Medical Devices

Displaying 1 - 10 of 63


Steerable Needles: A Better Turning Radius with Less Tissue Damage

A team of Vanderbilt engineers and surgeons have developed a new steerable needle that can make needle based biopsy and therapy delivery more accurate. A novel flexure-based tip design provides enhanced steerability while simultaneously minimizing tissue damage. The present device is useful for almost any needle-based procedure including biopsy, thermal ablation, brachytherapy, and drug delivery.


Licensing Contact

Ashok Choudhury

615.322.2503

A Robotic System for Treating Intracranial Hemorrhage (ICH)

Vanderbilt researchers have designed a general purpose system for precise steering of multi-lumen needles. One significant application of the system is decompression of the cranium during hemorrhagic events (ICH).


Licensing Contact

Ashok Choudhury

615.322.2503

Transoral Lung Access Device

Transoral lung access is preferable to traditional needlebasedaccess due to the lower risk of lung collapse. However present bronchoscope-based devices enable access to only a small portion of the lung. The present device is a robotic image-guided bronchoscope to navigate the airway under closed-loop control to the target. IT is designed to provide transoral access to any location in the lung, particularly the hard-to-reach peripheral regions.


Licensing Contact

Ashok Choudhury

615.322.2503
Medical Devices

Dexterous Robotic Wrist and Gripper for Extreme Precision Micro-surgical Maneuvers in Confined Spaces

This invention presents a robotic wrist and gripper that operate with three independent degrees of freedom (yaw, pitch and roll) for increased dexterity in minimally invasive surgical procedures. This is the smallest robotic wrist of its kind, and due to its size and unparalleled dexterity, this wrist enables complex surgical maneuvers for minimally invasive procedures in highly confined spaces. Examples of surgical areas benefiting from use of this wrist include natural orifice surgery, single port access surgery, and minimally invasive surgery. In particular, the proposed wrist allows for very high precision roll about the longitudinal axis of the gripper while overcoming problems of run-out motion typically encountered in existing wrists. Thus this wrist is particularly suitable for extreme precision maneuvers for micro-surgery in confined spaces.


Licensing Contact

Masood Machingal

615.343.3548
Medical Devices

Compliant Insertion, Motion, and Force Control of Continuum Robots

Vanderbilt researchers have developed a framework for compliant insertion with hybrid motion and force control of continuum robots. This technology expands the capabilities of robotic surgery by providing continuum robots with the ability to autonomously discern, locate, and react to contact along their length and calculate forces at the tip, thus enabling quick and safe deployment of snake-like robots into deep anatomical passages or unknown environments.


Licensing Contact

Masood Machingal

615.343.3548

Continuum Robots with Equilibrium Modulation (CREM)

The A.R.M.A. Laboratory of Vanderbilt University has developed a novel continuum robot design enabling multi-scale motion at the macro and micro scale. The unique design allows miniaturization with minimal added cost thereby potentially giving rise to a new generation of surgical robots capable of both macro-motion for surgical intervention and micro-scale motion for cellular-level imaging or intervention. Micro-motion is achieved through a unique method for altering the equilibrium pose of the robot via material re-distribution throughout the length of the robot. This process ushers in a new class of surgical robotics termed continuum robots with equilibrium modulation (CREM).


Licensing Contact

Masood Machingal

615.343.3548
Medical Devices

Early Detection of Implant Loosening

Vanderbilt University researchers have developed a new technique for identifying implantloosening. The technique utilizes the analysis of synovial fluid as an early indicator of potential loosening of orthopedic implants.


Licensing Contact

Ashok Choudhury

615.322.2503

A Novel Organs-On-Chip Platform

Vanderbilt researchers have created a new multi-organs-on-chip platform that comprises Perfusion Control systems, MicroFormulators, and MicroClinical Analyzers connected via fluidic networks. The real-time combination of multiple different solutions to create customized perfusion media and the analysis of the effluents from each well are both controlled by the intelligent use of a computer-operated system of pumps and valves. This permits, for the first time, a compact, low-cost system for creating a time-dependent drug dosage profile in a tissue system inside each well.


Licensing Contact

Ashok Choudhury

615.322.2503

Point of Care Rheological Assay for Sickle Cell Disease

Vanderbilt researchers have created a novel technology for the diagnosis and monitoring of disease states using the rheological properties of a blood sample with a lateral flow membrane.


Licensing Contact

Ashok Choudhury

615.322.2503

No-touch Breast Implant Placement Device

Vanderbilt researchers have developed a breast implant device that minimizes potential contaminants during surgery by requiring no contact between the surgeon and the implant during insertion.


Licensing Contact

Philip Swaney

615.322.1067
Medical Devices
Surgery