Stroke is one disease that ranks top on the list of “most dangerous threats to human health”, but pity that there was no completely useful ways to cure or monitor the stroke, until these days when scientists from Mayo Clinic in Florida have developed the wearable head patch. The device is known as near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), and it will be attached to a patient’s forehead like a sticker to monitor the potential advent of another stroke through the simple act of shining light through the brow skin. It will measure blood oxygen levels in the brain, based on which a doctor can determine whether or not there’s a possibility of another stroke. Compared with other products that are usually big and heavy, the device is really smart for everyday use.

How to effectively treat burns with fewer efforts? It seems that scientists from all over the world are offering us with different solutions, and the Biomask is rightly the one put forward by the USA military. The mask is built with sensors, actuators and a regenerative elixir inside, which would help your face regain mussing facial tissue within several months. The biomask for facial faces is expected to hit the market in 2017.

MITI System’s micro-needle is a medical instrument that can function in both beauty and medical fields. It is perfect to make beauty instruments that are widely used by skin-care specialists with the micro-needle, which will not only ensure a better absorption of cosmetics into skin, but solve skin problems like age spots, blemish and others. On the other hand, the micro-needle would benefit to the medical fields too, where it can be used as a delivery system of things such as vaccine, hormone, insulin, protein treatment products.

Designer: MITI System

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Researchers from the Purdue University have created a Bass-powered medical implant that can utilize sound waves as an energy source. This new pressure sensitive microelectromechanical system has a vibrating cantilever that’s receptive to sound within the 200Hz to 500Hz frequency spectrum. By applying such smart technology into producing medical implants, you can then get some better appliances that can convert the low-frequency vibrations into energy, so as to power themselves automatically.

Designer: Purdue University

There’s an exponentially increasing demand for a newer and better way to deliver drugs inside the stomach, and the urgent need now resulted in the development of this hydrogen-powered microrockets that powered by microbubbles and steered by micromagnets. The rocket is very tiny, just micrometers long while consists of polymer tubes packed with zinc. When the zinc comes in contact with an acid inside your stomach, it soon reacts to release hydrogen, which will then push the rocket forward at a top speed of up to 100 body-lengths per second. To get a good control of the fast-moving rockets, researchers have coated them with a layer of magnetic material on the outside, so that these rockets can be started, stopped or steered via an external magnet. Currently the level of the control is announced fine enough to enable the microrockets to pick up and drop off little cargo modules that will eventually contain drugs, so quite possibly we’ll soon see them widely used in hospital to cure our diseases more efficiently.

The next generation of capsule camera is already here: a little cam developed by scientists from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which can work by receiving magnetic instructions from the MRI that steers a rudder like motor. As the device is wirelessly guided, it will then eliminate the need for an invasive tether guidance system and also reduce the discomfort of patients. It hasn’t been tested yet in the human body, but it has been tested in water, so we believe the human trials shouldn’t be far behind, and the day to use it will come soon.

Designer: Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Coming from Hannes Harms, the “Sono” is a concept of a mobile and wireless sonography system. It enables both an uncommitted handling of the probe and an unlimited connectivity to almost all already-installed screens in hospitable wirelessly, making it quite ideal as a portable and versatile diagnosis device for doctors.

Designer: Hannes Harms

After a whole day spending with the computers, our eyes usually get dry and tired, but fortunately that problem can be solved by the Dry Eye Relief Goggle. To use it, you firstly need to warm the gel packs in a microwave and then place them inside the goggle, which would stimulate tear production after you’ve worn the goggles for 15 to 20 minutes. Additionally, the goggle can form an impervious, 360° seal to prevent air, dirt or pollen, and thus it could be quite useful to people suffering from lagophthalmos too.

Electronic diabetic contact lens is a development collaborated by scientist from University of Washington and Microsoft Research, which is announce to ensure a wireless monitoring of the wearer’s blood sugar levels. The contact lens utilizes an enzyme-based electrochemical process sensitive to glucose, as the enzyme interacts with the tear fluid, certain measurements are then made and reported to the users.

Designer: University of Washington & Microsoft Research

“Medical Tricorder” is a medical diagnostic scanner invented by Tech startup Scanadu, which not only allows people to measure blood pressure, pulmonary function and temperature at any time they need,  but sends information like diagnostic results and medical suggestions to their smartphones.

