Technology in healthcare is such a fast-paced and constantly-changing industry that it can be hard to keep up with all the innovative and revolutionary new products and projects hitting the healthcare world today.
To update anyone that’s fallen behind, here’s your roundup of the latest amazing advancements in healthcare technologies.
It should be noted that these technologies are so inventive, ambitious and impressive they may seem like magic, but they are in fact real, and could be on the market sooner than you think.
Big data is one technology that has been making a huge impact in recent years in both cancer and drug safety. One of big data’s most important contributions to cancer research has been Hadoop, a big data tech that lets businesses sift through vast amounts of information and locate specifics. Healthcare companies are showing more interest in Hadoop as of late, and hope to find a way to put the human genome into Hadoop’s program to facilitate the process of choosing which drugs to use for which patients. Companies currently using Hadoop include Crossbow, UNC-CH Lineberger Bioninformatics Group, and Hadoop-BAM.
As far as drug safety is concerned, Hadoop has another company known as Cloudera, which is now working with the FDA to create a database of drug interactions. This will similarly help predict how dangerous it is for a certain patient to take multiple drugs at once, which could drastically lower the risks involved with having more than one prescription. Many times selecting a combination of different drugs to prescribe to a patient can be a guessing game involving trial-and-error, and this is a dangerous game to play, with sometimes disastrous results. With the Cloudera database, not only could a great deal of time and effort be saved, but lives could be saved as well.
Another innovation new to the healthcare industry is the SmartPill. SmartPills are pills that work similarly to big data, as they collect and transmit information while they go through the patient’s body. The SmartPill is built with sensors that measure pH, pressure and temperature in the gastrointestinal tract, then sends this information to a monitor worn by the patient. The SmartPill is designed to help doctors determine whether a patient’s stomach problems are minor or serious, and can impact the selection and success of treatment.
Gathering information in a smarter way is a large part of the technology and healthcare combination, and has become a significant focus for companies ranging from medical researchers and hospitals to tech giants like Google.
In fact, one major project now at Google is based on gathering information via technology to help the blind navigate the world more successfully.
It may sound impossible, but Google is hopeful that their work with Boston-based Dr. Joseph Rizzo III and his team at Mass Eye and Ear will produce a pair of “smart” glasses that will enable the blind to walk with an accurate and evolved guide similar to GPS.
The glasses use a camera that captures the person’s surroundings and sends the images to a GPS-enabled processor. The processor identifies the objects, people and signs surrounding the person, and then tiny vibrators on the glasses located near the temple and back of the ear will buzz to alert the person when to turn or avoid a physical object in their path. In addition, an earpiece tells the person what is in their area and what is surrounding them.
Google isn’t the only company involved in the creation of high-tech glasses, however. Researchers at 2AI Labs have created a pair of glasses called the “O2Amps” X-ray glasses, which sound straight out of science fiction but in fact are currently being used to help diagnose diseases and other ailments--especially colorblindness. The glasses work by using filters to let the wearer see under a person’s skin, which lets them detect oxygen flow in the person’s veins. The glasses essentially let the wearer see various changes in a person’s blood and oxygen flow, such as when a person blushes or becomes pale.
If X-ray glasses don’t impress you, the latest product in development at the Sandia National Laboratory will. Researchers at the laboratory have developed a new kind of medical plastic to be used in prosthetic limbs that can communicate with human tissue to make nerves and muscles work without damaging them.
This would give an amputee more control over their prosthetic limbs by increasing the communication between their own nervous system and their prosthetic appendage.
In a similar project aimed at helping the handicapped, the company Ekso Bionics has created a wearable “exoskeleton” to help paraplegics walk. The product is called the Ekso, a battery-powered bionic device that uses motors and sensors outside of the body to activate a stepping motion. With automatic response capabilities and a manual mode for the patient to operate by pressing a button, the Ekso is raising the game when it comes to empowering people control their own bodies again and regain the ability to walk.
Lastly, great strides have been made in technologies that work with the brain, for instance to manage concussions or to help prevent aneurysms. Focusing on athletes, who make up a strong majority of those who suffer concussions on a regular basis, researchers at XLNTbrain-Sport have developed an Internet-based concussion management system with features such as educational activities, baseline testing for brain performance, and immediate concussion reporting.
The XLNTbrain-Sport program also works with a smartphone app that works as a coach for the user to help detect the person’s concussion, as well as facilitates in alerting doctors, coaches and family members when the concussion is fully healed.
The Pipeline Embolization Device is another brain-oriented technology, though it is much more invasive than a computer program and smartphone app. Used for treating brain aneurysms, the device is implanted into the patient’s brain to redirect blood flow away from the aneurysm. This process forms a clot which will prevent the aneurysm from rupturing, and is a strongly preferred treatment to dangerous brain surgery.
Of course, we couldn’t end this list without an update on stem cell research. Researchers at Heriot-Watt University have managed to use a 3D printer to print stem cells that can be used to replicate organs. So while an organ cannot be printed (yet), the world is now one step closer, giving even more evidence of how powerful a force technology can be in the health industry.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman
