In 2012, UK Royal Air Force musician Shona Brownlee suffered a seemingly minor leg injury, which in fact had caused irreparable nerve and ligament damage. Following an elective below-knee amputation, ...
Pure Tech
4th October 2022
In 2012, UK Royal Air Force musician Shona Brownlee suffered a seemingly minor leg injury, which in fact had caused irreparable nerve and ligament damage. Following an elective below-knee amputation, and supported by a range of prosthetics, Shona is not only ...
8th July 2022
Dan Beever was delighted when he was asked to join a research team evaluating a new cystic fibrosis (CF) digital health hub designed to help people with CF to adhere to their inhaled medications. Dan had not only worked in ...
16th June 2022
Equipped with wearables, smart scales and apps, Global Liver Institute’s Founder, President & CEO Donna Cryer feels empowered to manage her day-to-day health and partner with her doctors in her healthcare. Following her inspirational story on This Is MedTech – ...
10th May 2021
Four-year-old Oliver Hardwell shows that he is not going to let pontocerebellar hypoplasia – PCH – hold him back. Oliver is one in a million if not one in a billion. While his diagnosis is not clear cut, genetic tests suggest that ...
28th January 2021
“Without the right diagnostics, frankly, I would have died,” says Global Liver Institute Founder, President and CEO Donna Cryer. Little wonder she now spends her time thinking about advancements in medical technologies, not only to optimise her own health but ...
24th November 2017
When he was born, Marc’s mother thought his vision problem was the result of medication she had taken while pregnant. Now, 60 years later, he knows his condition is genetic – and an innovative ‘bionic eye’ has given him the chance ...
2nd November 2017
“It was mostly a beautiful and powerful experience growing up with a prosthetic hand,” says Keith Xander, the lead singer and guitarist of Xander and the Peace Pirates. “It was a feeling of being different, but others would seem to ...
31st October 2017
Art of life is an evening reception organised by MedTech Europe in partnership with EU40 in the European Parliament on Wednesday 22 November 2017 from 6.00pm until 8.00pm. This event will be hosted by the honourable Members of the European Parliament, Brando ...
26th October 2017
“Hearing with only one ear is like living in a black and white world without knowing that somewhere else colours exist,” explains Johanna Pätzold. When the singer became deaf in her right ear as a result of meningitis at ...
19th October 2017
When Mel Reis lost part of her leg, the Brazilian ballerina saw it as a perfect opportunity to get back ‘en pointe’. Ever since her left leg was crushed in a road accident as a teenager, Mel had continued to ...
31st August 2017
Have you ever wondered if ancient technology is still relevant to MedTech today? Let us surprise you! While there is still enough conjecture about the mystery holes in the skull that apparently worked as aspirin to cure everything from epilepsy ...
19th May 2017
Spanish neuropsychologist Gema Climent was instantly drawn to virtual reality tools for evaluating patients after years of observing “paper and pencil tests that were not comparable to the problems people had in real life”. The finalist in the European Commission’...
27th April 2017
From the time Claudia Gärtner was a little girl helping her dad with his business, she knew she would follow in his entrepreneurial footsteps. “I grew up with an engineer father who told me that I could be anything ...
31st March 2017
Women represent only 30% of all entrepreneurs in Europe and medtech is a particularly difficult market to crack. But Mary Franzese isn’t letting this statistic hold her back. The 30-year-old Rising Innovator Award finalist is co-founder of an Italian start-up ...
26th January 2017
These days, there’s cutting edge technology for pretty much every aspect of baby planning, making and care. From wellness apps for expectant moms, to mini-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines that can scan babies’ brains, to new in vitro fertilisation (...
19th January 2017
3D imaging will change how we diagnose disease, train doctors and build spare body parts – and may even allow us to see our unborn babies in the round long before they are born Fans of Grey’s Anatomy (the hit ...
17th January 2017
The digital era’s transformation of healthcare is on the way to be as revolutionary as it has been in retail, research, and media, based on innovations showcased at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show. Held annually in Las Vegas, CES is ...
12th January 2017
Women do well in healthcare and healthcare does well because of women. But despite holding some of the top jobs in healthcare and delivering the best results in the clinic, women are still under-represented in health innovation. Things may be ...
8th December 2016
That’s what many of us have grown up to believe. But for billions of patients in low-resource countries, safe surgery is an unaffordable luxury. International charity Lifebox is working to change this. It helps hospitals in poorer countries with ...
