Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that the risk of patient harm increased two-fold in 2006, which was the peak year that teaching hospitals nationwide embraced minimally invasive robotic surgery for prostate cancer. Results of the study are published in today's online issue of JAMA Surgery.

ReShape Medical (San Clemente, California), a company trying to bring a non-surgical weight-loss device to the U.S. market, said it has submitted a PMA application to the FDA for the ReShape integrated dual balloon system. According to the company, the device is the first dual balloon for non-surgical weight loss designed for people with a 30-40 body mass index (BMI).

Short of having psychic abilities or a time machine, nobody knows for sure just how big the 3-D printing market will become or the full extent to which this incredible technology will change the world. But most people agree that the ability to instantly produce solid objects from a digital file will have a mind-blowing impact on nearly every aspect of our lives. Most would also agree that the healthcare industry will be among the most transformed by 3-D printing.

Much to my father’s utter disappointment I’m sure, I did not inherit the sci-fi appreciation gene. I never understood the cult phenomenon created by Star Trek and have always preferred living in the now over fantasizing about the future. While I’ll never be able to call myself a Trekkie, I have slowly gained an appreciation over the years for technology that seems to have been plucked right off the fictional starship USS Enterprise. A fascinating example of this, as Spock would say, is the rise of 3-D printing. The advancement of 3-D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is predicted...

A young company developing a product to address secondary lymphedema, a chronic disease with no cure, stole the show at a venture competition held during a recent medical device conference. Working with Stanford University (Stanford, California), Fibralign (Sunnyvale, California) developed BioBridge, a surgical device designed to support the formation of new functional lymphatic vessels.