What will happen in the future in medicine? Amazing medical technologies of the future that have already been invented
Those of us who lived a significant part of our lives before the turn of the century are accustomed to considering our current period of time as a kind of distant future. Since we grew up watching movies like Blade Runner (which takes place in 2019), we're somehow not very impressed with how the future turns out - at least from an aesthetic point of view. Yes, the flying cars that we were constantly promised. But in medicine, for example, such impressive breakthroughs are taking place that we are already on the threshold of practical immortality. And the further into the future, the more amazing the prospects for this area.
Joint and bone replacement technologies have come a long way in recent decades, with plastic and ceramic-based parts taking over from metal parts, and the newest generation of artificial bones and joints goes even further: they will be made from biomaterials so that they practically merge with the body.
This became possible, of course, thanks to 3D printing (we will return to this topic more than once). Surgeons at Southampton General Hospital in the UK have invented a technique that uses a "glue" made from the patient's own stem cells to hold an elderly patient's hip implant in place. Additionally, University of Toronto professor Bob Pilliar has taken the process to the next level by creating a new generation of implants that actually mimic human bone.
Using a process that binds the replacement bone component (using ultraviolet light) into incredibly complex structures with extreme precision, Pilliar and his team create a tiny network of channels and trenches that transport nutrients within the implant itself.
The patient's grown bone cells are then distributed throughout this network, bridging the bone to the implant. Over time, the artificial bone component dissolves, and the naturally grown cells and tissues maintain the shape of the implant.
Tiny pacemaker
Since the implantation of the first pacemaker in 1958, this technology has, of course, improved significantly. However, after giant leaps in development in the 1970s, in the mid-80s everything somehow stalled. Medtronic, which created the first battery-powered pacemaker, is coming to market with a device that could revolutionize the pacemaker industry as much as its first device. It is the size of a vitamin bottle and does not require surgery.
This new model is inserted through a catheter in the groin (!), attached to the heart with small prongs and delivers the necessary regular electrical impulses. While conventional pacemakers typically require complex surgery to create a pocket for the device near the heart, the tiny version greatly simplifies the procedure and reduces the complication rate by 50%, with 96% of patients showing no signs of complications.
And while Medtronic may well be first in this market (with FDA approval), other major pacemaker manufacturers are developing competing devices and have no plans to remain outside the $3.6 billion annual market. Medtronic began developing the tiny lifesavers in 2009.
Google's eye implant
Ubiquitous search engine provider and global hegemon Google seems to be planning to integrate technology into every aspect of our lives. However, it is worth recognizing that along with a bunch of rubbish, Google also produces worthwhile ideas. One of Google's latest offerings could either change the world or turn it into a nightmare.
The project, which is known as Google Contact Lens, is a contact lens: implanted in the eye, it replaces the eye's natural lens (which is destroyed in the process) and adapts to correct poor vision. The lens is attached to the eye using the same material used to make soft contact lenses, and has many practical medical applications - like reading the blood pressure of patients with glaucoma, glucose levels in patients with diabetes, or wirelessly updating based on the deterioration of a patient's vision.
In theory, Google's artificial eye could completely restore vision. Of course, this is not yet a camera that is implanted directly into your eyes, but they say that everything is moving towards this. Additionally, it is unclear when the lens will hit the market. But the patent was received, and clinical trials confirmed the possibility of the procedure.
Advances in artificial skin have made significant progress in recent decades, but two recent breakthroughs from very different fields could open up new avenues of research. Scientist Robert Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a “second skin” that he calls XPL (“cross-linked polymer layer”). The incredibly thin material imitates firm, youthful skin - an effect that appears instantly upon creation but fades after about a day.
But chemistry professor Chao Wong of the University of California, Riverside is working on an even more futuristic polymer material: one that can self-heal from damage at room temperature and is riddled with tiny metal particles that can conduct electricity for better measurements. The professor insists he's not trying to create superhero skins, but admits he's a big Wolverine fan and is trying to bring science fiction into the real world.
Remarkably, some self-healing materials have already hit the market, such as the self-healing coating on the LG Flex phone, which Wong cites as an example of how such technologies could be used in the future. In short, this dude is really trying to create superheroes.
