An overview of the process, progress, and outcomes of a National Center for Accelerated Innovation: The Boston Biomedical Innovation Center Experience.

Implementation of clinically useful research discoveries in the academic environment is challenged by limited funding for early phase proof-of-concept studies and inadequate expertise in product development and commercialization. To address these limitations, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established the National Centers for Accelerated Innovations (NCAI) program in 2013. Three centers competed successfully for awards through this mechanism.

Herb-drug interaction of gastrodiae rhizoma on carbamazepine: A pharmacokinetic study in rats.

Objective: Gastrodiae Rhizoma (GR), is a traditional Chinese Medicine that has been used for neurological disorders, including epilepsy. Epilepsy patients may be treated with adjunctive therapy of GR with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). In particular, carbamazepine (CBZ) is of high potential to interact with concurrent treatment of Chinese Medicine.

The antiepileptic effect of Gastrodiae Rhizoma through modulating overexpression of mTOR and attenuating astrogliosis in pilocarpine mice model.

Objective: To investigate the effect of water extract of Gastrodiae Rhizoma (GR) on the development of acquired temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and on regulating the expression of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and semaphorin 3F (SEMA3F).

Methods: A pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus (SE) model was adopted to precipitate injury in the limbic systems. GR and carbamazepine (CBZ) treatments were given to mice for 14 days prior to SE induction to demonstrate the antiepileptic effects and continued for 5 more days to illustrate the effects on histologic studies.

Surface EEG-Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Closed-Loop System.

Conventional transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) protocols rely on applying electrical current at a fixed intensity and duration without using surrogate markers to direct the interventions. This has led to some mixed results; especially because tDCS induced effects may vary depending on the ongoing level of brain activity. Therefore, the objective of this preliminary study was to assess the feasibility of an EEG-triggered tDCS system based on EEG online analysis of its frequency bands.

Biomedical optics centers: forty years of multidisciplinary clinical translation for improving human health.

Despite widespread government and public interest, there are significant barriers to translating basic science discoveries into clinical practice. Biophotonics and biomedical optics technologies can be used to overcome many of these hurdles, due, in part, to offering new portable, bedside, and accessible devices. The current JBO special issue highlights promising activities and examples of translational biophotonics from leading laboratories around the world.

Saphenous vein graft near-infrared spectroscopy imaging insights from the lipid core plaque association with clinical events near-infrared spectroscopy (ORACLE-NIRS) registry.

Objectives: We sought to examine near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) imaging findings of aortocoronary saphenous vein grafts (SVGs).

Background: SVGs are prone to develop atherosclerosis similar to native coronary arteries. They have received little study using NIRS.

Baseline elevation and reduction in cardiac electrical instability assessed by quantitative T-wave alternans in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy treated with vagus nerve stimulation in the AspireSR E-36 trial.

Objective: Reports of cardiac arrhythmias and cardiac pathology at postmortem examination of patients with epilepsy suggest a possible cardiac component of risk for sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). T-wave alternans (TWA) is an established marker of cardiac electrical instability and risk for sudden death in patients with cardiovascular disease. We determined the TWA level before vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) system implantation and subsequently the effect of VNS on TWA in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy.

Systems Engineering and Point of Care Testing: Report from the NIBIB POCT/Systems Engineering Workshop.

The first part of this manuscript is an introduction to systems engineering and how it may be applied to health care and point of care testing (POCT). Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field that seeks to better understand and manage changes in complex systems and projects as whole. Systems are sets of interconnected elements which interact with each other, are dynamic, change over time and are subject to complex behaviors.

Robotic palpation and mechanical property characterization for abnormal tissue localization.

Palpation is an intuitive examination procedure in which the kinesthetic and tactile sensations of the physician are used. Although it has been widely used to detect and localize diseased tissues in many clinical fields, the procedure is subjective and dependent on the experience of the individual physician. Palpation results and biomechanics-based mechanical property characterization are possible solutions that can enable the acquisition of objective and quantitative information on abnormal tissue localization during diagnosis and surgery.

As accessible as a book on a library shelf: the imperative of routine simulation in modern health care.