Designer: Scanadu

Recently, an intelligent smart bandage is developed by researchers at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that can promote angiogenesis and guide exactly where the vessels should go. It is built of layers of a hydrogel made of polyethylene glycol and methacrylic alginate. The bandage is porous and allows small molecules to leak through while directing the flow of larger molecules. Several experiments are conducted on the surface of a chicken embryo, revealing that the network of new blood vessels mirrors the patterns of the channels of the bandage.  There are several potential applications for this intelligent bandage including directing the growth of blood vessels around a blocked artery and normalizing blood vessels that feed a tumor to improve the delivery of anticancer drugs and so on.

Designer: Hyunjoon Kong， Rashid Bashir & K. Jimmy Hsia

The Plasma Toothbrush invented by scientists at the University of Missouri is a new type that disinfects and cleans out cavities, kills bacteria and forms a better bond for the fillings without resulting in any feeling of pain. It features a high efficiency too, accomplishing the dental filling within less than 30 seconds while still ensures the fillings 60 percent stronger than common ones. The Plasma Toothbrush is expected to be arriving in 2013.

The cold winter makes you suffer but you don’t know why? Well, according to scientific researches, the reason that people feel lack of energy in winter is because they lack enough bright white daylight. So in order to help people get fully energized in winter, the SEQINETIC “sun” glasses are created, offering bright light to beat the winter blues. But will that really work? Let those who have tried the glasses to tell us the answer then.

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Selling Price: 55Euro

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The treatment for cancer may soon find a more effective alternative, as scientists from Japan and America have collaborated with a new reagent that makes cancer cells glow and thus visible to human’s naked eyes.

Within minutes after the reagent is sprayed to human body, the cancerous cells will then grow green, therefore allowing for a more accurate distinguishing from healthy tissues. By doing that, all cancerous cells could get completely removed, so as to reduce the risk of disease recurrence. The researchers aim to put the reagent to practical use within a few years, and currently they’re still testing to see whether the fluorescent molecule could be poisonous to cells.

Designer: Yasuteru Urano & Hisataka Kobayashi

Snoring is something like smoking, as it not only destroys the health of the person who makes it, but brings bad influences to people around. We need to stop the snoring, and obviously the robotic bear pillow is a possible method. It would paw at your face if you’re snoring, encouraging you to move your head from side to side and thus to stop snoring. Will the robotic bear pillow really work? Let’s go through the video to see its performance then.

Kinesiology tape is announced to be especially designed and produced for athletes to help stabilize joints, prevent injuries or to do something else. For quite a long time, the kinesiology tapes need to be applied by a trained person, which as a result has made it difficult for everyone to get an easy control of the kinesiology tapes. But now the situation is changed, coz these spider-style kinesiology tapes are precut and therefore ensure a simple usage for ordinary people. To use it, you should just follow the instructional videos and then you can apply the tapes to injured parts.

Selling Price: $7(Shoulder Spider)
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Selling Price: $8.14 (Full Knee Spider)
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Selling Price: $9 (Waist Spider)
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Technology changes the life, and quite soon you’ll see fabric that can convey therapeutic treatments through the skin. Developed by Schoeller Textil AG, the “iLoad” is made to soak up positively charged medical emulsion and then release the substance into the wearer’s skin when triggered by warmth, perspiration or other elements. Moreover, the fabric can be washed with industrial machines to remove lingering residue and then make it ready for reuse. Except used for medical treatment, the “iLoad” fabric is expected to create odor-neutralizing clothes too.

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Time again the MobiUS SP1 proves smaller is better, but also more expensive. Wearing a surprising high price of $7495, the ultrasound machine is small enough to fit into your pocket so that you can use it anywhere. The system is capable of fetal, abdominal, cardiac, pelvic, and peripheral vessel scans, which make it an ideal personal device for medical use. Coming along with a wireless and 3G connectivity, the system can conveniently send images to hospital, therefore allowing the users to keep in a good touch with their family doctors.

Selling Price: $7495

With 3D technology processing by big steps, now 3D printers can manufacture many more amazing things than we can imagine, from toys, swimwear, food and even artificial blood vessels.

Based on 3-D printing and two-photon polymerization technology, engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB have successfully developed printed blood vessels, which seeded with endothelial cells without being rejected. The team will present their work at the Biotechnica Fair in Hanover, Germany, on October.

