Miniature implantable medical devices

The next step, according to Shuvo Roy and other MEMS researchers, is moving MEMS into the body as the basis for implantable drug delivery devices, imaging systems, surgical tools, and more.

"MEMS technology promises to revolutionize medicine by enabling the development of miniature, smart, low-cost biomedical devices that can revolutionize biomedical investigation and clinical practice," says Roy, an associate professor of bioengineering at the University of California, San Francisco.

For example, Roy and his colleagues are now designing membranes that would allow dialysis to be miniaturized into implantable devices, freeing kidney failure patients from the cumbersome process, and have created wireless sensors for orthopedics that could monitor the need for spine surgery, bone healing, and implant performance. -American Institute of Physics