Featured article by Robert Cordray, Independent Technology Author
The driver for most of the progress in human civilization has been technology. This is also the case in the medical world. It is technology that has paved the way for the scientific research that has lead to the development of medicine and treatment that has saved millions of lives.
Today, technology is still advancing and evolving at a rapid rate. As it does, the health of millions will improve. However, you may not be aware of all the technological breakthroughs currently making waves in the healthcare industry.
3D Printing
While many people have heard of 3D printing through viral news stories, they aren’t necessarily aware of all the amazing applications it has for healthcare. First, the tech has the ability to create parts for prosthetic limbs at a fraction of the cost without 3D printing. As a result, prosthetics are likely to be more widely available to many people who couldn’t afford them before.
Second, 3D printing tech can also be used to print organic materials. As this medical study explains, liver tissue was successfully created and transplanted to a human being in 2014. It is believed with the further advancement of 3D bio-printing that entire body parts may be able to be created. In the future, there may no longer be a need for organ transplants between people.
An Electronic Cure for Blindness
According to statistics, 285 million people have some level of serious visual impairment. Previously, the blind had no hope for regaining their eyesight. That, however, may change with new technology.
The technology that is being developed to cure blindness is known as a nano-retina. This is a tiny electronic device that when implanted into the eye has the ability replace the functionality of photoreceptor cells that had become damaged. The implant electrically stimulates the retinal cells that are still alive. Along with a pair of glasses designed to be used with the implant, some degree of eyesight can be restored for the blind.
Picture Archiving and Communication System
A picture archiving and communication system, or PACS for short, is a kind of technology that is used to create, store and distribute radiological medical images such as x-rays, MRIs and CAT scans. This is the technology that doctors use to get an inside view of the human body to help diagnose disease.
PACS systems today are more advanced than they have ever been before. They are designed to work with imaging technology like CT scanners and can save the medical imagery created to a secure network where the digital files can be quickly distributed to different computers or even mobile devices for viewing and analysis.
Nanobots
In the past, the success of surgery has been dependent on the use of a surgeon’s own steady hands. However, in the future, tiny machines implanted into the human body may be able to perform surgical procedures with much more precision and accuracy than was possible before. These robotic machines are known as nanobots
While the mass use of nanobots is still a few years off, tiny robots with their own propulsion systems and sensors may soon be doing many different procedures from inside patients’ bodies. One thing nanobots may be able to do better than previous medical techniques is deliver chemotherapy to cancer patients. The nanobots would deliver the cancer killing chemicals directly to the cancer tissue within the human body. This could be much more effective and result in far less side effects for the patient. Nanobots may also be developed that can perform intricate surgery such as removing a blood clot from inside a specific blood vessel.
New medical technology is constantly being introduced. Some of it can really accomplish amazing things that once only existed in the realm of science fiction. As healthcare tech improves, new innovative treatments will be developed. The health of people all over the world is certain to be positively affected by this wave of medical innovation.
