Medical Devices

Masimo Sleep https://vimeo.com/701347407 I’ve long been a fan of Masimo pulse oximeters for use in pediatric patients. They produce sturdy devices ideal for the medical office that integrates their proprietary signal extraction technology (SET.  SET provides...

I continue to be amazed by how versatile smart phones have become and how innovative companies continue to add to our repertoire of “connected” healthcare devices.

I love tech that is simple, affordable and improves medical practice. Such is the case for the Optivisor which is a $40 to $50 purchase from Staples, or Amazon, or EBay!.

Pulse oximetry is recognized as the fifth vital sign – together with temperature, respirations, pulse, temperature and blood pressure, it is routinely obtained at most medical visits.

There is no medical device more iconic of medical practice than the stethoscope we carry in our lab coat or drape around our neck.

In this age of “high-tech” devices and innovation, it’s nice to find an inexpensive and low-tech approach to a common problem.

Several studies have shown that OAE hearing screening can be easily performed in pediatric practice and it will identify children with hearing problems.

As a pediatrician who wants to improve the patient experience for my young patients, I have been waiting forever for needle free injections, but I don’t see this happening anytime soon (these do exist but have very limited indications).

Not all helpful medical gizmos survive the test of time. Such is the case of the “Acoustic Otoscope” (also called the “Spectral Gradient Angle Reflectometer”) which was introduced in the early 1980s as an alternative to tympanometry to detect the presence of fluid behind the tympanic membrane.

I’ve always been interested in new medical technologies. Over the years some have proven themselves indispensable and have changed medical practice.

Amblyopia is one of the most common visual problems of childhood, occurring in as many as 1% to 4% of children.

The CLIA’ 88 regulations, were published in 1992 and phased in through 1994. Over the years they’ve had a dramatic impact on primary care medical practice.

For many years primary care physicians have been using lateral flow assays to diagnose strep A, Influenza A and B and RSV infections at the time of an office visit.

I previously presented a video on the FebriDx system from RPS Diagnostics (FebriDx-part 1).

Physicians don’t want to overlook a serious bacterial infection that may cause prolonged illness, disability or death, yet we realize that antibiotics are overprescribed.

Approximately 2.5% of all children have amblyopia, which is poor vision, typically in one eye, that occurs when the brain does not recognize the sight from that eye. If treatment does not start by age 7 years, amblyopia may never improve.

Overall in the school-aged population, as many as 9 to 10 of every 1000 children have a permanent hearing loss and about 1 in 7 (14%) will have either permanent or temporary hearing problems that impact on school performance.

When I started my pediatric practice in 1986, we tested patients for strep throat by performing a throat culture, which was placed in a small office incubator for 48 hours.

Many years ago I used the Clozex wound closure system in my pediatric practice. It was inexpensive and allowed me to close superficial lacerations in children without infiltrating lidocaine.

Bionix (Toledo, Ohio) has been marketing cerumen removal products since 1984, and most pediatricians use their curettes and cerumen spoons routinely.

Another painless, suture free wound closure system comes from ZipLine Medical (Campbell, California).

Seal Shield has been providing sanitizable high quality mice and keyboards for medical practices for many years.

We have previously presented videos discussing wart removal using liquid nitrogen as well as cantharidin products.

Unfortunately, healthcare workers have had limited access to N95 respirators during the COVID-19 pandemic.

here are numerous ways to treat warts, molluscum and skin tags in the primary care office.

Pediatricians are extremely facile with otoscopy, but sometimes children squirm making visualization of the ear canal difficult – and even small amounts of cerumen can obscure our view of the tympanic membrane.