La reducción de inversión en el mantenimiento de la tecnología sanitaria incrementa los riesgos de uso y acelera el deterioro de la tecnología disponible en los centros sanitarios. De hecho, y según se indica en el Informe sobre el Mantenimiento de la Tecnología Sanitaria en Españaelaborado por la Federación Española de Empresas de Tecnología Sanitaria (Fenin), la partida presupuestaria destinada a reparación, mantenimiento y conservación de equipos en el conjunto de las CCAA ha descendido un 18.71% en los dos últimos años.
Des chercheurs de la Faculté des sciences et de génie et du Centre d'optique, photonique et laser de l'Université Laval ont mis au point des textiles intelligents capables de capter des informations biomédicales sur les personnes qui les portent et de les transmettre par WiFi ou cellulaires. Cette percée technologique, dont les détails sont rapportés dans un article publié récemment dans la revue Sensors, pourrait déboucher d'ici quelques années sur une foule d'applications destinées aux personnes souffrant de maladies chroniques, aux personnes âgées vivant seules ou même aux pompiers et policiers en service.
Bellabeat, the maker of a trio of health trackers for moms and moms-to-be, is now broadening its focus to include a feature set designed to appeal to all women after selling out of its initial pre-orders, netting the company $1.2 million in revenue. With the Bellabeat Leaf, a piece of “smart jewelry” that can be worn as a necklace, pendant, bracelet or brooch to track activity, sleep and stress levels, the company is adding new features to the app and device itself that allows women to track their overall reproductive health.
The pharmaceutical giant Roche plans to spend $1 billion to acquire majority control of Foundation Medicine, a five-year old company that developed an innovative DNA test to match patients to specific cancer drugs.
A few paralyzed patients could soon be using a wireless brain-computer interface able to stream their thought commands as quickly as a home Internet connection.
After more than a decade of engineering work, researchers at Brown University and a Utah company, Blackrock Microsystems, have commercialized a wireless device that can be attached to a person’s skull and transmit via radio thought commands collected from a brain implant. Blackrock says it will seek clearance for the system from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, so that the mental remote control can be tested in volunteers, possibly as soon as this year.
A new study shows that placental cells could potentially treat and repair damaged nerves, leading the way to new treatment for stroke patients.
The findings indicate that PLacental eXpanded (PLX) cells, produced by Israeli biotech start-up Pluristem, protect PC12 cells – rat-derived cells that behave similarly to and are used as stand-ins to study human nerve cells.
Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM), the San Diego wireless technologies giant, plans to form a joint investment business through its corporate ventures arm with the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis. The joint investment entity would make as much as $100 million available for innovative health startups.
In a statement, the partners say they would invest in early stage companies that “offer technologies, products or services that ‘go beyond the pill’ to benefit physicians and patients.”
Boulder, CO-based medical diagnostic company Biodesix announced today it has raised $12 million to help launch a new, as yet unannounced product line and to continue promoting its blood test that oncologists can use to guide lung cancer treatment.
The money comes from Biodesix’s existing investors and extends the Series E round the company opened in late 2013. Biodesix now has raised $27 million in the round, bringing the total equity raised to $92 million.
Medicine these days entertains all kinds of ambitious plans for reading off brain signals to control wheelchairs, or using electronics to bypass spinal injuries. But most of these ideas for implants that can interface with the nervous system run up against a basic materials problem: wires are stiff and bodies are soft.
That motivated some researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale, in Lausanne, Switzerland, to design a soft, flexible electronic implant, which they say has the same ability to bend and stretch as dura mater, the membrane that surrounds the brain and spinal cord.
The pharmaceutical giant Roche plans to spend $1 billion to acquire majority control of Foundation Medicine, a five-year old company that developed an innovative DNA test to match patients to specific cancer drugs.
