Technologies

Technologies

InVivo Technology is currently engaged in the investigation and development of a number of advanced medical technologies. These include:

• Self-powering pacing systems, a collaborative project benefiting from DTI Grant funding
• Patient activity monitoring and automation of diagnostic systems
• Incontinence and bladder mapping
  

Self-powering pacing systems

Details of this collaborative project may be found on the project website.

Hundreds of thousands of pacemakers are implanted around the world every year, and many of these procedures are carried out to replace exhausted batteries sealed within existing implants.

InVivo Technology is providing expert cardiological input to this project, which aims to use kinetic energy from within the body to recharge implanted devices.

 

Patient activity monitoring

Standard ambulatory monitoring techniques require that patients keep a diary of their activity over a fixed time period. This diary is later compared with heart rate and any cardiac events which occurred during the monitoring period.

InVivo is working with partners on systems which will further automate the recording and comparison function, speeding up and simplifying the diagnostic process.
 

Incontinence and bladder mapping

Urinary incontinence (UI) affects millions of people worldwide. Taking the WHO’s conservative estimates, world wide direct and indirect costs of UI exceed $16 billion annually, and affects about 50 million people.

Overactive Bladder results from sudden involuntary contraction of the muscle in the wall of the bladder. It is not a normal part of ageing: symptoms include frequent urination, urgency and urge incontinence.

Alterations in detrusor smooth muscle that compose the bladder wall can determine the failure of the bladder to store urine or to empty properly. Failure to void can occur because of reduced ability of the detrusor to contract. Equally, failure to store can occur as a result of involuntary contractions of the bladder wall.

InVivo Technology is working on novel systems to map the electrical properties of the bladder, with a view to improving diagnosis and investigating the opportunity for providing a new therapy for this distressing condition.