medical technology

10 Stories

At Heart of Odd Custody Ruling: a Turkey Baster

Joyce Bruce said because they never had sex, she should be sole parent

(Newser) - In Joyce Bruce's mind, Robert Boardwine was just an old friend who helpfully agreed to donate sperm so she could have a child—no parental rights attached. To Boardwine, however, and now according to a Virginia court, he's entitled to see his young son, CNN reports. The Virginia...

The Wildly Varying Cost of Scanning Our Hearts

NYT investigates how much we pay for echocardiograms

(Newser) - As one cardiologist puts it, "At many hospitals, the threshold for ordering an echocardiogram is the presence of a heart." That statement, made to the New York Times , becomes all the more troubling if you read the Times' full look into the use—and generally wildly varying cost—...

Doctors to float gunshot victims between life, death
Doctors to Float Gunshot Victims Between Life, Death
in case you missed it

Doctors to Float Gunshot Victims Between Life, Death

Attempt groundbreaking technique in Pittsburgh

(Newser) - It's a "groundbreaking emergency technique," and Pittsburgh surgeons are ready to attempt it on humans for the first time. Doctors at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital soon intend to float 10 patients in the space between life and death, in a bid to extend the time doctors have to...

Coming Soon: X-Ray Phones
 Coming Soon: 
 X-Ray Phones 

Coming Soon: X-Ray Phones

OK, technically they're terahertz band phones

(Newser) - Soon, your phone could let you see through walls, superhero-style. Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have devised a way of harnessing the terahertz band of the electromagnetic spectrum with inexpensive microchips much like those already found in most consumer electronics, and a way of creating images from...

Nose Exam Could Offer Early Alzheimer's Diagnosis

German scientists developing new detection method

(Newser) - German scientists think they’ve found a new way to detect Alzheimer’s years before a patient starts showing symptoms … and it involves looking up your nose. Chemists and pathologists at the Technical University of Darmstadt are developing a method to test the nasal mucous membrane for tau protein,...

New Hope for Pregnant Diabetics

Artificial pancreas could save lives of mothers, improve babies' health

(Newser) - An artificial pancreas can dramatically reduce the risks of pregnancy for women with Type 1 diabetes, British researchers say. Self-management of insulin levels can be very difficult because physiological and hormonal changes make the safe range for blood sugar levels much narrower—in fact, pregnant diabetics' levels fall outside what...

FDA Ignored Data on Risky MRI Dye
FDA Ignored Data on Risky MRI Dye

FDA Ignored Data on Risky MRI Dye

Failed to single out role of GE dye, Omniscan, in onset of disease

(Newser) - In May 2006, Danish medical regulators came to GE with troubling findings. Twenty-five patients with weak kidneys had developed NSF, a rare and sometimes fatal disease, after undergoing MRIs, and all 25 had been injected with GE’s Omniscan dye. Since then, the GE dye, along with other so-called “...

A Digital Pill a Day May Keep the Doctor Away

Wireless monitoring aims to cut visits and billions in health costs

(Newser) - As Congress debates ways to save on health care, Silicon Valley has an idea of its own: cutting costs through wireless technology, the Wall Street Journal reports. One startup has built a tiny, edible chip that attaches to pills and keeps track of whether patients are taking their medication. Remote...

Scientists Upgrade Century-Old X-Ray Tech

(Newser) - A team of University of North Carolina scientists are working to bring X-ray technology into the 21st century, the Economist reports. The X-ray machines commonly used today rely on vacuum-tube technology little changed from a century ago, but physicist Otto Zhou and his colleagues have used nanotechnology to create smaller,...

At $5B in Profits, One Client May Have Out-Madoffed Madoff

(Newser) - At least one person looks to have benefited more from Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff, ProPublica reports. Jeffry Picower, a secretive philanthropist and investor in medical technologies, is on the books as having withdrawn some $5.1 billion in returns from 1995 to 2008, well beyond his...

10 Stories