- Title: ISRAEL: New and innovative medical devices presented in BioMed expo
- Date: 8th June 2008
- Summary: (L!3) TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (RECENT) (REUTERS) CLOSE OF EXPO SIGN READING "BIOTECHNOLOGY & MEDICAL DEVICES" WIDE OF PEOPLE AT BIO-MED EXPO VARIOUS OF SALES REPRESENTATIVE TALKING TO CLIENTS CLOSE OF FINGER DEVICE USED FOR MONITORING GLUCOSE LEVELS (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIOR MAAYAN, CEO OF "ORSENSE", DEVELOPERS OF NON-INVASIVE GLUCOSE MONITORING SYSTEM, DEMONSTRATING DEVICE AND
- Embargoed: 23rd June 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Health
- Reuters ID: LVAC2W1N93NVC9CSK4627EZJAZXL
- Story Text: Relief for diabetes patients and diagnosis through saliva are just two among dozens of new medical patents and devices introduced by the Israeli bio-med industry in the "ILSI-Biomed Israel 2008" conference held in Tel Aviv last week.
The annual exposition, once a local attraction only, has become in recent years one of the main events of the global bio-med industry.
Sixty-nine of Israel's leading start-up companies, some backed by major hospitals, showed off their hottest medical innovations and new therapies, some already in clinical studies and soon expected on the market.
Among the visitors at the expo were businessmen from the United States, Europe and Asia, as well as local investors looking for the next trend in the industry.
A non-invasive glucose monitor that can significantly improve the lives of those suffering from diabetes was one of the most promising devices in the expo.
The device, developed by the Israeli company OrSense, was designed to spare hundreds of millions of diabetes patients around the world of the need for daily invasive blood tests.
Currently, many diabetes sufferers monitor their glucose levels in a simple test that involves pricking the finger and drawing blood. Some patients are forced to go through the procedure as many as four times a day.
The new device is a ring which applies pressure on the patient's finger, stopping the flow of blood for several seconds and sending optical signals to blood vessels which test the levels of glucose, haemoglobin and oxygen.
"The device will take some time for a reading, just under a minute, and the reading will represent the glucose values of the patient," said Lior Maayan, CEO of OrSense, adding that the estimated market for the monitor are 250 million diabetes patients around the world.
The product was granted a European approval and is now in clinical trials in the United States, Maayan said.
Another innovation for overcoming the need for needles was presented by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Though the disposable device looks like a normal syringe, it is for the collection fo saliva, which is then subjected to testing.
"Diagnostics from saliva becomes lately very interesting since its easy to collect, not painful, easy to store and easy to ship. The problem is finding bio-markers for diagnostics. The problem with that is that the saliva contains Alpha-Amylase which is a digestive enzyme which masks these bio-markers. Our device is intended to remove this enzyme, and therefore facilitate the detection of these disease bio-markers," said developer Professor Aaron Palmon of the Hebrew University.
According to the Israeli company promoting the development, Yissum, studies have proved that most molecules that can be found in the blood or urine can also be found in saliva, albeit in smaller concentrations.
The studies show that saliva may be useful for detecting cancer, heart disease, diabetes, HIV and other conditions, yet collecting the saliva samples is a non invasive and cheep procedure, and can take place at the patient's home.
The new device uses modified potato starch to clean a protein -- usually helpfully in digestion but one that masks the presence of the disease bio-markers -- from the saliva , and enables detection of markers found in low concentrations.
Another exciting device presented in the conference was the LuboCollar, a cervical collar that can save the lives of trauma patients.
While it looks like any other cervical collar used for stabilisation of the neck after accidents or trauma events, the LuboCollar also keeps the patient's airway open, and prevents suffocation if consciousness is lost.
"It pushes the jaw forward and maintains an open airway, and that patient can be left and the medic or the physician can go on and treat the other trauma patients," said Stuart Bernstein, VP for marketing at Hadasit, the developing company.
The LuboCollar can be especially efficient in multiple-casualty accidents, war zones and attacks, when urgent treatment is needed and not enough medical staff are on hand.
Bernstein says the collar has a simple but unique mechanism that uses a "jaw-thurst' -- like knob to manoeuvre the lower jaw -- that pushes it forward to the direction of the chin and prevents the dropping of the tongue and the blocking of the airway.
According to Bernstein, the device had a 100% success in preliminary trials and is now waiting the approval of the Israeli Ministry of Health.
The BioMed expo, the biggest of its kind so far, brought together more than 6,000 participants, 1,500 of them buyers from abroad.
"Israel became an incubator that put together a lot of knowledge, a lot of idea, manufacturing skills in the life science industry.... Israel has the largest number of patents per capita in the world, in the medical devices we are number one in the world in patent numbers. And of course we are leading in many many fields, from medical devices, genetics and agro-genetics as well," said one of the event organisers, Zeev Zelig.
Except for the current devices on display, the BioMed international event was also a useful meeting place for industrialists, start-up companies and medical researchers, who will collaborate on future projects and will keep Israel in the front of the bio-med world. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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