Artificial heart approved

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given limited approval to US-based company Abiomed to sell the first fully implantable artificial heart, a device that lets patients move about freely for up to two hours at a time, reports the International Herald Tribune.

The approval was granted even though the grapefruit-size device was implanted in just 14 patients at four hospitals from 2001 to 2004. All the patients, who agreed to receive the heart as an experimental device, were men, and all have died.

The titanium and plastic device can be used only in patients who are near death from the failure of both of the natural heart`s pumping chambers. "This device represents a significant advance in artificial heart technology," said Daniel Schultz, an FDA official.

Nano technology is expected to open up new fields of scientific research and have a huge impact on society, despite still being in an early phase of development, reports NZZ Online.

Scientists and industry specialists gathered at a conference in Zurich this week hosted by the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

The Micro and Nano Science Platform threw light on the latest developments into "one of the key technologies of the 21st century".

A study that appears in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine concludes that 40 years of investments in medical technologies, including healthcare IT, has paid off for Americans in extending life expectancy by nearly seven years, reports Healthcare IT News.

Driving up life expectancy are several categories of technology. Stephen J Ubl, president and CEO of AdvaMed, listed implantable devices, diagnostic laboratory tests, new imaging techniques and health IT as some of the key advances that have improved American life expectancy during the study`s time frame.