Researchers build brain-machine interface to control prosthetic hand
A research team from the University of Houston has created an algorithm that allowed a man to grasp a bottle and other objects with a prosthetic hand, powered only by his thoughts.
Non-invasive
MRI may replace biopsies
Imaging tests like mammograms or CT scans can detect tumors, but figuring out whether a growth is or isn’t cancer usually requires a biopsy to study cells directly. Now results of a Johns Hopkins study suggest that MRI could one day make biopsies more effective or even replace them altogether by noninvasively detecting telltale sugar molecules shed by the outer membranes of cancerous cells.
Article • Tackling mobile tumours
Precision radiotherapy with 4D imaging
Radiotherapy always encounters particular challenges when a tumour is ‘mobile’. This is when radiotherapy must be carried out over several weeks. Within that period the tumour position, shape and expansion typically will keep changing. Thus radiotherapy needs continuous adaptation to maintain continuously precise radiation. Report: Chrissanthi Nikolakudi
Sponsored • Innovator
Entrepreneur with healthcare vision: Dr. Yosef Segman
Founder, CEO and Chief Scientist of CNOGA Medical Ltd., Dr. Segman will be attending the MEDICA 2015 and available at the company‘s booth to explain the company’s revolutionary healthcare ecosystem vision and business strategy.
Malta needs to nurture collaborations
Imaging has progressed at vertiginous paces since X-rays were invented, not only as a diagnostic tool but also as an invaluable partner in the realm of non-invasive medical intervention.
Breakthrough with new interventional treatment technology
Preliminary data from the clinical study showed that the dose reduction achieved in the X-ray guided endovascular procedures performed on 50 patients using Philips’ ClarityIQ technology is in line with the expected X-ray dose reduction of 75%.
Future radiology infrastructures
When asked about his vision of imaging in the year 2020, Professor Bernd Hamm MD, director of the three radiology clinics at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, qualified his focus: ‘Technology is always only a vehicle. When we talk about road traffic, we don’t talk about the design of cars but about structural issues’
Music for the eyes
EyeMusic, developed by a team of researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, employs pleasant musical tones and scales to help the visually impaired "see" using music.
The 129th Congress of the German Society of Surgery
Meeting with EH editor Brigitte Dinkloh, Congress Secretary Professor Alexis Ulrich MD (left), Assistant Medical Director at the Clinic for General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery at the University of Heidelberg, outlined the scientific programme, discussed some impressive advances in surgical procedures, and explained why the gathering bears the slogan Surgery in Partnership.
Doom and gloom but yes, there’s hope and even health-promoting laughter…
Health-promoting laughter… As our year ends amid depressing global economic uncertainty, budget and staff cutbacks, threats to healthcare workers’ pensions and much else, some events shine brightly through, writes EH Editor Brenda Marsh. ‘These confirm that vision, courage and laughter can indeed cure many ills’
The Gamma Knife goes to work in Paris
A major public hospital has become the first in Paris to be equipped with a Gamma Knife, the device that enables the surgeon to operate on the brain with no blade or blood involved.
Laboratory challenges in disasters and world tragedies
This May, IFCC WorldLab Berlin with its manifold scientific programme gives clinical lab physicians the opportunity to see over the rim of the tea cup of their working field. Within the congress theme ‘Healing the world’ comes an exciting lecture on laboratory work in third world countries and disaster areas.
IBA cooperates with Philips to create proton therapy centers
IBA Group, a leader in advanced cancer diagnosis and therapy technologies and Royal Philips Electronics, announced they have entered into an agreement to create state of the art patient-centric proton therapy centers.
Proton therapy
As one of the most advanced forms of precision radiotherapy, proton therapy enables the irradiation of tumours located deep within the body, in the proximity of critical organs, such as the optic nerve or some brain areas. The Institut Curie has renovated its proton therapy centre in Orsay near Paris. Since 1991, when the original centre opened, it has treated over 5,000 patients (4,000 for eye…
Extracorporeal shockwave therapy
Established in 1999, Swiss firm EMS Electro Medical Systems S.A. manufactures DolorClast, a device specifically designed for orthopaedic use. Today, around 2,500 of these devices are used worldwide to deliver extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT).
Comprehensive NIV guidance
One of the most comprehensive articles on non-invasive ventilation (NIV) has been published this September. Specialists can access this online (e-medicine.medscape.com/article/304235-overview).
Toshiba ASQ delivers hard data on liver fibrosis
Ultrasound presents a promising technology for non-invasive examinations of the abdomen. There is a vast, unmet medical need in the area of liver fibrosis for the clinical assessment of patients with fibrosis who either refuse or cannot undergo the painful and invasive biopsy procedures that provide hard histological evidence of the state of the disease.
Russia's continuing laser medicine advances
For the past 30 years, in the former USSR and Russia, laser medicine has been actively developed and regular annual conferences have opened new avenues for its use by the country's doctors.
Non surgical mitral valve repair: First enrollment in ACCESS-Europe study
Evalve, Inc., the leader in the development of devices for the percutaneous repair of cardiac valves, announced the first enrollment in the ACCESS-Europe study, a post-market observational study of the MitraClip therapy in Europe. The system is the first commercially available treatment option for non-surgical mitral valve repair for patients suffering from the effects of functional and…
Prostate Cancer Screening
To date, there is insufficient knowledge as to the cause of this disease, or how to prevent it. We asked some of our EH correspondents to report on measures taken in their countries to ensure that men are made more aware of this disease and whether screening services are provided for early prostate cancer detection.
Trends in image-guided therapy
In the sixth in his series for European Hospital, Professor Stefan Schönberg (left) of the Institute of Clinical Radiology and Nuclear Medicine (IKRN), University Hospital Mannheim, Medical Faculty of Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, invited colleagues from Mannheim and Vienna for a round-table discussion on:
Despite the poor market outlook Medica 2008 proved a superlative event
Dusseldorf, November — Medica's anniversary had many significant facets: in its 40th year, and for the 40th time, this spectacular international medical trade fair broke its previous year's record in visitor numbers — but, only just. The event was not only struck by the snow and ice of a sudden winter onset, but also by a storm that brought a level of chaos to Messe Dusseldorf's outdoor…
US firm Sensys Medical relocates HQ to London
In a strategic move intended to enhance the global launch of its 'groundbreaking' diabetes monitoring device, set to help combat the 'worldwide epidemic', the US company Sensys Medical has chosen to relocate its world headquarters to the United Kingdom (UK).
New concepts for dose reduction in the diagnosis of coronary heart disease with CT
Professor Stefan Schönberg of the Institute of Clinical Radiology and Nuclear Medicine (IKRN), University Hospital Mannheim, Medical Faculty of Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, invited colleagues from Mannheim and the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BFS) in Neuherberg for a round-table discussion on: Non-invasive multidetector coronary CT angiography (CTA) has become an established…
Ear device opens Eusthichian tube
Middle ear inflammation often involves treatment with steroids and pseudo-epinephrine to reduce oedema, and antibiotics to combat primary bacterial infection or a secondary complication.