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The Future of Medicine

Future Medical Technology

Future medical technology breakthroughs will build from the incredible progress made in nanotechnology, biotechnology, computers, the information learned from deciphering the human genome and other scientific and technical areas.

Here are some of the medical devices and technologies that already exist, are under development or are predicted by experts.

Biosensors
Brain-computer interface
Care giving robots
Computer aided diagnosis
Drug delivery devices
Emotional/physical control devices
Gene therapy/manipulation
Home/self monitoring & diagnosis
Minimally invasive procedures
Molecular and genetic diagnostics
Neural Stimulation
Organ replacement / growing organs
Personalized drugs
Robotic surgery
Bioengineered devices
Virtual medicine

If you have a scenario or technology that you think should be on this list, please send it to FFA by clicking here.

Biomedical Breakthroughs

Personalized Medicine

Pharmacogenomics is the study of how an individual's genetic inheritance affects the body's response to drugs. The term comes from the words pharmacology and genomics and is thus the intersection of pharmaceuticals and genetics.

Pharmacogenomics holds the promise that drugs might one day be tailor-made for individuals and adapted to each person's own genetic makeup. Environment, diet, age, lifestyle, and state of health all can influence a person's response to medicines, but understanding an individual's genetic makeup is thought to be the key to creating personalized drugs with greater efficacy and safety.

Pharmacogenomics is the whole genome application of pharmacogenetics, which examines the single gene interactions with drugs.

Pharmacogenomics

Hot Springs Unclog Arteries

The picture below depicts a "shape memory polymer" device used for treating stroke victims and those who are at risk for a stroke. The device is inserted into a vessel as a straight thin wire that can be advanced through a blood clot. Once heated inside the body with a laser illuminator, the device reshapes itself into a coil that can latch onto the clot. The coil and clot are then removed from the vessel, restoring blood flow.


Image courtesy of Dr. Duncan Maitland

National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.

MIT finds cure for fear

MIT biochemists have identified a molecular mechanism behind fear, and successfully cured it in mice.

Cure for fear

The Future of Medicine: Insert Chip, Cure Disease?

Imagine a chip, strategically placed in the brain, that could prevent epileptic seizures or allow someone who has lost a limb to control an artificial arm just by thinking about it.

Future of Medicine
Lab-on-a-Chip Made of Paper

PET Scans

PET is an imaging procedure that is both a medical and research tool. It is used in imaging of tumors and for clinical diagnosis of  brain diseases. PET is also an important research tool to map normal human brain and heart function

Pet scan basics

Image courtesy of Jens Langner

Liquid-Gel Stops Bleeding

Clinical trials are planned for a nano structured fluid that stops bleeding instantly. The clear fluid transforms into a gel in the presence of blood.

Nanohealing Material Heads to Market

Create a back-up copy of your immune system

Imagine having a spare copy of your immune system on ice, ready to replace your existing one should you fall victim to AIDS, an autoimmune disease, or have to undergo extensive chemotherapy for cancer.

Immune backup

Babies Growing Outside the
Womb

Artificial wombs are mechanisms that are used to grow an embryo outside of the body of a female. Could this be the future of reproduction for humans? Scientists at Cornell University have grown mice embryos in man-made, bubble shaped wombs. 

Artificial womb

Cell-Transistor Interface Clears Bioelectronics Hurdle

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute (Munich, Germany) have developed a cell-transistor interface that they believe will usher in a new era of bioelectronics, allowing cells to be manipulated and studied without destroying them in the process.

Cell-Transistor Interface

Mending Broken Hearts

Cheeseburgers, smoking, stress, the rise of the couch potato: These are the usual suspects on the list of risk factors for heart disease, a malady reaching global epidemic proportions. Now discoveries about genetic triggers may help us spot trouble before it starts.

National Geographic Interactive

Living Longer

According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a child born in the United States in 2005 can expect to live nearly 78 years. But some futurists believe that a child born today, might actually live forever. Living longer

Living Longer

Pandemic Research

Influenza viruses are classified as type A, B, or C based upon their protein composition. Type A viruses are found in many kinds of animals, including ducks, chickens, pigs, whales, and also in humans. The type B virus widely circulates in humans. Type C has been found in humans, pigs, and dogs and causes mild respiratory infections, but does not spark epidemics.

Type A influenza is the most frightening of the three. It is believed responsible for the global outbreaks of 1918, 1957 and 1968.

Can technology protect us from the flu?

Pandemic Research

 
 

 

References

Article

Sources

PET Scans

Article and image from wikipedia

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