Brain implants that restore motor abilities
Twenty-four-year-old Ian Burkhart survived a horrific accident at the age of nineteen that left him paralyzed from his chest to his toes. For the past two years, he has been working with doctors who have been tweaking and experimenting with a device implanted in his brain - a microchip that reads the brain's electrical impulses and translates them into movement. Although the device is far from perfect - it can only be used in a laboratory, with the implant connected to a computer via a sleeve on the arm - it allowed the patient to screw the cap off a bottle and even play a video game.
Yang admits that he may not benefit from these technologies. He does this more to prove the concept is possible and to show that his limbs, disconnected from his brain, can be reconnected to it through outside means.
However, it is likely that his assistance with brain surgery and experiments, which are carried out three times a week, will be of great help in promoting this technology for future generations. Although similar procedures have been used to partially restore movement in monkeys, this is the first example of successfully overcoming the neural disconnection that causes paralysis in humans.
Bioabsorbable grafts
Stents - mesh polymer tubes that are surgically inserted into arteries to prevent them from blocking - are a real evil that leads to complications for the patient and demonstrate moderate effectiveness. The potential for complications, especially in younger patients, makes the results of a recent study involving bioabsorbable vascular grafts very promising.
The procedure is called endogenous tissue repair. Let's put it simply: in the case of young patients who were born without some of the necessary connections in the heart, doctors were able to create these connections using an advanced material that acts as a "scaffolding", allowing the body to copy its structure using organic materials, and the implant itself subsequently dissolves. The study was limited, involving only five young patients. But all five recovered without any complications.
While the concept is not new, the new material (consisting of “supramolecular bioabsorbable polymers made using proprietary electrospinning technology”) represents an important step forward. Previous generations of stents were composed of other polymers and even metal alloys and produced mixed results, leading to slow adoption of this treatment worldwide.
Bioglass cartilage
Another 3D printed polymer design could revolutionize the treatment of highly debilitating diseases. A team of scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Milano-Bicocca have created a material they call "bioglass": a silicon-polymer combination that has the strong and flexible properties of cartilage.
Bioglass implants are similar to the stents we discussed above, but are made from a completely different material for a completely different application. One proposed use for such implants is to build scaffolds to encourage the natural growth of cartilage. They are also self-regenerating and can be restored if the bonds are broken.
Although the first test of the method will be to replace a disc, another permanent version of the implant is in development to treat knee injuries and other injuries in areas where cartilage cannot regrow. makes the implants cheaper and more accessible to manufacture and even more functional than other implants of this type that are currently available to us and are typically grown in the laboratory.
Self-healing polymer muscles
Not to be outdone, Stanford chemist Cheng-Hee Lee is hard at work on a material that could be the building block for an actual artificial muscle that could outperform our frail muscles. Its compound - a suspiciously organic compound of silicon, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon - is capable of stretching up to 40 times its length and then returning to its normal position.
It can also recover from punctures within 72 hours and reattach itself after tears caused by iron salts in the component. True, for this, parts of the muscle need to be placed nearby. The pieces are not crawling towards each other yet. Bye.
Currently, the only weak point of this prototype is its limited electrical conductivity: when exposed to an electric field, the substance increases by only 2%, while real muscles - by 40%. This must be overcome as soon as possible - and then Lee, the bioglass cartilage scientists, and Dr. Wolverine can get together and discuss what to do next.
This method, which was invented by Doris Taylor, director of regenerative medicine at the Texas Heart Institute, is not much different from the 3D printed biopolymers and other things mentioned above. The method that Dr. Taylor has already demonstrated in animals - and is ready to demonstrate in humans - is absolutely fantastic.
In short, the heart of an animal - a pig, for example - is soaked in a chemical bath that destroys and sucks out all the cells except the protein. An empty “ghost heart” is left, which can then be filled with the patient’s own stem cells.
Once the necessary biological material is in place, the heart is connected to a device that replaces the artificial circulatory system and lungs (“bioreactor”) until it functions as an organ and can be transplanted into a patient. Taylor successfully demonstrated this method on rats and pigs.
The same method was successful with less complex organs such as the bladder and trachea. However, the process is far from perfect, but when it reaches it, the queues of patients waiting for a heart for a transplant may stop completely.
