A new wave of medical technologies offers novel business opportunities. In this report, Silicon Valley Comes to the UK and Nesta present a snapshot of the early breakers.
Les enfants nourris au sein par une mère atteinte du sida ne seraient pas affectés par la maladie s'ils suivent une certaine médication, d'après une récente recherche de l'Université de Bergen. Il est estimé que 420.000 enfants sont déclarés positifs au VIH chaque année, dont la moitié a été nourrie au sein de leur mère, elle-même porteuse du virus. Ce phénomène se retrouve majoritairement dans les pays en développement. Jusqu'à présent, ce type d'infection a été considéré comme un problème non résolu.
A low-cost microscope made from folded paper and a cheap lens could revolutionize education and health care in the developing world.
Origami, the Japanese art of paper folding, has evolved considerably since it appeared in the western world over a century ago. Folding is simple, easy and cheap. So it’s no wonder that scientists and engineers have begun to exploit it in all kinds of innovative ways. They now use origami to construct everything from molecular machines to space telescopes.
ock Health exists to fund and support entrepreneurs working at the intersection of healthcare technology. Simply, our mandate is impact. We want to make healthcare massively better for every human being—driving down the cost to deliver improved services to more people. Massively better means incredible change—it’s improvement by an order of magnitude or more along every dimension. Healthcare that is incredibly functional, reliable, convenient, and yes, inexpensive. Ultimately, it looks like a system that we love. The problems in healthcare are too numerous to enumerate; however, we developed a non-exhaustive list of some ideas we’d like to fund this year.
For years, health advocates have been telling us to move more. But just how much more?
A multitude of activity tracking devices now promise to answer that question. Generally, these digital monitors, which can be worn around the wrist, on collars and belts, even as jewelry, record how and how much you move throughout the day. Some aim to do a great deal more. Makers of the devices have begun intensive campaigns aimed at convincing the large population of “worried well” consumers to get wired and start recording their every move.
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed marketing of the first device as a preventative treatment for migraine headaches. This is also the first transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) device specifically authorized for use prior to the onset of pain.
“Cefaly provides an alternative to medication for migraine prevention,” said Christy Foreman, director of the Office of Device Evaluation at the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
Although 10% of the population has some degree of chronic kidney disease, the condition is overlooked, and the numbers are set to rise over the coming decade, health experts warned on World Kidney Day.
Around 600 million people worldwide have some form of kidney damage. While chronic kidney disease can occur at any time of life, it becomes more common with age, according to the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) and the International Federation of Kidney Foundations (IFKF).
Many conditions affecting the kidneys are more common in older people, including diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
Klaus Boehm, géo-informaticien, et Torsten Sehlinger, programmeur informatique, ont développé un appareil qui pourrait révolutionner la vie de nombreuses personnes souffrant d'allergies. Ils ont reçu pour leur découverte le prix de l'Innovation 2013 du Land de Rhénanie-Palatinat.
Actuellement, les analyses pour diagnostiquer une allergie s'effectuent grâce à un "prick test" [1] et ne sont pas fiables à 100%. En effet, tant d'un point de vue qualitatif que quantitatif, ce test comprend une marge d'erreur lors de la détermination des allergènes incriminés. Ces chercheurs souhaitaient donc favoriser un procédé d'autodiagnostic.
Des travaux rassemblant des scientifiques de l'Université de Cologne (Rhénanie du Nord-Westphalie) et l'Université Columbia de New York ont permis le développement d'un modèle informatique simulant l'évolution du virus de la grippe. Ce système pourrait faciliter la production de vaccins plus efficaces à l'avenir.
