Archive for October 2016
St. Jude Medical Warns of Premature Battery Depletion in Some Cardiac Devices
St. Jude Medical issued an advisory Oct. 11 warning of premature battery depletion associated with lithium deposits in a small number of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) and cardiac resynchronization therapy ICDs. The issues could affect 0.21 percent of the devices manufactured before May 23, 2015, according to a company news release. St. Jude Medical said…
Read MoreSurgical Simulation Training Tool Released for Knee Implants
Last week saw the public release of a collaborative project from Touch Surgery and Episurf Medical aimed at providing a surgical simulation training tool for Episurf Medical’s Episealer line of personalized knee resurfacing implants. Touch Surgery, based in London, UK, is a mobile-first platform for the surgical community. Their services provide a virtual simulation environment to…
Read MoreAcutus Medical Launches Trial of AcQMap Study
Acutus Medical said today it launched a trial of its AcQMap high resolution imaging and mapping system designed to guide ablation procedures for treating persistent atrial fibrillation. The company’s AcQMap imaging and mapping system is designed to detect and display standard voltage-based and higher resolution charge-source maps, and is able to generate real-time, 3D images of the…
Read MoreZimmer Biomet Acquires Telerehabilitation Business RespondWell
Zimmer Biomet has acquired telerehabilitation startup RespondWell, according to a news release. The deal comes just a few months after the Warsaw, Indiana orthopedics device business rolled out the Signature Solutions program to hospitals to help them improve patient outcomes, reduce readmissions and pare down medical costs. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.…
Read MorePollution Particles Damaging Blood Vessels and Could Lead to Heart Disease
Tiny pollution particles produced by vehicle engines and industry are known to worsen heart disease and raise the risk of stroke, but a new study suggests they might also be planting the seeds for cardiovascular disease early on. In healthy young adults with no signs of heart disease, researchers found that exposure to fine pollution…
Read MoreNoisy Coworkers Are a Distraction In the Workplace
Sounds, particularly those made by other humans, rank as the No. 1 distraction in the workplace. According to workplace design expert Alan Hedge at Cornell, 74 percent of workers say they face “many” instances of disturbances and distractions from noise. “In general, if it’s coming from another person, it’s much more disturbing than when it’s…
Read MoreSwiss Surgeons Repair Knee Joints with Nose Cells
Swiss surgeons successfully used an experimental technique, which includes harvesting cells from the nasal septum, to repair damaged knee joints in patients. Two years later, these patients report improvements in pain and knee function, according to a study published Thursday in the journal The Lancet. “The treatment is safe and feasible,” said study co-author, Dr.…
Read MoreAre Your Cells Aging Faster Than You? Check With New Test
Your cells might be aging faster than you are, and new tests purport to help you find out. A few companies are offering mail-order testing to measure the length of people’s telomeres, the protective caps of DNA on the ends of chromosomes that have been likened to the plastic tips that prevent shoelaces from fraying.…
Read MoreThe Recipe for the Perfect Robot Surgeon
Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci robot is a technical marvel. Nearly half a million operations were performed in the U.S. by surgeons controlling its large, precise arms last year. One in four U.S. hospitals has one or more of the machines, which perform the majority of robotic surgeries worldwide and are credited with making minimally invasive…
Read MoreNew Tools for Preventing Hospital-Acquired Infections
As the focus on hospital-acquired infections intensifies, some medical device manufacturers are considering deep UV light emitting diodes for smaller, portable disinfection devices. Here’s how the technology can be used in medical device design. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) one in every 25 hospital patients in the United States will…
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