29th November 2016
Treatment enhanced by artificial intelligence, robot-assisted surgery, ingestible diagnosis kits: a new healthcare revolution is knocking at the door. But are we ready for it? A couple of weeks ago the global tech scene, startups and geeks from all walks ...
10th October 2016
Female-led teams are bringing game-changing inventions to patients. More of this please… Edel Browne was just 15 when she founded Free Feet – an innovative technology start-up that aims to improve the lives of people with Parkinson’s disease. It began as ...
27th September 2016
Most of us have settled back into our school routines by now, but for today’s young medtech innovators, ‘school’ takes on a whole new meaning. Take medical device innovation student Tudor Besleaga, for example. As part of his PhD ...
16th August 2016
Summer, that delightful time of vacations and sunshine, can be anything but restful. Sultry nights, bug bites, unfamiliar beds, travel stress and jet lag may add up to nights of tossing and turning. Fortunately, a host of sleep apps can ...
1st August 2016
Wearable technologies are packed with sensors that monitor your well-being, correct your posture and offer health tips in real time It’s summer time. The evenings are long, the weather is (mostly) good and you are counting down to vacation. ...
12th July 2016
Medtech’s future is emerging, and you’re going to wear it. Personal sensors are coming into the health-care market at warp speed. Just some of what’s already here: -A shirt that knows when you slums. -Shoes that sense ...
5th July 2016
Skin cancer affects millions of people every year but smart new technologies can help curb your risk this summer Getting a little sun can be great for your health. Vitamin D helps build stronger bones, natural light has mental health ...
21st June 2016
The ‘miniaturisation’ revolution could make cancer tests faster, simpler and accessible to all. Look around you. How many computers do you see? Are you reading this on a laptop or a tablet? Your kitchen may have a microwave and a ...
2nd June 2016
A former oil tanker with 700 doctors, 5,000 units of blood and 12 operating rooms, this ship is as well-equipped as a large hospital The sheer size of the USNS Comfort and its sister ship, the Mercy is impressive: they are as high ...
12th May 2016
\Almost 200 years after Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, revolutionized battlefront healthcare with handwashing, medtech is helping today’s nurses fulfill their mission of care. Smartphones replaced three-inch thick drug reference books, and apps can find veins and monitor ...
17th March 2016
Samson Cheung and his wife knew something was off. Their baby son never responded when they said his name. Peek-a-boo with the bathtub curtain? A non-starter. Tests ruled out a hearing problem. When Cheung’s son was two, he was ...
23rd February 2016
Young children are known for getting into things. That’s how they learn about the world around them. But what happens when a child is severely disabled? A Barcelona-based organisation called the Nexe Foundation has come up with an innovative ...
11th February 2016
Photographs and films have seen a rapid transformation from black and white to color over the last century. Our x-rays, however, have always remained in black and white. X-rays have been used to look inside the human body since 1895, when ...
15th December 2015
It looks like a makeshift wetsuit, but it’s not for surfers. The so-called non-pneumatic anti-shock garment (NASG) uses the power of compression to stop women from bleeding to death in childbirth. It’s really that simple. The NASG was ...
15th September 2015
Born without a forearm, Rebekah Marine has defied convention by taking the fashion industry by storm. This Is MedTech caught up with the ‘bionic model’ fresh from her second turn on the catwalk at New York Fashion Week. How big ...
18th August 2015
Vaccines are a base to medicine, just as the way they are placed in our body: with a needle and a syringe. It has been so for the last 160 years. Biomedical engineering in Australia stomped and decided it’s time ...
12th August 2015
A robot greeting you with “Hello, I’m your personal healthcare companion” isn’t as far-fetched as Disney’s Big Hero 6 might make you think. In the film, a science student builds Baymax ‒ an inflatable robot prototype-turned-superhero that’s about ...
25th May 2015
A man who is paralyzed from the neck down can now move a robotic arm just by thinking about it. Neural prosthetic devices implanted in the brain’s movement center, the motor cortex, have allowed patients with amputations or paralysis ...
9th April 2015
Albert Manero was on his way to work in the engineering labs of University of Central Florida when he heard an interview about 3D printing of arms. He knew he had to do something. Albert brought together engineers, designers and ...
12th March 2015
Stella Young made us laugh and she made us cry. She challenged the stereotype of disability and proved that people with disability are not “inspiration porn”. Her message will long outlast her short life. Stella was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, ...
25th February 2015
The injections were meant to make them better. Instead, it gave this mother and her four children a dreaded disease from which they will never recover. Credit: BBC News Health In Cambodia, health services are stretched. Finding a doctor and ...
12th February 2015
Joe Landolina looks like any typical 21-year old graduate: he’s young, inspirational, ambitious and wants to change the world. Except he’s already changed it. He’s been working on a life-saving technology since age 17 that could now become ...
4th February 2015
Ok Glass, I need to know if this afternoon's surgery patient has any allergies and send me an update on the vital signs of the patient I operated on this morning.' Remember Google Glass? Just two years ago, Google ...
26th January 2015
A woman with quadriplegia was able to manipulate a robot hand into four positions using just her thoughts to successfully pick up big and small boxes, a ball, an oddly shaped rock, and fat and skinny tubes. The findings describe, ...
Eruwa is a small town in Nigeria, less than an hour’s drive from the state’s capital. It is mostly like any other town in the area with regular blackouts, limited access to drinking water and burdening health stats. ...
8th January 2015
Low-tech solutions for developing countries rank pretty high on my ‘cool medtech’ list. Lever-powered wheelchairs, origami microscopes, vinegar based cancer strip tests. They’re all disrupting the idea that medical devices are flashy, high-end bulky, and of course expensive. The ...
19th December 2014
A few years ago, checking up on your vitals meant paying the doctor a visit. Your heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure were mostly measured at an annual checkup. Now… now it’s different. All this data is now at ...
15th December 2014
Wheelchairs are not sexy. They don’t have to be. They have to be sturdy, and light and easy to manoeuvre. But maybe wheelchairs could become sleek and classy and stay functional at the same time.That’s what designers ...
12th December 2014
Sometimes it’s just a cold. But sometimes it’s a fever that refuses to go away, coughing tantrums, or lasting chest pain. It’s probably time to pay your doctor a visit. But imagine you live in a tiny ...
Sharing is celebrating. Parts of our lives that were at one time (say 15 years ago) rarely spoken of are now the focal points of our social profiles and that's awesome. Canadian Kassidi Struwwelpeeter happily fields questions from her fellow instagrammers ...
30th November 2014
A young boy hears for the first time, a Boston Marathon bombing victim dances on her prosthetic leg. Amazing people with amazing stories. This is why MedTech goes viral. Few things in life can be as emotional as getting something ...
I like sci-fi, I really do. But the biggest reason I’m a fan of it: the high-tech, the gadgets, the “WOW” is what I’ve been missing for a while. After Elysium I started losing faith, then came X-Men ...
13th November 2014
Researchers would like to place very small implants deep inside our bodies to monitor health or treat pain. But providing electric power to implants without wires or batteries has been a big obstacle. Now, engineers are developing a way to ...
James Dyson is the guy behind dyson. Yes, the vacuum cleaner dyson. James Dyson is also a really creative designer who decided to give others a shot too. He created the James Dyson Award to encourage young design engineers to ...
5th November 2014
An insatiable curiosity for what goes on inside the human body has driven innovations in medicine and medical imaging for centuries. In 1895, a German by the name of Wilhelm Röntgen accidentally discovered that X-ray waves could pass through flesh, ...
Implants have been around for decades now and have gradually walked the route of proving how indispensable they are. They established themselves in orthopaedics and dental offices and gradually started taking over new frontiers: becoming the new heart, eye or ...
13th October 2014
A new wearable medical device that uses up to 3,600 liquid crystals can quickly let you know if you’re having heart trouble—or if it’s simply time to slather on some moisturizer. The small device, approximately five centimeters square, ...
25th September 2014
How complicated is medical technology? Very. But does it have to be that way? Sure, there are ‘simple’ technologies out there as well, like the origami microscope or the vinegar cancer test. But how many of us mortals could come ...
24th September 2014
Onesies that detect every turn and gurgle or tricorders that can tell your baby’s heart rate by just placing it near the forehead. Though not available (yet), these will be the baby gadgets of the near future, making monitors ...
4th September 2014
Opening a jar, tying your shoe, stirring coffee. Everyday tasks. More precisely, everyday two-handed tasks. Right? Not for long. MIT’s geniuses came up with a robot “glove”, which can be attached to the hand and adds an extra 2 fingers ...
1st September 2014
1st September 2014
Put 1054 engineers, clinicians and entrepreneurs in a room in Bangalore. Give them 48 hours and 12,588 cups of coffee. What do you get? 106 innovations ready to battle the most pressing clinical issues in Indian maternal medical care. That's what you get. From ...