Brain Network Injection
We finally have cutting-edge technology that can quickly, simply and completely network the brain with a single injection. Researchers at Harvard University have developed an electrically conductive polymer network that is literally injected into the brain, where it penetrates its nooks and crannies and merges with brain matter.
So far, the network, consisting of 16 electrical elements, has been transplanted into the brains of two mice for five weeks without immune rejection. Researchers predict that a large-scale device of this kind, consisting of hundreds of similar elements, could actively control the brain down to each individual neuron in the near future and will be useful in treating neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease and stroke.
Ultimately, this research may lead scientists to a deeper understanding of higher cognitive functions, emotions and other brain functions that currently remain unclear.
“Print my liver, please! From ordinary cells, for the age of 25 years. I don’t need a heart yet...”
This is the medicine of the future. With organs printed on 3D printers, nanobots walking through vessels, test tube teeth and other strange things. But once upon a time we simply dreamed of conquering all diseases!
Alas, there is nothing to brag about in this segment. People still die from AIDS, cancer and even the common flu. Maybe medicine is moving in completely the wrong direction?
Nanorobots instead of drugs
dailytechinfo.orgScientists predict that in the future there will be no injections or pills. Instead, it will be enough to drink an “explosive mixture” of nanorobots or stick a special patch to your hand. The conversation with pathological cells will be short: nanorobots will find them in the body and successfully destroy them. In the future, even changing the structure of DNA, which will help prevent mutations.
In theory, this all sounds very tasty and optimistic. However, is this really so? Everyone takes pills, but most people can refuse nanorobots - for example, for religious reasons.
The second stumbling block is that the nanorobot must work not just well, but ideally. Imagine what kind of monster could be born if something goes wrong when changing DNA?
Are cyborgs almost human?
asmo.ru The prefix “almost” haunts neither the author of this article nor those who have watched at least one part of “Terminator”. Medicine is actively working in this direction - today many people already have stimulants in their hearts. It is possible that in the future it will be possible to replace entire organs with high-tech prostheses.
However, the creation of a cyborg is a dubious undertaking. Considering the fact that most of our planet is already overpopulated today, and the figure of 7 billion continues to grow, the idea of creating a “new person” in addition to billions of others seems at least strange. Of course, if the cyborg does not need food and salary, someone in this mortal world will only benefit. But you remember very well how it all ended in The Terminator!
Bioprinting of organs on a printer
innotech.kiev.ua Bioprinting is a new direction in medicine, albeit new, but it has already managed to show its “I”. It is developing in parallel with additive technologies.
In a nutshell, scientists around the world are trying to create a printer that can print human organs: kidneys, liver and even the heart. Printers are already printing bone and cartilage implants, so this area really has prospects.
For printing, stem cells are used, which are applied to the layout. The greatest success in this segment was achieved by the company Organovo, which printed liver tissue. Bioprinting does not stand still; serious development of the transplantation market is planned in the next five years.
People will forget about dental treatment
medbooking.com British specialists are introducing technology that allows them to grow teeth... right in the patient's mouth. They make a tooth germ using the patient's gum epithelium and stem cells from mice. The tooth is formed in a test tube, after which it is moved into the oral cavity. Here the tooth is implanted and grows further to the desired size.
If the project is successfully implemented, teeth will really grow like cucumbers in the country.
Can the dead still be saved?
voobsheto.net In conclusion, another achievement of medicine of the present and promising future. American Sam Parnia was dubbed “a doctor from God.” The resuscitator does the impossible - he brings people back to life even 3 hours after clinical death. The method of “resurrection” is to immediately cool the human body. After this, all his blood is passed through a special ECMO device, which saturates the blood with oxygen.
This method only works in 30% of deaths, but it has already saved several people. The only drawback is the huge costs of returning each patient to life.
Summarizing everything stated above, we note: the medicine of the future has enormous prospects and opportunities. Some methods are being actively implemented today, others are only being tested. However, by and large, I want one thing – for people to be healthy and happy. And for this it is not at all necessary to have an iron heart and liver from a 3D printer!
