. They could also be designed to sense infections, allergic reactions, or other events, and then release a drug in response.

“Our system could provide closed-loop monitoring and treatment, whereby a signal can help guide the delivery of a drug or tuning the dose of a drug,” says Giovanni Traverso, a visiting scientist in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, where he will be joining the faculty in 2019.

These devices could also be used to communicate with other wearable and implantable medical devices, which could pool information to be communicated to the patient’s or doctor’s smartphone.

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Cancer, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Medicine

Lasers cure nearly 50% of patients with prostate cancer in new study

December 20, 2018

Experts have honed a cutting-edge method to kill off tumors with less damage to healthy cells.

Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and STEBA Biotech have announced the success of the unique method they developed to fight prostate cancer. This treatment, which the group of expects called “transformative,” has shown promising results.

Under development since 2011, vascular targeted photodynamic therapy (VPT), as the procedure is called, is carried out in a two-step process. Patients are first introduced to WST11 — a compound extracted from some benthic bacteria, or bacteria that dwell at the bottom of the sea. These bacteria are particularly special, though, as they are highly light-sensitive.

Optical fibers are then inserted through an area called the perineum, found between the the testes and the anus, and directly into the prostate gland. Afterwards, the scientists turn on a red laser that is induced through the optical fibers. This process utilizes the photosensitivity of the WST11 drug and activates it. Upon activation, free radicals are released within the area, attacking and destroying the tumors. Unlike conventional treatments which might affect a general area of body cells, this treatment is localized. The nearby cells are left more or less unharmed.

Continue reading… “Lasers cure nearly 50% of patients with prostate cancer in new study”

Health & Fitness, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Medicine

The 10 most incredible medical breakthroughs of 2018

December 16, 2018

From medical drones to the first FDA-approved cannabis drug, innovative research continues to transform the future of health care.

In a tech-obsessed world, it’s only natural to ponder all the ways technology might actually be damaging your health. Is social media a trigger for depression? Could your cell phone start a fire while you sleep? Can reading a computer screen all day ruin your vision? It’s easy to get caught up in that downward spiral of thinking.

However, nestled in between all the negatives is an incredible world of positives. Technology only continues to advance in ways that can completely transform the future of health care. Just last year, scientists made progress in learning how to regenerate body parts, detect pancreatic cancer earlier, and relieve pain via virtual reality, Prevention reported.

This past year has proven to be an equally exciting time for innovative research. Here, some of the most striking medical breakthroughs of 2018 that have the potential to change your life.

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AI, Artificial Intelligence, Healthcare, Latest Trend, Medicine

Using Artificial Intelligence to fix healthcare

November 29, 2018

Surgery filmed in 360° and live-streamed to remote doctors could already be happening in a hospital near you.

The healthcare industry should be using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to a far greater degree than at present, but progress has been painfully slow. The same factors that make the healthcare system so attractive to AI developers – fragmented or non-existent data repositories, outdated computer systems and doctor shortages – are the same things that have stopped AI from providing the gains that should be created.

The healthcare sector also presents unique obstacles for AI: data must flow freely through AI systems to achieve real results, but extracting data from handwritten patient files or PDFs is cumbersome for us, and difficult for AI. Despite technical and operational challenges, new research suggests that the arrival of the tech giants into the industry may provide the data and the capital required to digitize this fairly untapped market.

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Inventions, Medical Breakthrough, Medicine, new technology

World’s first full-body medical scanner generates astonishing 3D images

November 24, 2018

The new EXPLORER full-body scanner promises faster and more detailed medical imaging(Credit: UC Davis)

After over a decade of development, the world’s first full-body medical scanner has produced its first images. The groundbreaking imaging device is almost 40 times faster than current PET scans and can capture a 3D picture of the entire human body in one instant scan.

Called EXPLORER, the full-body scanner combines positron emission tomography (PET) and X-ray computed tomography (CT). Following years of research, a prototype, primate-sized scanner was revealed in 2016. After expansive testing, the first human-sized device was fabricated in early 2018.

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Alzheimer's Disease, Medicine, Science & Technology News

Eye scan may detect Alzheimer’s disease in seconds

November 7, 2018

Two new studies now suggest that a noninvasive eye scan could soon be used to catch Alzheimer’s disease early.

A simple eye scan may soon detect Alzheimer’s in a matter of seconds.

The world’s population is aging rapidly and the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease is on the rise.

For this reason, the need for efficient dementia screening methods that can be applied to millions of people is dire.

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Biotech, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Medicine, Science & Technology News

The probiotic that kills antibiotic-resistant bacteria

October 20, 2018

Infection with the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus can cause many health problems, including sepsis. Certain strains of this bacterium are resistant to antibiotics, so they are particularly dangerous. However, researchers discover that a probiotic bacterium can destroy this superbug.

Researchers are now investigating the potential of a probiotic bacterium in treating MRSA infections.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is highly resistant to treatment with antibiotics.

These include oxacillin, flucloxacillin, and dicloxacillin.

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Biotech, Healthcare, Inventions, Medicine, Wearables

A stretchy stick-on patch can take blood pressure readings from deep inside your body

October 13, 2018

The flexible stamp can collect data that usually requires bulky, invasive equipment.

The last time you had your blood pressure checked, it was probably at a doctor’s office with a bulky cuff wrapped around your arm. One day soon, perhaps, you will just need a simple stick-on patch on your neck, no bigger than a postage stamp.

That’s the goal of Sheng Xu and his team at the University of California, San Diego, who are working on a patch that can continuously measure someone’s central blood pressure—the pressure of blood coursing beyond your aorta, the artery in your heart that delivers blood to all the different parts of the body. It could make it a lot easier to monitor heart conditions and keep an eye on other vital organs like the liver, lungs, and brain.

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brains, DNA, Medical Breakthrough, Medicine

Building a better brain-in-a-dish, faster and cheaper

October 5, 2018

UC San Diego researchers develop new protocol for creating human cortical organoids, mini-brains derived directly from primary cells that can be used to better explore and understand the real thing.

Writing in the current online issue of the journal Stem Cells and Development , researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine describe development of a rapid, cost-effective method to create human cortical organoids directly from primary cells.

Continue reading… “Building a better brain-in-a-dish, faster and cheaper”