Designer: Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB

A research group from Tokyo Institute of Technology have recently developed artificial bone using fish scales. In early experiment, the researchers found that “the collagen that makes up fish scales, has a similar structure to the thickest layer of the human cornea, the corneal stroma”. After that they tried to turn the scientific discovery into real products, artificial bones made of fish scales.

Compared with artificial bones made of pig skins, the new material mainly has three advantages: safer to use, stronger in structure and easier to convert into bones. Firstly, fish doesn’t have viruses that are common to people and animals, so the new artificial bones won’t cause illnesses. Also, artificial bone made from fish can have a much higher density so that it is very strong. Thirdly, with artificial bone made from fish scales, it takes about three months for the material to convert into bones after it is implanted, while comparatively it takes artificial bone made from pig skins twice the time to finish to conversion process. The new material is said to be used in treatment for older people in the future, but before that the research group will continue to investigate the bone conversion process further.

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Researchers from the University of Illinois have exhibited their latest achievement – the Electronic Skin via the Internet. It is hair-thin, constructed with sensors, antenna, LED and other parts and powered by built-in solar batteries to monitor a person’s heartbeat, brain activity, muscle contractions and so on. If you put it besides your throat, the device can even “hear” your words so as to accomplish certain tasks. It can be easily applied to anything, without need for glue. When such amazing things used in the medical field, we bet we humans can benefit more from the advanced technology.

Did back discomfort ever annoy you when you just sat before computers to visit the I New Idea? If so, we need to apologize and we really wish we would have found this Koala HUG Lumbar Support for you much earlier.

Developed to relieve lower back discomfort, the device features a sturdy yet lightweight and flexible skeletal design so that it can ensure the users complete freedom of movement when reducing their discomfort.

Selling Price: $99.95

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History has proved that every short step of technology can result in great changes of our daily life, and the impact of science and tech would be especially profound when it relates to the medical field. That’s why we appreciate these Cotton Candy-like Nano Glass Fibers quite much.

According to its researchers, this material richly contains calcium which is important for wound healing- calcium “assists the migration of epidermal cells and helps the body regulate the healing process of open wounds”. Results from an empirical study that began late in the fall of 2010 has demonstrated a satisfying therapeutic effect and we wish these Candy-like Nano Glass Fibers will soon help more people.

How to enjoy a good sleep is a common question asked frequently by people suffering from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and related snoring, but they seldom find a satisfying answer. Fortunately, here is the Provent Therapy to give them a new hope.

It utilizes a proprietary MicroValve design to create pressure when the users exhale and therefore to keep their airway open. It’s small and convenient for use, so nothing uncomfortable will be felt during you sleep with it wearing on your nose.

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Only in 40 seconds, this 2.5cm (1″) diameter cooling device will cool down your skin to an ideal temperature of 6°C.  It can treat many injuries such as bruises, insect bites, sports injuries and so on. As effective as ice, but ensures a much gentler using.

Selling Price: £25.95

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Dunne & Raby makes bloodbags a little more user-friendly… by endowing them with a Teddy Bear appearance. Okay, so kids would feel less depressed when still in the hospitals? Hopefully they do will get more encourage and support from these Teddy Bear Bloodbags.

Designer: Dunne & Raby

The world’s first iPhone blood pressure monitor recently appeared on the Consumer Electronic Show 2011 in Las Vegas. The innovative gadget from Withings has no screens, and it needs to be connected to an iPhone / iPad / iPod touch to tell the data. So to use the blood pressure monitor, you should firstly get an iPhone.

How well do you know your bruises, or more exactly how often should one person change for a new bandage in case that the wounds become infected? Whatever you may say, these Color Changing Bandages obviously know your wounds better than you.

Developed by scientists from Fraunhofer Research Institution, these bandages each comes with an indicator dye that changes color as the pH value of your wounds varies and you need to have a new one when it changes to purple.

In initial tests, the prototype of the color-changing bandage was proved successful and now the researchers are planning to integrate optical sensor modules into the bandages so as to indicate the pH value more precisely.

Your check-in process at hospitals and clinics will be simplified, because Fujitsu has announced and would soon launch its electronic paper-based outpatient guidance solution.

