A team of researchers led by North Carolina State University has made a breakthrough that could lead to new dialysis devices and a host of other revolutionary medical implants.

Over the last 10 years, researchers and clinicians have begun to use microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), which combine electronics technology with tiny mechanical devices like sensors and valves embedded in semiconductor chips--in the biomedical laboratory, to help automate diagnostic testing procedures.

Researchers at Yale University have created a blueprint for artificial cells that are more powerful and efficient than the natural cells they mimic and could one day be used to power tiny medical implants.

Northwestern Memorial’s Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute is one of seven programs in the country participating in new study aimed at improving the heart’s pumping action and helping to manage congestive heart failure symptoms.

Digital medical imaging and information technology from Carestream Health, Inc., is playing a key role in helping The Field Museum of Chicago discover and analyze secrets hidden within its world-class collections.

A team of ear, nose and throat specialists and neurosurgeons at the University Hospital of Navarra, led by doctors Manuel Manrique Rodríguez, specialist in ear, nose and throat surgery and Bartolomé Bejarano Herruzo, specialist in paediatric neurosurgery, have successfully operated on a 13 month-old girl from Murcia, who had been born deaf due to the lack of auditory nerves.

A new thin-film coating developed at MIT can deliver controlled drug doses to specific targets in the body following implantation, essentially serving as a “micro pharmacy.”

Donated, freeze-dried tendon grafts loaded with gene therapy may soon offer effective repair of injured tendons, a goal that has eluded surgeons to date.

Three years after patients were given Nobel Direct dental implants, the risk of the implant loosening has increased even more. A follow-up by researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy in Sweden shows that eight per cent of the implants are lost.

Scientists in New York are reporting development of a new biodegradable “nanohybrid” plastic that can be engineered to decompose much faster than existing plastics used in everything from soft drink bottles to medical implants. The study is scheduled for the Nov. issue of ACS’ Biomacromolecules, a bi-monthly journal.

For orthopaedic implants to be successful, bone must meld to the metal that these artificial hips, knees and shoulders are made of. A team of Brown University engineers, led by Thomas Webster, has discovered a new material that could significantly increase this success rate.

A world leader in medical implants calls for a rethink in our approach to building medical implants.