Implantable Wireless Device Developed by Stanford Engineers

At the 2012 International Solid-State Circuits Conference held Feb. 19-23 in San Francisco, CA, Stanford's assistant professor of electrical engineering, Ada Poon, demonstrated a tiny, wireless, self-propelled medical device that can be implanted or injected into the human body traveling through the bloodstream to deliver drugs, perform analysis, and possibly even to break up blood clots or remove plaque from arteries.

According to Poon, such devices could revolutionize medical technology, applications include everything from diagnostics to minimally invasive surgeries.

Poon's devices consist of a radio transmitter outside of the body sending signals inside the body to an independent device that picks up the signal with a 2 millimeters square antenna, which is small enough to travel through the bloodstream.

"There is considerable room for improvement and much work remains before such devices are ready for medical applications, but for the first time in decades the possibility seems closer than ever", said Poon.

Also contributing to this research were Stanford doctoral candidates Daniel Plvonka and Anatoly Yakovlev.

Source:  Stanford Report

Shared with: the healthy home economist