It comes with three main functions:

• Patient Navigation. The solution can guide the patients to any places at the medical facilities, based on a proprietary wireless communications system.

• Medical Record System. The electronic card holder would automatically link into the medical facility’s electronic record system to complete the registration process.

• Consultation Reminder. Through the electronic card holder, the outpatients not only can see their places in the queue, but will be notified via visual displays or vibration when they are called.

The Surinate Bladder Management System, a medical device that is designed for men who suffer from urinary retention (an inability to empty the bladder), has gotten an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) approval recently and will be experimented in the United States soon. The Surinate system features a device that could be inserted into the urethra, not only bridging the bladder neck, prostrate and external sphincter, but providing a valved connection between the bladder and the bulbous urethra in the meantime. Remotely controlled by a magnet, the valve could be easily activated and adjusted. When the user wants to empty the bladder, he only needs to move the hand-held switching magnet closer to the check valve magnet, which will then be drawn away from the valve seat to let the urine flow out. According to the company, “the Surinate valved catheter is designed to remain in the patient for up to 30 days.”

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ThermaHelm is a helmet that could stabilize the temperature of the brain, and believed by its designer Jullian Preston-Powers, the helmet “has the potential to save thousands of lives around the world every year”. It contains two lightweight chemical packs— one is filled with water and inside the other is ammonium nitrate. And you may have guessed right, the two will mix and trigger a ‘cooling’ reaction when given an impact.

Jullian Preston-Powers said that, he got the inspiration after sustaining an injury during a game of basketball. When playing basketball with his friend, Jullian Preston-Powers accidentally hit his friend’s head with the elbow and then someone handed them ice-packs for their injuries. “It was so cold I couldn’t hold it for very long,” Mr. Preston-Powers said, “So I placed it in my friend’s motorcycle helmet and he accidentally put it on while the pack was inside. He was surprised by how good it felt and that’s when I had that eureka moment.”

An $815 version of the ThermaHelm also comes with video cameras, GPS and Bluetooth and it is expected to be launched in the UK in May this year.

Designer: Jullian Preston-Powers

So daddies, you could take part in the whole process of the childbirth as long as you’re to deliver your baby with the help of the kit! It includes everything you need for childbirth, for example, a pad for the lady to lie on, rubber gloves and surgical masks for the midwives, as well as a clamp for snipping off the umbilical cord. Moreover, all those tools are stored in an airtight can so as to keep away from bacteria.

Designer: Paco Lindoro & Francisco Lindoro

So you’re an absent-minded person. And you’re ill. And it’s time to take medicine. But you are not looking for the pills—you’ve totally forgotten that. Many humans forget to take medicine on time, and that’s why the “Medi Flower” is invented. As all the tablets are packaged into cute flower stands, you can place them in a conspicuous place, so that you may easily notice them and take your tablets at the right time.

Designer: Moon Sun-Hee

Congratulations to Peter Lane, because he could see the world again, though partially, after been blind for over twenty years. Peter was the first blind people to be implanted with a bionic eye at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital.

One of the main parts that let Lane see again is the bionic eye, an electronic receiver that receives electronic signals of the images captured by a camera fixed to his special pair of glasses. And then, a video processor attached to his belt will convert these images into electronic signals and send them to an electrode panel embedded in the retina. After that, his brain will receive certain pulse, and Lane will be able to see the outlines of the objects around him.

Already succeeded in seeing part of the world again, Peter is now looking forward to reading again. If tailor-made projector would be stalled at his home, believed by Peter, it’s no longer a dream to read again with his own eyes.

Researchers from Israel have developed the mini robot that is expected to be widely used in the medical field. Measuring merely 1mm, the robot could move inside vessels (at a speed of 9mm per second) to deal with the clogging artery and inject some drug. And all its actions are controlled by the extracorporeal magnetic field, which means a real-time manipulation and a safety operation. Until now, scientists are still concentrating efforts on advancing the maneuverability of the robot, equipping it with a camera, for example.

Compared with traditional injection sets, the needle-free vaccine delivery patch from Iomai (now part of Intercell) features a transcutaneous vaccination technology and a patch form for vaccine. As a result, it promises a safer and healthier injection. Additionally, due to the patch form, vaccine could last up to six months without refrigeration. Currently, the standard production line is still being tested so that they could also be easily manufactured in developing countries.

