Medical

Here's an Idea: Hearing Aids

This episode of our Tech Briefs podcast series Here’s an Idea™ explores a variety of new-and-improved hearing aids, from $5 “do-it-yourself” devices to advanced systems that monitor brain waves.

Smart, Self-Powered Knee Implants

These implants can provide doctors with regular activity updates and are powered by the patient’s movement.

3D-Printed Soft, Rubbery Brain Implants

This technique may enable speedy, on-demand design of softer, safer neural devices.

5 Ws of Bacteria-Killing Metal Surfaces

Bacterial pathogens can live on surfaces for days. What if frequently touched surfaces, such as doorknobs, could instantly kill them off?

Nanostructured Rubber-Like Material to Replace Human Tissue

The material consists solely of components that have already been shown to work well in the body.

Wirelessly Powered, Leadless Pacemaker

This device could give doctors a new therapeutic option for treating patients with conditions such as heart failure.

Method Enables Conductive Gels to Stick When Wet

A new way of making polymers adhere to surfaces may enable better biomedical sensors and implants.

Double-Sided Tape Rapidly Seals Tissues Together

The adhesive that binds wet surfaces within seconds could be used to heal wounds or implant medical devices.

Soft, Conformable Hearing Implants

These electrode implants will allow people with a dysfunctional inner ear to hear again.

Q&A: Solid Silk - A Biocompatible, Sustainable, Degradable Building Block

David Kaplan is solidifying silk to make products like rods and plates for medical implants.

Products of Tomorrow: February 2020

Life-saving sensors, soft hearing implants, and a new water-decontamination method

Reconfigurable Electronics Offer Promise for Implantable Devices

Medical implants of the future may feature reconfigurable electronic platforms that can morph in shape and size dynamically as bodies change or transform to relocate...

Human Torso Simulator

The simulator could help in the development of new back braces.

Facility Focus: National Science Foundation

In recent decades, NSF-funded researchers have discovered quite a bit, including many of the fundamental particles of matter.

Simulating Softness for Haptic Interfaces

Researchers have developed a formula that enables them to recreate different levels of perceived softness. Based on the results from their experiments, they created equations that can calculate how...

2019 Create the Future Design Contest Grand Prize Winner: ULiSSES

Learn more about ULISSES, an organ-preserving device that received top honors in the "Create the Future" Design Contest.

2019 'Create the Future' Medical Category Winner: Cervical Stabilization Device

Learn more about the how "CSD" offers a cost-effective, non-invasive way of saving the lives of infants.

ULiSSES Medical Device Wins 2019 'Create the Future' Design Contest

Learn more about ULiSSES, a life-saving device for organ and limb transport.

Fiber-Based Artificial Muscles

While different approaches have been used to create artificial muscles — including hydraulic systems, servomotors, shape-memory metals, and polymers that respond to stimuli — they all have limitations such...

Sensor-Packed Glove Learns Signatures of the Human Grasp

Wearing a sensor-packed glove while handling a variety of objects, researchers compiled a dataset that enables an AI system to recognize objects through touch alone. The information...

Self-Assembled Micro-Organogels Enable 3D Printing of Silicone Structures

For the millions of people every year who have or need medical devices implanted, an advancement in 3D printing technology could enable significantly quicker...

Facility Focus: U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory

In October 1962, the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Unit was established with a goal of providing specialized medical and physiological support to help close the gap between Army...

Products of Tomorrow: May 2019

This column presents technologies that have applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the products of tomorrow. To learn more about each technology, see the contact information provided for that...

5 Ws of the Heart Energy Harvester

Who

Millions of people who rely on pacemakers, defibrillators, and other livesaving implantable devices powered by batteries that need to be replaced every five to 10 years.

Nickel with Nanoscale Pores Has the Strength of Titanium and Density of Water

Titanium is as strong as steel but about twice as light. These properties depend on the way a metal’s atoms are stacked but random defects that arise in the...

Researchers Combine Metalens With an Artificial Muscle

Inspired by the human eye, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed an adaptive metalens that is essentially a flat,...

“Metallic Wood” Has the Strength of Titanium and the Density of Water

Titanium is as strong as steel but about twice as light. These properties depend on the way a metal's atoms are stacked, but random defects that arise in the...

Foot Pedal Controller

A novel foot-pedal-operated system and device were developed to control translational and rotational movement of an object in three-dimensional (3D) space. The Foot Pedal Controller system enables operators to control...