Tag: implant

Wireless ‘under the skin’ prototype implant beams instant blood test read-outs to your smartphone

A new blood-testing subdermal sensor has been developed by a team of scientists in Switzerland. While that may not sound particularly notable, this half-inch prototype can instantly beam several health metrics to smart devices over Bluetooth , monitoring cholesterol, blood sugar levels as well as the impact of medical treatments like chemotherapy using five built-in sensors. The device has already been tested on animals and while the researchers hope to begin testing soon on patients that would typically require a lot of blood tests and monitoring, the module is still several years from a commercial release. According to the EPFL ‘s video, the sensor can even predict heart attacks several hours before they occur, sensing minute changes in the bloodstream ahead of time. We’ve ‘implanted’ the explanation after the break, but if you’re looking for some more medical-minded specifics, head to the source. Filed under: Science , Alt Comments Via: BBC Source: EPFL

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Wireless ‘under the skin’ prototype implant beams instant blood test read-outs to your smartphone

Hybrid 3D printer could fast-track cartilage implants

Most of the attention surrounding 3D printers in medicine has focused on patching up our outsides, whether it’s making skin to heal wounds or restoring the use of limbs . The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine has just detailed a technique that could go considerably deeper. By mixing natural gel put through an inkjet printer with thin and porous polymer threads coming from an electrospinner, researchers have generated constructs that could be ideal for cartilage implants: they encourage cell growth in and around an implant while remaining durable enough to survive real-world abuse. Early tests have been confined to the lab, but the institute pictures a day when doctors can scan a body part to produce an implant that’s a good match. If the method is ultimately refined for hospital use, patients could recover from joint injuries faster or more completely — and 3D printers could become that much more integral to health care. Filed under: Science , Alt Comments Via: Gizmag Source: Institute of Physics

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Hybrid 3D printer could fast-track cartilage implants

MIT ear-powered wireless sensor sustains its charge through sound

You wouldn’t immediately think of the ear’s cochlea as an energy source, but MIT knows that every mammal effectively has a pair of very small power plants because of the ionized environment. School researchers are trying to harness that energy through a new sensor that exploits the whole ear canal system. As eardrum vibrations naturally create a usable voltage from brain signals, the prototype can build enough charge in a capacitor to drive a very low-power wireless transmitter that relays the electrochemical properties of the ear and potentially diagnoses balance or hearing problems. The beauty of the system is its true self-sustainability: once the transmitter has been been jumpstarted with radio waves, it powers itself through the resulting transmissions. Energy use is also sufficiently miserly that the sensor doesn’t interrupt hearing. Work is still early enough that there’s a long way to go before such implants are part of any treatments, but there’s hope that future chip iterations could help fix inner ear maladies, not just report on them. Something tells us, however, that the doctor won’t ask us to take two dubstep tracks and call back in the morning. Filed under: Wearables , Science , Alt MIT ear-powered wireless sensor sustains its charge through sound originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink   CrazyEngineers  |  MIT  |  Email this  |  Comments

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MIT ear-powered wireless sensor sustains its charge through sound