Articles By Clinton Shaffer
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Medtronic Changes Financing For Covidien Acquisition
10/6/2014
The Medtronic-Covidien merger is set to proceed, despite recent federal regulation from the U.S. Treasury designed to deter tax inversion deals. Instead of using cash for the deal, however, Medtronic will use debt to finance the acquisition.
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Simplifying The Development Of Handheld NIR Spectroscopy Devices
4/30/2014
Portable NIR spectrometers enable innovative and more efficient ways of handling countless applications. I recently spoke with Mariquita Gordon, business manager of DLP embedded products at Texas Instruments, to discuss the company’s new NIR technologies and talk about the emerging market for portable NIR spectrometers.
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Photonics And The Future Of Medicine
3/18/2014
Photonics West serves as the perennial indicator of market trends for the photonics and optics industries. At this year’s event, held last month in San Francisco, one of the pervasive themes I observed in both the technical conference and the exhibition was the increasing role photonics and optics are playing in the development of advanced biomedical technologies. That trend is poised to continue well into the future.
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Engineering A Biologically Inspired, Soft Orthotic Device
2/27/2014
Recently, a group of researchers at Harvard University developed an innovative, anatomically designed device that could help rehabilitate patients suffering from ankle and foot disorders. Unlike traditional exoskeletons, which are rigid and restrict full range-of-motion, this prototype incorporates a unique combination of soft materials, sensors, pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs), and control software to provide support and allow for natural movement.
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Optogenetics Helps Binge-Drinking Rats Sober Up
1/24/2014
What if I told you that flashing lights could one day cure alcoholism? A recent study published by a team of researchers at the University of Buffalo has demonstrated that the technique is not only possible, but very effective — in binge-drinking rats. For the experiments, rodents were trained to habitually consume alcohol in a manner consistent with human binge-drinking behavior. Researchers then used optogenetic techniques in order to manipulate the release of dopamine in the rats’ brains, and put an end to their vices.
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Survey Finds Most Surgeons Are Unaware Of Implantable Device Costs
1/15/2014
A recent survey found that a staggering percentage of surgeons are unaware of the costs of the implantable medical devices (IMDs) they use.
There are two key factors that contribute to these surprising statistics. The first factor is that surgeons are not required, or incentivized, to know the cost of a device. Second, hospitals sign confidentiality clauses with their vendors, and those agreements hide the costs of devices—even to the surgeons who are responsible for selecting the device.