PharmaChk: a decade of research and development towards the first quantitative, field-based medicine quality screening instrument.

Biomedical and clinical scientists play a major role in translating observations into interventions - therapeutics, diagnostics, and medical devices including screening instruments - that improve the health of individuals and the public. This path from observation to intervention is often long and beset with obstacles, many unanticipated. We believe that sharing concrete, real-word examples of scientists in academia moving along this path will highlight some of the types of challenges one may face; here we focus on an intervention being developed by the Zaman lab at Boston University - PharmaChk, the first quantitative, field-based instrument for medicine quality screening.

Corneal Stromal Filler Injection as a Novel Approach to Correct Presbyopia-An Pilot Study.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of corneal stromal filler injection to create bifocality to correct presbyopia by flattening the central posterior corneal surface and thus increase refractive power.

Methods: Femtosecond laser-assisted corneal stromal pockets of varying diameters close to the posterior corneal curvature were cut into rabbit eyes . Subsequently, hyaluronic acid was injected to flatten the central posterior curvature.

Special Section Guest Editorial: Translational Biophotonics.

This guest editorial introduces the special section on Translational Biophotonics.

Sensing, monitoring, and release of therapeutics: the translational journey of next generation bandages (Erratum).

This erratum corrects an error in "Sensing, monitoring, and release of therapeutics: the translational journey of next generation bandages," by Z. Li et al.

Sensing, monitoring, and release of therapeutics: the translational journey of next generation bandages.

This article aims to be a progress report on the Sensing, Monitoring And Release of Therapeutics (SMART) bandage-one of the three technologies that received the inaugural SPIE Photonics West Translational Research Symposium Award in 2015. Invented and developed by Dr. Conor L.

Bridging medicine and biomedical technology: enhance translation of fundamental research to patient care.

The 'Bridging medicine and biomedical technology' special all-congress session took place for the first time at the OSA Biophotonics Congress: Optics in Life Sciences in 2017 (http://www.osa.org/enus/meetings/osa_meetings/optics_in_the_life_sciences/bridging_medicine_and_biomedical_technology_specia/).

Special Section Guest Editorial: Translational Biophotonics.

This guest editorial introduces the Special Section on Translational Biophotonics.

Biomedical optics centers: forty years of multidisciplinary clinical translation for improving human health.

Despite widespread government and public interest, there are significant barriers to translating basic science discoveries into clinical practice. Biophotonics and biomedical optics technologies can be used to overcome many of these hurdles, due, in part, to offering new portable, bedside, and accessible devices. The current JBO special issue highlights promising activities and examples of translational biophotonics from leading laboratories around the world.

Aerosol therapy in intensive and intermediate care units: prospective observation of 2808 critically ill patients.

Purpose: Unlike in the outpatient setting, delivery of aerosols to critically ill patients may be considered complex, particularly in ventilated patients, and benefits remain to be proven. Many factors influence aerosol delivery and recommendations exist, but little is known about knowledge translation into clinical practice.

Methods: Two-week cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence of aerosol therapy in 81 intensive and intermediate care units in 22 countries.

Non-invasive transdermal two-dimensional mapping of cutaneous oxygenation with a rapid-drying liquid bandage.

Oxygen plays an important role in wound healing, as it is essential to biological functions such as cell proliferation, immune responses and collagen synthesis. Poor oxygenation is directly associated with the development of chronic ischemic wounds, which affect more than 6 million people each year in the United States alone at an estimated cost of $25 billion. Knowledge of oxygenation status is also important in the management of burns and skin grafts, as well as in a wide range of skin conditions.

Ventilator-integrated jet nebulization systems: tidal volume control and efficiency of synchronization.

Background: Jet nebulizers constitute the aerosolization devices most frequently used during mechanical ventilation. Continuous nebulization can influence the delivered tidal volume (V(T)) and lead to significant medication loss during expiration. Ventilators thus provide integrated jet nebulization systems that are synchronized during inspiration and ostensibly keep VT constant.

Aerosol therapy during mechanical ventilation: an international survey.

Purpose: To describe the practice, knowledge and beliefs about aerosol therapy during mechanical ventilation in an international sample of physicians working in intensive care units (ICU).

Methods: A self-administered survey was emailed to physicians who worked regularly in ICUs. The physicians were identified from the databases of the European and French societies of intensive care medicine and the REVA network.

Bioequivalence of inhaled drugs: fundamentals, challenges and perspectives.

Interest in bioequivalence (BE) of inhaled drugs derives largely from the desire to offer generic substitutes to successful drug products. The complexity of aerosol dosage forms renders them difficult to mimic and raises questions regarding definitions of similarities and those properties that must be controlled to guarantee both the quality and the efficacy of the product. Despite a high level of enthusiasm to identify and control desirable properties there is no clear guidance, regulatory or scientific, for the variety of aerosol dosage forms, on practical measures of BE from which products can be developed.

Delivery of helium–oxygen mixture during spontaneous breathing: evaluation of three high-concentration face masks.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of delivering a mixture of helium and oxygen gas (He–O2) in spontaneous ventilation. Three high oxygen flow reservoir masks were tested: the Heliox21, specifically designed for helium; the Hi-Ox80 mask, with an inspiratory and an expiratory valve; and a standard high-concentration face mask.

Methods: This prospective randomized crossover study was performed in six healthy volunteers in a laboratory setting.

The use of combined single photon emission computed tomography and X-ray computed tomography to assess the fate of inhaled aerosol.

Background: Gamma camera imaging is widely used to assess pulmonary aerosol deposition. Conventional planar imaging provides limited information on its regional distribution. In this study, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) was used to describe deposition in three dimensions (3D) and combined with X-ray computed tomography (CT) to relate this to lung anatomy.

The effects of simulated airway diseases and affected flow distributions on aerosol deposition.

Background: Experimental and theoretical aspects of targeted drug delivery have been addressed several times in this journal. Herein, a computational study of particle deposition patterns within healthy and diseased lungs has been performed, using a validated aerosol dosimetry model and a flow-resistance model.

Objective: To evaluate to what extent the uneven flow distributions produced by the physical manifestations of respiratory diseases affect the deposition patterns of inhaled aerosolized drugs.