2009-04-09

Novel Needle to Reduce Medical Complications

Clipped from: medtechinsider » Blog Archive » New Needle Designed to Reduce Medical Complications

New Needle Designed to Reduce Medical Complications

Each year, hundreds of thousands of people suffer medical complications from hypodermic needles that penetrate too far under their skin. A new device developed by MIT engineers aims to prevent this from happening by keeping needles on target.

Diagram shows how a new needle developed at MIT works (from top to bottom): i. Doctor pushes here. ii. Filament buckles and 'locks' inside tube. iii. Additional force advances entire device. iv. Upon penetration of space, filament relaxes inside tube and deploys into space.

Clipped from: Replacing the Doctor's Standard Needle - Future of Medicine - Popular Mechanics

The Future of Needles: Upgrading Medicine's Most-Used Tool

Needles have existed in a form fairly similar to what we use today for thousands of years. But Jeffrey Karp has a new design—inspired by oil drilling—that, he hopes, will upgrade and automate the ubiquitous medical tool.

Clipped from: Novel needle could cut medical complications - MIT News Office

MIT news

The device, which is purely mechanical, is based on concepts borrowed from the oil industry. It involves a hollow S-shaped needle containing a filament that acts as a guide wire. When a physician pushes the device against a tissue, she is actually applying force only to the filament, not the needle itself, thanks to a special clutch.

When the filament, which moves through the tip of the needle, encounters resistance from a firm tissue, it begins to buckle within the S-shaped tube. Due to the combined buckling and interactions with the walls of the tube, the filament locks into place "and the needle and wire advance as a single unit," said Jeffrey Karp, an affiliate faculty member of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and co-corresponding author of a recent paper on the work in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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2008-11-08

Honda's Walking Assist Device

Honda unveiled a walking assist device that helps support bodyweight to reduce the load on the user's' legs while walking, going up and down stairs, and in a semi-crouching position.

clipped from www.thejakartapost.com

Honda shows wearable device that helps you walk

ASSISTED MOBILITY: A researcher displays Honda Motor Co.'s experimental walking assist device with bodyweight support system as the device is unveiled in Tokyo Friday. (AP/Katsumi Kasahara)