It is safe to say that the medical field has significantly evolved over the past several years and there’s no doubt that without these inventions, the lifespan of an average person would not be as long as it is.
What’s great about these latest inventions is the fact that they are developed to tackle numerous illnesses without known cures and to help increase the uptake of interventions that actually work.
According to the experts, precisely these interventions could decrease the burden of an illness by up to ten percent. Today, in this article we will discuss the ones that have relatively recently entered the medical field and have aided healthcare professionals in treating their patients in many ways.
Major Medical Innovations That Have Positively Impacted Healthcare Industry
Next Generation Of m RNA Vaccinology
Advancements in the purification, generation, and cellular delivery of RNA have potentiated the development of RNA treatments across a vast array of applications, like the Zika virus, cancer, and many others.
What’s superb about this invention is the fact that it’s affordable and relatively easy to manufacture. One of the most important things that all of us have learned during the pandemic is the fact that the world needed faster and more efficient development of a vaccine that can easily be distributed around the world.
By virtue of the research that was conducted in the past that laid the groundwork for this technology, an efficient vaccine for this virus was created, approved, and distributed in less than one year.
Precisely this evolving technology has the potential to effectively and quickly combat some of the most difficult and dangerous illnesses in the healthcare industry.
Moving On To Surgicel
What do we know about it? Namely, surgicel represents a hemostatic agent that is made out of oxidized cellulose polymer developed by Ethicon (a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson). More than seventy years ago, it was taken into clinical practice. It is utilized to control bleeding after surgery.
Besides that, it is employed by boxing cutmen to control bleeding as well. Furthermore, this medical product is extremely utilized in both maxillofacial and oral surgery to monitor intrabony arterial bleeds from the alveolar artery.
In instances, when pressure alone is not enough, this innovation is oftentimes employed to stop bleeding after newborn circumcision.
Doug Melton: A Stem-Cell Cure For Diabetes
Unfortunately, type 1 diabetes is one of the most common illnesses in the world, affecting over one million people in the USA only. However, there were two cases that caught Doug Melton’s attention (Harvard biologist).
We're referring to his son Sam and daughter Emma. Treatment can include a lifetime of healthy eating, several daily blood-glucose tests, and insulin injections. What's interesting is the fact that Melton has an entirely different approach to this health condition.
Namely, he used stem cells to make replacement beta cells that generate insulin. He has come up with this method more than ten years ago when stem-cell research wasn't as used as it is today and caused a lot of controversies.
Approximately, eight years ago, he co-founded Semma Therapeutics, which represents the combination of names of his children (Sam and Emma) to develop the technology which was later obtained by Vertex Pharmaceuticals for a staggering $950 million.
Additionally, this company has developed a tiny, implantable device that contains a plethora of replacement beta cells, letting insulin and glucose through but not allowing immune cells out. Relatively recently Melton stated: “If it works in people as well as it does in animals, it’s possible that people will not be diabetic.” He believes that they will be able to eat and drink normally just like everybody else who doesn’t suffer from this disease.
Adding More Interesting Information Below
Omics & Molecular Technologies
These technologies (which represent key pieces of the Bio Revolution) are diagnostics and therapeutics that tackle different sorts of molecules within cells (like RNA, DNA, and proteins). Some molecular technologies and omics develop these intracellular parts or analyze them (for instance transcriptomics and proteomics).
One of the best examples of these technologies is CRISPR which focuses on combating malaria. Namely, this treatment involves antimalarial prophylactics, along with nonpharmaceutical strategies (like indoor residual spraying) and antimalarial medicines.
Genetically modifying mosquitos (that carry malaria) by utilizing gene-editing technologies, like CRISPR, may drastically lower disease levels by spreading the altered genes across the mosquito population.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality isn’t anything new. In fact, it has been around for quite some time. But what some of you may not know is that it is now being utilized to deal with a variety of different psychological conditions and illnesses, like autism, dementia, anxiety, stress, etc.
