I expected some staggering advances in treatment. Instead, this deals with other forms of medical advances. And, this is just the author’s idea of what’s leading.
These methods and machines are making the future of medicine far brighter.
Crowdsourcing. Websites where doctors can discuss symptoms in order to get more precise diagnoses.
PatientsLikeMe websites where those in the same situation share advice, new treatments, novel trials, recent research and plain old empathy.
IBM’s Watson where doctors can tell the machine in a natural voice the patient’s symptoms and wait while the supercomputer gathers data to suggest diagnoses and treatment.
Bones by Design, Organs on Demand
Smartphone apps. In 2012, to pick a recent example, the FDA cleared an iPhone app that lets your doctor take a remote EKG just about anywhere there’s a suitable connection.
Biohackers sewn into your clothing or implanted in you body to tell your doctor in real time what’s going on. (I had something similar where my cardiologist could read my vitals 24/7 and be alerted if something wrong happened.)
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The Beating Battery. Nanogenerators that convert the mechanical energy of a heartbeat into electrical energy
Breathalyzers to diagnose cancer,
Antibiotic smart bombs designed to target and destroy specific strains of bad bacteria that actually cause disease in humans.
Container hospitals. What good are advances in medical treatment if you don’t have access to the medical facilities that provide them? That’s the idea behind a Chinese initiative to use shipping containers to create a kind of hospital in a box.
A lot more about this @ 10 Medical Advances That Will Shape the Future of Healthcare | DiscoverMagazine.com
