Waste recycling in the healthcare sector - 30/01/2024

Sustainability in medical technology: a particular challenge

Quality and safety of medical care are top priorities in the healthcare sector. However, this is often at the expense of climate protection, as not only are energy and raw material consumption very high, but so is the amount of waste generated due to the large number of disposable products. Sustainable product design and improved recycling strategies are therefore required to reduce waste and the CO2 footprint.

Robotics in medicine - 15/02/2024

Copied from the pangolin: innovative flexible miniature robot for minimally invasive applications

Wireless miniature robots that can penetrate hard-to-reach areas of the body for the purpose of medical treatment are currently still a vision of the future. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have now constructed the first flexible prototype modelled on the pangolin, which can generate heat and stop bleeding, kill tumour cells or release "cargo" in the model system.

Certain brain tumors in small children contain cells that develop very similarly to normal brain cells and others that have already developed malignantly, depending on where they are located within the tumor.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can help dermatologists to detect skin cancer. However, many dermatologists distrust the algorithms' decisions, which they cannot comprehend. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center have now developed an AI-based support system for skin cancer diagnostics that explains its decisions.