Honey, I shrunk the laparoscopy machine

 19-Jan-17, Nikkei Asian Review 

A team of researchers at Osaka University is aiming to take the institution's regenerative medicine and medical equipment to the world. To do so, they must overcome a variety of challenges.

Image: Osaka University

The university's Global Center for Medical Engineering and Informatics, a cross-departmental organization in academia that gathers researchers from medicine and engineering, is teaming up with Asian countries where there is insufficient medical equipment. The center began joint research and development of medical equipment with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India's top medical university, in October 2014.

Medical equipment in advanced countries has many functions that are rarely used to their fullest. If some of those functions were stripped out, the devices could be made smaller and less expensive. After listening to local doctors, the center has produced a prototype of a small laparoscopy system that can be operated with one hand.

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