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Oh, I’ve seen your mustache….on your figures?! Yes, that’s just what the Mustache Bandages aim at, say, to bring your life with more fun. So, when you cut your hand carelessly next time, you may try the Mustache Bandages. Despite the normal function to prevent infection, Mustache Bandages will also ensure you a good mood.

Selling Price: $7
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Reform, to add new parts to an existing article or to reshape a dated appliance, has been proved again and again to be an effective way to creativity, just like the wheelchair with a weighing scale operated by a battery. Specially designed for disabled and elderly people, the new wheelchair saves both patients and doctors much trouble to conduct regular weight checks.

Not like other injures, fracture calls for a physiotherapy routine to recovery, and the Recovery Sling by Sungjoon Kim is just something that may help you to build back your skeletons. Except to keep your fractured arm immovable, the adjustable arm loop also acts as a rehab aid that allows you to do adequate muscle-building exercises.

Designer: Sungjoon Kim, Seunghee Son, Sook-kyung Lee & Yonghee Cho

This is a USB-powered portable gadget called “dental camera” that helps you to check your teeth in photos. Featuring several LEDs, the camera can shoot pictures (640×480) or videos (1280×1024) and transmit them to a computer.

Price: ¥8200
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The muscle tester, an achievement from bioengineering Institute of Rice University, is developed to fix palms, separate each figures, and measure the strength of certain hand muscles accurately. In that way, the device makes it easier for doctors from neurology department and surgical department to check out their muscle recovery condition of the patients.

Before you are going to date with some important person, have you checked your breath? To most people, whether their breath smells good or not is an inconvenient factor to appointments. So with the portable breath checker, you can easily identify the condition of your breath at anytime. Just turn the checker on and follow the instructions, you can then judge from the three iconic expressions on the screen to decide whether or not your breath is fresh enough.

Selling Price: $48
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Of course, nobody likes to get injured. But, in case you are unfortunately injured, you have to suffer the physical pain and at the same time explain the reason you’re injured to your friends. This is an annoyance. If you use a sling like this, I guess you can explain less. What’s more, this kind of weird slings are gonna make you more humorous.

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Kids are in general feared of liquid IV, and some children even begin to cry as soon as they saw this liquid. Actually, most of the liquid IV is water and saline which is similar to our daily food. So, why not just make the liquid IV seems like food?

Next time you take your baby to hospital, you can tell him, “You’re eating.”

Designer: Sungwoo Park

There have been so many remedies of different kinds in the market, and it seems that we can choose a better one. But just because of these so many remedies, it is harder to make a choice.
This series of products directly tell you the usage by such simple words like “I’ve cut myself.” and ”I have a headache.” . In addition, the “help” is pretty helpful to attract your attention.

All the packages of this series of products are made from eco-friendly decomposable material.

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Although back pain may not be fatal, it is still uncomfortable. In order to have an appropriate treatment, surgeons should first identify whether back pain originates within the bone or muscle tissue. However, it is not so easy until SPOC launched their new device.

This new device can tell you the accurate location where the pains came from. By following the exact indicator, you will sure recover in a shorter time.

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To be really healthy and really safe, one ought to have a personal doctor with him wherever he goes. But this is not a business that can be undertaken in short time. If we can be diagnosed by a very doctor via cellphone, it may be a good alternative in this condition.

NTT DoCoMo has announced that they have developed a new molecular delivery system which enables instant remote diagnosis of the user’s health and emotional state by extract single molecules from seat or blood.

Aimed to provide a cheap, reliable way for doctors to get information from patients, researchers from UC Berkeley developed a cellphone Microscope. This unique device could provide up to 60X which is powerful enough to see malaria in a blood sample.

Although it is not convenient to diagnosed, doctor can still get some information via cellphone.

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In common sense, children like candy rather than pills. So, we should do something to make them accept pills while in falling sick.

Wrapped in candy’s paper, these pills must be more delicious for kids.

Dental surgeon is not a big deal, but you still have to suffer pang, therefore, the anesthetic is necessary. However, not everybody is fit for drug anesthetic because of allergy. Why not try this GumEase.

It recently has approved by FDA. Just chill it in freezer and then put it in the patient’s mouth for about 2 to 3 minutes, it gonna relieve 90% of a patient’s pain for 20 minutes.

Video after the jump

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