But what’s great about virtual reality is the fact that it doesn’t focus solely on mental health diseases, but is also being employed for efficient pain management by modifying the patients’ perceptions and thoughts regarding pain.
Further, it has also significantly enhanced the training processes for healthcare professionals due to the fact that it enables you to be transported into the body of a patient. Moreover, it also aids when physicians are diagnosing since the patient is capable of virtually stepping into a panoramic view of the body, providing them with a better understanding of their current health.
Many health experts suggest that virtual reality has a huge potential, but currently, it is mostly used in preventative healthcare, assistive living, rehabilitation, surgery, and cancer treatments.
Outstanding PSMA-Targeted Therapy
According to the statistics, every year, approximately over 200,000 Americans are diagnosed with prostate cancer, which represents one of the most common types of cancer among men, at least in this country.
In these types of situations, successful imaging and early detection are key for cancer localization, staging the illness, and uncovering recurrences. PSMA (prostate-specific membrane antigen) found on the surface of prostate cancer cells might just be the potential biomarker of this serious health condition.
PSMA PET utilizes a radioactive tracer to properly find and embed onto PSMA proteins, making them easily visible by PET imaging. Furthermore, precisely this effective approach can be employed with MRI and/or CT scans to determine where prostate cancer cells live.
Approximately, two years ago, this technology gained FDA approval based on phase three trials that showcased increased accuracy for detecting the metastases of this form of cancer in comparison to traditional imaging with CT and bone scans.
Sean Parker: A Disruptive Approach To Cancer Research
One of the original disrupters of the brand-new economy is showcasing his inventive approach to medical research. The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, founded by former Facebook president and Napster co-founder Sean Parker, represents a network of some of the major institutions, such as Stanford, Memorial Sloan Kettering, the MD Anderson Cancer Center, and many more.
Its biggest aim is to detect and eliminate obstacles to inventions in traditional research. For instance, every single participating institute has agreed to embrace an approval decision by any of their reputable Institutional Review Boards, which enables them to get crucial clinical trials off the ground in a relatively short period of time at lower expenses.
Parker states “We follow the discoveries coming from our researchers and then put our money behind commercializing them”, either by licensing a particular product or by spinning it out into a business.
In the past six years, this institute has brought eleven projects to clinical trials and also supported around 2,000 research papers.
Cellular Therapy And Regenerative Medicine
This type of therapy can be defined as a biological product, extracted from living cells, and employed for different therapeutic purposes in order to either fix or replace damaged tissues or cells. Additionally, regenerative medicine has the ability to reinstate injured or damaged organs and tissues, potentially lowering reliance on transplantation.
Nowadays, therapy is mostly based on unspecific chemotherapeutic agents and radiotherapy, along with surgical interventions. In most instances, these methods are not too effective. CAR T-cell treatment reprograms a person’s T-cells (which are immune-system cells) with the goal to affect tumor cells.
Once they are infused into the patient, these cells moor to an antigen on tumor cells, striking them and destroying them.
The Accomplishments Of Neurotechnology
Neurotechnology holds the limitless potential to enhance various aspects of life. In the past, it has already been utilized in the wellness and medical industries, but it also has several future implications for other segments, like workplace management, education, sports, and national security.
Additionally, neurotechnology covers every single component that is designed to comprehend the brain, visualize its processes and at the same time, enhance, fix and control its functions. These components can be electrodes, computers, or any other device that can easily be set up to transect electric pulses that go through the body.
When it comes to the healthcare industry, it is being employed in brain imaging by recording magnetic fields, made by the electrical activity within the brain, neurostimulation, encouraging the nervous system and brain to impact brain activity, and in neuro devices, an inventive technology that supervises brain activity by utilizing an implant.
The entire world should be thankful for both technology and medicine which have decided to join forces and provide us with some of the most mind-blowing medical inventions that are going to further enhance the healthcare industry and offer patients the best possible care.