Technology-enhanced patient simulation has emerged as an important new modality for teaching and learning in medicine. In particular, immersive simulation platforms that replicate the clinical environment promise to revolutionize medical education by enabling an enhanced level of safety, standardization, and efficiency across health-care training. Such an experiential approach seems unique in reliably catalyzing a level of emotional engagement that fosters immediate and indelible learning and allows for increasingly reliable levels of performance evaluation-all in a completely risk-free environment.

Evaluation of colonoscopy technical skill levels by use of an objective kinematic-based system.

Background: Colonoscopy requires training and experience to ensure accuracy and safety. Currently, no objective, validated process exists to determine when an endoscopist has attained technical competence. Kinematics data describing movements of laparoscopic instruments have been used in surgical skill assessment to define expert surgical technique.

The Physical Therapy and Society Summit (PASS) Meeting: observations and opportunities.

The construct of delivering high-quality and cost-effective health care is in flux, and the profession must strategically plan how to meet the needs of society. In 2006, the House of Delegates of the American Physical Therapy Association passed a motion to convene a summit on "how physical therapists can meet current, evolving, and future societal health care needs." The Physical Therapy and Society Summit (PASS) meeting on February 27-28, 2009, in Leesburg, Virginia, sent a clear message that for physical therapists to be effective and thrive in the health care environment of the future, a paradigm shift is required.

Advances in the application of technology to epilepsy: the CIMIT/NIO Epilepsy Innovation Summit.

In 2008, a group of clinicians, scientists, engineers, and industry representatives met to discuss advances in the application of engineering technologies to the diagnosis and treatment of patients with epilepsy. The presentations also provided a guide for further technological development, specifically in the evaluation of patients for epilepsy surgery, seizure onset detection and seizure prediction, intracranial treatment systems, and extracranial treatment systems. This article summarizes the discussions and demonstrates that cross-disciplinary interactions can catalyze collaborations between physicians and engineers to address and solve many of the pressing unmet needs in epilepsy.

Image registration assists novice operators in ultrasound assessment of abdominal trauma.

Transcutaneous ultrasound imaging may be used to detect abdominal hemorrhage in the field setting. The Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST) examination was developed to characterize blunt abdominal trauma and has been shown to be effective for assessing penetrating trauma as well. However, it is unlikely that a minimally trained operator could perform a diagnostic examination.

EUS with CT improves efficiency and structure identification over conventional EUS.

Background: EUS is complicated because of the subtleties of US interpretation, small fields of observation, and uncertainty of probe position and orientation.

Objective: Improved EUS performance is sought by providing contextual information to support US probe positioning and identification of features in US images. Our aims were to demonstrate the feasibility of the image registered gastroscopic US (IRGUS) system in a porcine model and to compare the effectiveness and the efficiency of IRGUS with traditional EUS.

The food and drug administration and molecular imaging agents: potential challenges and opportunities.

Molecular imaging, which combines the use of traditional imaging modalities with pharmaceutical and biologic imaging agents, holds considerable promise, particularly in light of recent advances in genomics and new applications beyond diagnosis toward the earlier detection and characterization of disease, the reliable assessment of treatment efficacy, and imaging-link therapeutic applications. Its potential notwithstanding, the current U.S.

Medical devices and the US Food and Drug Administration: regulating the tools of radiology.

The radiology community has an ever-expanding array of technologies to use in the care of patients. Regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration, these technologies often raise complex regulatory and legal questions in everyday practice that can be daunting for practicing radiologists. This article reviews the federal medical device regulatory framework pertinent to the practice of radiology, with the aims of highlighting the potential impact of federal regulation on everyday practice and minimizing misunderstandings about enforcement exposure.

New devices for percutaneous coronary intervention are rapidly making bypass surgery obsolete.

Purpose Of Review: This review summarizes recent and cumulative progress in the success, safety, applicability, and durability of percutaneous coronary intervention.

Recent Findings: Improvements in basic percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) equipment and the availability of bare metal stents in the mid-1990s improved acute procedural success to 98%, reduced the emergency surgery rate to 0.2%, and reduced the incidence of recurrent symptoms due to restenosis at the treated site to 15 to 20%.