Safer Heart Surgery through Better Imaging

Heart surgery is the primary method for correcting congenital heart defects in newborns. A major risk of heart surgery is damage to specialized tissue of the conduction system, which generates and propagates electrical impulses necessary for the heart to pump blood throughout the body. Even through the trained eye of a surgeon, it is impossible […]

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Engineers Invent Mechanical Leech

Mechanical engineering students Jessica Kuhlman, Scott Ho and Andy Thompson developed a mechanical leech to replace biological ones used in post-surgical tissue reattachment treatment. Addressing biological leech drawbacks, the cost-effective device reliably reduces blood pooling and pressure, precisely injects anti-coagulants into the therapy site, and eliminates the “ick” factor. The mechanical leech was named runner-up […]

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SAVE YOUR BACON: EASING HEALTH-INSURANCE CONFUSION

People ages 18 to 34 are statistically accident-prone, but many do not get insurance because the process is too confusing. A new mobile-device game called “Save Your Bacon” illustrates the need for health insurance by showing the costs of accidents for insured and uninsured victims. The game randomly selects from a variety of potential injuries. […]

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