Medicine of the future: what does the coming day have in store for us? updated: April 20, 2019 by: Tatiana Sinkevich
Medicine does not stand still. New discoveries and technologies make it possible to cure diseases that were recently considered incurable. The diagnosis of diseases is also reaching a completely new level. And today we will talk about 5 most unusual medical technologies modernity, which in the very near future may become commonplace.
The very phrase “British scientists” has long begun to have a humorous connotation. After all, they often explore completely absurd and incomprehensible things that cause surprise among the public. But it happens that scientists from Great Britain are doing really important things. For example, doctors from this country recently presented a revolutionary medical technology.
It allows you to automatically identify genetic diseases using photographs. The computer, based on pictures of a person's face, can indicate what problems a person may have in the future.
After all, studies have shown that approximately thirty percent of the changes that occur in a person’s face are due to chronic and genetic diseases. And doctors from Oxford have created software that allows them to detect potential problems in patients based on the smallest details of their physiognomy.
Doctors have long been looking for a way to quickly combat asthma attacks in patients. After all, for a long time the most effective option in such cases was tracheotomy - surgical dissection of the trachea to insert a tube there. But scientists from Boston Children's Hospital have come up with a new one.
They developed injections that enrich human blood with oxygen for up to thirty minutes. This is necessary, first of all, for medical needs, operations and rescuing people in extreme conditions. But technology can also be used in sports and entertainment.
During the injection, fatty particles containing oxygen molecules enter the body. The latter are released when fat comes into contact with red blood cells and saturate the blood with the resource a person needs.
Specially trained dogs help doctors from different countries find cancer in patients. It turns out that these animals are able to detect cancer cells in the human body and even distinguish one type of disease from another.
The most famous such dog is the one that “works” in one of the oncology clinics in South Korea. Its owners even decided to clone their pet in order to then sell the dog with unique data to other hospitals around the world.
But in Israel they decided to go a different route. They created an “artificial nose” technology that allows them to detect cancer cells using electronics. The patient just needs to exhale into a special tube, and the computer diagnoses him with one of several types of cancer, if, of course, the person has this dangerous disease. Moreover, this technological nose is many times more accurate than the nose of Marin the Labrador.
Flower pollen is an amazing substance that, once it enters the human respiratory tract, can then quickly spread to different parts of the body, including the digestive system and mucous membranes. Scientists from the University of Texas decided to use this effect for medical purposes.
A group of American researchers has created a technology that allows people to be vaccinated without the use of needles or injections. She learned to coat flower pollen with the vaccine, which then penetrates the human body and carries the useful drug to its most intimate corners, where it is then easily absorbed.
Interestingly, the most difficult part of this science project was trying to learn how to rid pollen of all allergens. This is where the research actually began. And, having learned to dealergize pollen, scientists were able to easily apply it to purified material and medications.
For many decades, the most effective way to combat depression was specialized medications. They caused side effects and addiction, which negatively affected not only the emotional, but also the physical health of a person. But recently a radically opposite way of combating this disease was developed, based not on chemistry, but on electromagnetic radiation.
A helmet with the complex name NeuroStar Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Therapy System acts on certain areas of the human cerebral cortex using electromagnetic pulses, causing the neutrons responsible for receiving pleasure to be excited.
Clinical experiments have shown that 30-40 minutes spent daily in the NeuroStar Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Therapy System helmet allows people with depression to feel much better, and thirty percent of such treatment brings complete recovery over time.
We have all dreamed of telepathy while reading science fiction books, and it is unknown whether our dreams will ever be realized. But now there are technologies that allow seriously ill people to use the power of thought where they cannot cope due to their weakness. For example, Emotiv has developed the EPOC Neuroheadset, a system that allows a person to control a computer by giving it mental commands. This device has great potential to create new opportunities for patients who are unable to move due to illness. It can allow them to control an electronic wheelchair, a virtual keyboard and much more.
Philips and Accenture began developing an electroencephalogram (EEG) reader to help people with limited mobility use mental commands to manipulate things they can't reach. This opportunity is very necessary for paralyzed people who cannot use their hands. In particular, the device should help do simple things: turn on the lights and TV, and can even control the mouse cursor. What opportunities await these technologies can only be guessed at, but a lot can be assumed.
