A simple method uses stem cells from bone tissue to repair serious injuries quickly and cheaply. By Brittany Sauser A new surgical procedure can repair severe bone injuries and defects more quickly and simply than current methods, which include bone-grafting operations and lengthening procedures that involve inserting pins through the skin to pull bones together. The new technique makes use of a thin tissue called the periosteum, which lines the outer surface of all bones and contains stem cells that develop into bone to repair damage. To repair major bone breaks, or repair serious defects,...

The screws used by doctors to repair broken bones and torn ligaments enable recovery from a wide range of injuries. Unfortunately, they also leave holes in bones, require secondary surgery for removal, and make going through airport security a real pain. But by crafting the screws from a special designed composite of polymer and mineral, researchers at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute have managed to solve all those problems in one fell swoop. Read More…

NY-made robotic surgery simulator going commercial at about $100K per machine By CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press Writer One of the first things Mike Ameroso asked while contemplating robotic surgery for his prostate cancer was how many surgeries his doctors had done with the robot. He liked the idea of the robot’s smaller incision and steady miniature “hands” and the promise of less pain and a quick recovery — but had his doctors put in time at the controls? After all, “an aircraft is only as good as the pilot who flies it,” concurred Thenkurussi Kesavadas...

Stem cells are cells that can effectively turn into any other type of cell, and are therefore considered one of the most powerful treatment options around. In the early embryo, stem cells divide in order to become every organ and tissue in the body, and adult stem cells generally lie dormant. Read More…

A device that sniffs out stomach bugs within minutes could save the NHS millions, it has been revealed By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent The OdoReader – developed by the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England – can rapidly diagnose Clostridium difficile, a common stomach bug that rapidly spreads around hospitals. It causes so much disruption, especially among long stay patients, that it costs the health service more than £200m a year. Read More…

As ‘vegetative’ patients ‘talk’ to scientists, Professor Colin Blakemore assesses the profound implications this has for the sick – and the healthy By Professor Colin Blakemore What nightmare could be worse than being buried alive? Conscious, terrified, but unable to communicate through the impenetrable barrier of a coffin lid and a metre of earth. In the past few days, this ultimate horror has been transformed from the stuff of bad dreams and B movies to two very different front page stories. First, the uplifting images of people being pulled from the rubble of Haiti,...

Before Toyota made cars, it made robots. It’s making them again, and sees enormous potential for future growth in providing care and companionship. When it was founded in 1926, Toyoda Automatic Loom Works (as it was then known) manufactured automatic fabric looms that could detect problems and shut down automatically. It marketed these revolutionary devices as having automation with human intelligence. Read More….

Happy New Year from Medcare Provider

By Michelle Roberts Health reporter, BBC News Scientists have unlocked the entire genetic code of two of the most common cancers – skin and lung – a move they say could revolutionise cancer care. Not only will the cancer maps pave the way for blood tests to spot tumours far earlier, they will also yield new drug targets, say the Wellcome Trust team. Scientists around the globe are now working to catalogue all the genes that go wrong in many types of human cancer. The UK is looking at breast cancer, Japan at liver and India at mouth. Read More…

A Star Trek-style gadget that can detect cancers and other diseases without the need for surgery is being developed by scientists. By Richard Alleyne The team at Yale University claim the portable biomarker detector will be able to identify signs of illness from a sample of blood within 20 minutes. The device, similar to Dr McCoy’s tricorder in the science fiction series, could revolutionise patient diagnosis which at present is both expensive and time consuming. The device, expected to be about the size of a paperback book, works by detecting biomarkers in the blood, substances that suggest...