10 Emerging Healthcare Technologies

New technologies are constantly in development to help people stay healthy, better diagnose disease, treat illness, and provide a better quality of life. Here are some examples:

Intelligent Pills Deliver Medication to Specific Locations: Philips Research has developed an intelligent pill that can be programmed to deliver targeted doses of medication to patients with digestive disorders such as Crohn’s disease, colitis, and colon cancer.¹

Sensor Technology Tracks Medication Adherence: Proteus Biomedical is working on technology that incorporates a tiny sensor into pills for targeting medication adherence for organ transplants, cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases, diabetes, and psychiatric disorders.²

Brain Implants Prevent Seizures: The RNS System, a responsive neurostimulator from NeuroPace, detects abnormal electrical activity in the brain that signals the onset of a seizure, and delivers a specific pattern of mild electrical stimulation to block the seizure.

Contact Lens Detects Glaucoma: Sensimed’s scientists have created a smart contact lens with an embedded microchip that monitors intraocular pressure. If a patient wears the contact lens for a day, glaucoma can be detected sooner and more reliably, and the efficacy of the treatment can be monitored over time, potentially averting blindness.³

Artificial Pancreas for Diabetics: Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston University have successfully completed a trial with 11 type-1 diabetic patients using a new “artificial pancreas”4 that consists of insulin pumps, glucose sensors, and regulatory software.

Printing New Skin: Wake Forest University’s scientists have discovered how to apply ink-jet printer technology to ‘print’ proteins directly onto a burn victim’s body for faster and more thorough healing.⁵

Artificial Retina: The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Artificial Retina Project — a collaboration of five DOE national laboratories, four universities, and private industry — is developing a retinal prosthesis. To date, progress has been made by enabling direct communication between the implant and the neural cells that carry visual information to the brain.⁶

Video Games Hone Medical Student Decision-Making Skills: The University of Texas, Corpus Christi, and BreakAway Ltd., have developed a ‘serious’ video game that lets professionals and students practice on 3D video patients using the same interactive techniques and decision-making processes they would use with real patients.

Robot Care Givers: MIT’s “Huggable” teddy bear robot can serve as a medical communicator for children. Packed with electronic sensors and sensitive skin technologies, the robot can distinguish between cuddling for comfort or agitation by sensing the strength of the squeeze.⁷

Lab-on-a-Chip: Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have created a lab-on-a-chip for HIV testing that does not require expensive resources and can deliver results in seconds. The portable and less expensive lab-on-a-chip is a holographic, lens-free imaging mechanism that counts specific molecules and blood cells to determine if the blood is HIV positive.⁸

1 http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10095371-1.html

2 www.medgadget.com/archives/2010/01/a_quick_look_at_the_status_of_smart_pill_technology.html

3 www.smartertechnology.com/c/a/Technology-For-Change/Smart-Contact-Lens-Detects-Eye-Disease/

4 www.artificialpancreas.org/

5 www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63657520100407, www.fastcodesign.com/1662613/new-pics-inkjet-printer-makes-instant-skin-grafts-for-burn-victims

6 www.artificialretina.energy.gov/pubs/ARN_summer_09.pdf (PDF, 5.72MB); www.artificialretina.energy.gov

7 www.robotic.media.mit.edu/projects/robots/huggable/overview/overview.html

8 www.dailytech.com/New+Lab+on+a+Chip+Device+Revolutionizes+HIV+Testing/article19073.htm