Open Upright MRI: Good Step Forward

Vertically open MRI 

Since its invention MRI machines were huge in size, making many patients fear entering such machines. The worst part is that not only the patient has to enter a hole in the middle of the machine, she is required to stay still for a minimum of 15 minutes. During which she will be hearing noises from the machine, this was at times best quality patient care service. But things have to move forward and as MRI machines are serving more patients, MRI machines have to be improved.

Now and thanks to many technological advancements the conception of open horizontal MRIs was possible then lately we saw the conception of open vertical MRIs. Of course there is a compromised magnet power which is usually far less than that of a conventional "mammoth-sized" MRIs but in many cases this is an acceptable compromise.

Pneumatic Tube System Once Science Fiction Now a Reality

Have you ever seen a science fiction movie where they send items using capsules that travel from one room to another? If you did then be aware that now such "Fiction" is a reality!

Where now patient samples (blood, urine, drugs & etc) can be sent using capsules that travel very fast from the nurse station to the laboratory where it needs to be analyzed. Such system is used in many other applications in various industries but we are concerned about its use in the medical field, where in many cases it can be life-saving.

Dialyzers Sterilized With Ethylene Oxide Are Fatal

Kidney failure is one of the most spreading diseases, it has many causes and in the US there are about 26 million adults who have a kidney disease. There are 661 thousand Americans who are diagnosed with total kidney failure, Because it is impossible to provide for a kidney transplant for all these numbers, they are going to apply for dialysis as around 468 thousand are undergoing dialysis.

Those who are treated with dialysis suffer from many things as they have to regulate their diets as they cannot consume food with high phosphorus like bananas, they will have 3 sessions a week for about 4 hours each to apply for dialysis. Their entire lifestyle will be altered.

Helium Depletion Could Lead to Medical Crisis

Yes, the world is running out of Helium! and the worst thing is that it not an issue that is known to people around the world. Helium is used in many medical devices but MRI is one of the medical equipment that can be rendered useless without Helium as it used in the cooling process of the MRI super-magnet that must reach a near absolute zero temperature in order for the magnet to be able to have its high magnetization effect.

If the magnet's temperature increases, this damages the permanent magnet and thus can lead to have an MRI that is useless. Of course current MRI engineers are opting to use less Liquid Helium per hour. Furthermore there are studies that might replace the use of NbTi by MgB2 that needs less temperatures than the used magnet. But still this is not commercially used and Helium prices are rising and the supply is becoming more scarce.

Why is the world not looking at the issue as a problem that needs to be solved?

Do-It-Yourself: Micro-controller based Infra Red Fingertip Heart Rate Monitor

This could be a fun way for a would-be a biomedical technician or engineer to get used to getting signals from the human body and to filter amplify and then measure them. It is not the simplest thing to do so don't start with this project if you are a first-timer.

What is really good about such project is that you can test your creativity due to the many things that can be changed and altered from what is there in the first place, even the author of this great DIY project had done some changes to improve performance.

So what you can do is that for example use another MCU, add an LCD or add a buzzer that will trigger if too low or too high BPM are measured. You might as well want to make it on a PCB or have it done in a very small casing that can be portable.

We recommend you to have a look at this nice infrared microcontroller-based fingertip heart rate monitor project and to try and do different things with it.

For any ideas or thought please comment below!

Samsung's Portable CT Scanner: A Great Potential

Samsung is well known nowadays for its android mobile phones but that is just the tip of the iceberg, samsung has shown interest in the medical field since it first opened the Samsung medical center in 1994, in fact samsung has a medical device company established a long time before that in 1985 they established the Medison. 

But when do things get really interesting with samsung in the medical field is when they acquired NeuroLogica in 2013, as it is a medical imaging company that introduced portable CT scanners the BodyTom and the CereTom and you are advised to watch the video below to have a better idea about these two wonderful innovations. 

The inside of a CT Scanner is Surprising

Many people are afraid of MRI just because they feel the seclusion and hear voices of the magnetic gradient that are pretty noisy by the way. A claustrophobic person might never be able to enter the MRI chamber, that led to the emergence of many although less powerful but opened MRI machines. 

I ask why people are not of the CT scanner?

Where if it was seen from the inside it will be looking like a big machine that spines in hyper speeds around the patient's head or body, but the answer to my question is simple they don't see the machine they see its cover and it looks rather appealing from the outside, and no one imagines that it looks or does what it does. 

I have seen surprise impressions on the faces of many regular people how were describing their feelings in MRI, that were generally full of fear and bad mood, compared to their good relaxed feelings when speaking about how they felt after they did a CT scan. 

This is how the same CT scanner looks when closed 

Where when a CT scanner, when opened, the look is pretty much less peaceful, if you know what I mean!

Service Manuals for Biomedical Engineers

Many people think that a biomedical engineer/technician must know everything, well this is not the case.


As you might not be aware there are different medical equipment that has various functions. Thus they will have different designs and will be engineered in different ways in relation to their function.

GE Field Service Engineering

So what can a bio-medical engineer do?

Simply she will need to have service and operation manuals in her hands. That will aid her and helps her diagnose various problems. Often prevent malfunctions and downtime of the machines. Just by applying the recommended Preventive Maintenance procedures.


Yes, preventive maintenance is one of the most important tasks that are done by a biomedical engineer. That leads us to the most important question. Does a bio-medical engineer has all the manuals she needs?

Spinal Cord Injury: Biomedical Point of View

Spinal cord injury is one of the most dangerous kinds of injuries, you might ask why?

Simply nervous cells are not able to heal and form scar tissues that will hinder the function of signal transmission, this leads to paralysis in certain parts of the body.

If you think of the spinal cord as a cable that is used to transmit "Data" from the brain to different parts of the body then if a certain injury occurs and some of the "wires" are cut then certain parts of the body will be no longer able to receive this "data" from the brain.

Now let us take a very fast look at the vertebral column that in cases and protects the spinal cord.

What is Biomedical Engineering & Who is the Biomedical Engineer

Well, this post is mainly for anyone that wants to apply or has the curiosity to know more about biomedical engineering.

Sometimes, biomedical engineering students might feel that they don't actually know what is their major, this feeling is true to a certain extent as in many cases and due to the vast variety of the domain, students might feel they have no idea about their major.

In this article, we will try to introduce students to their domain, so that they will know what and why they need to study so that they can keep focused.