Every hospital emergency department “should brace itself for a never-ending rush hour,” recently advised noted ER doc Wesley Curry, MD. Curry, who is the CEO of the acute care management firm CEP America, estimates that emergency department visits in the United States could exceed 200 million visits annually by 2020. He draws his conclusions from detailed analysis of more than 80 emergency departments as well as several megatrends affecting the domestic healthcare infrastructure.Wireless...

Last year, a new technology was unveiled that could potentially enable clinicians to detect real-time chemical changes in the body. A proof-of-concept sensor array incorporating three types of sensors would enable the device to measure pH, glucose, and lactate. Such a device could be used to monitor glucose levels in diabetics or the microneedles could be incorporated into sensor arrays that could enable painless patient monitoring of a variety of parameters.A hollow microneedle can be...

The potential for 3-D printing to transform medicine are substantial. To cite but a few examples: the technology can be used to make custom implants, “print” virtually any drug, drug delivery devices, and even living tissue. Earlier this year, medical researchers successfully implanted a 3-D printed jaw into an 83-year old woman.The implications of 3-D printing on manufacturing could be sizeable as well. The technology could be used for rapid prototyping (one of its most common applications at...

In the field of interventional cardiology, drug-eluting balloons and flexible electronics mounted to balloons are among the hottest new technologies. While coronary stents—both the bare metal and drug eluting varieties—have revolutionized the field of cardiology, they are not without their drawbacks. Device companies are looking to either improve stents or working on alternate technologies that can address the same problems. For instance, the drug-eluting balloon could prove to be a useful tool...

By developing prosthetic devices that rely on implanting electrodes directly in nerves and remaining muscle, Chalmers University researchers aim to provide amputees with greater control over prosthetic movements.Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology (Gothenburg, Sweden) are developing a new method for controlling prostheses for amputees that relies on the power of osseointegration.Since the 1960s, prostheses have been controlled by electrical impulses in the muscles. However, the...

As one of the strongest-occurring natural materials, silk has long fascinated material scientists. The shimmering material has unique optical properties as well, thanks to the triangular prism-like structure of the fibers within it. Earlier this month, we covered the research conducted at Tufts University (Boston) and the CNRS Institut de Physiques de Rennes (France) that tapped the materials’ optical properties for implantable sensors. The researchers have recently released more...

Since 2007 to present, much of the world has faced financial turmoil. At the same time, medical costs throughout much of the world have continued to soar. The med device space, which several years ago, was often referred to as “recession proof,” has proven to be anything but. In 2012 alone, the industry has been hit with waves of layoffs and, in the last few years, the sector has seen dwindling venture capital investment.Over a person's lifetime, Medicare benefits paid out by the system greatly...

The medtech industry stands to pay roughly $2.5 billion to comply with the medical device tax, according to a new report from Ernst & Young. That amount represents an almost 30% increase in its federal tax burden. Over the next ten years, the excise tax is expected to increase federal tax revenue by $29 billion, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. To bring attention to the issue, AdvaMed (Washington, DC) and the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA; Washington, DC)...

Noninvasive prenatal testing is “an unbelievable test case” for how genetic sequencing technology can influence human healthcare, said John Stuelpnagel, DVM, executive chairman of Ariosa Diagnostics (San Jose) and co-founder of Illumina (San Diego) at a panel discussion held on November 8 in San Francisco. Over the course of the next 10 years, sequencing technology will likely be used for a quickly growing number of healthcare applications, Stuelpnagel predicted. As the technology gets faster...