Technological advancements in the modern world have had a far-reaching impact on our daily lives in ways we cannot begin to adequately describe. More so, the one place that technology has dramatically transformed things is the medical world. Some countless gadgets and processes have been invented that have made treatment much more comfortable and cheaper. The following are some of the technologies that have stood out in the past 12 months.
Digital Blood Pressure Monitors
Checking the blood pressure used to be a tedious affair. You first had to make the trip to the doctor, then the apparatus in use was manual. It had to be wrapped around your arm, and measurements were taken slowly. With the invention of digital blood pressure monitors, that is no longer the case. By a single press of a button, you can get your blood pressure readings in less than 30 seconds without any help from the doctor. Some, like the Ray PulseWave BP monitor, are so advanced that they can detect the slightest of changes in the blood pressure in real-time.
Robotic Surgery
Robots are getting involved more and more with human lives to the point where they are now advanced enough to conduct delicate procedures like surgery. Although their use is still relegated to the minimally invasive types of surgeries, their precision and reliability so far is proof that in the next ten years, we will not need human surgeons anymore. Through the use of Artificial Intelligence and intricate mechanical components, robotic surgery is increasingly becoming the go-to option for many in developed countries.
3-D Printing
When 3-D Printing was invented some years back, it was still unclear how its applications would be used in the real world; that is no longer a question. Thanks to how far the technology has grown in the last two decades, prosthetic limbs and other body parts can be designed and printed to the exact measurements within a short time. They can also be used to increase the production of drugs that usually take a lot of time to create, thus lowering the cost in the long run.
Health Wearables
We are now smack in the middle of the smart age, where smart devices are the new norm. Smartwatches, for instance, have turned out to be the medical weapon that no one oversaw ever transforming into a couple of years ago. Now, you can keep track of all your body vitals by merely wearing a smartwatch on your wristy. You can track your body’s metabolism, your respiratory processes, and all the other physiological processes.
Some smartwatch flagships from this, like Apple’s WatchOS 7, come with fall detection as a feature and can track your sleep, helping you fight sleeping disorders like insomnia and the likes.
Telehealth
Telehealth is the new technological frontier in the medical world. It is the use of digitally designed services to help patients remotely. Rather than making the trip to the hospital for a minor check-up, patients can now consult with their physicians virtually from the comfort of their own houses. As more inventions are being made rapidly, it will soon be possible for a doctor to make an accurate diagnosis through a virtual meeting with the patient. This could help decongest hospitals while personalizing healthcare at the same time.
Precision Medicine
The creation of medicine that is tailored specifically for a single patient is a revolutionary technological step that is going to help treat some of the chronic diseases that have plagued mankind for years. Precision medicine refers to drugs and treatment procedures that are designed based on a patient’s genetic make-up that makes it easier to treat what is ailing them to the very core. This will stop the administration of generic drugs that usually have very little effect on people saving patients from unnecessary side effects of heavy medications.
Smart Inhalers
Smart Inhalers are the digital version of traditional inhalers that are used by asthma patients. They are Bluetooth enabled devices that record the date and the time that each dose is administered into the body, taking note of whether it was administered correctly. The data is then sent directly to the doctor and the patient, helping both parties to better control the treatment and management of the condition. So far, it has been found that smart inhalers have reduced the excessive use of inhaler drugs.
CRISPR
CRISPR is an acronym for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, an advanced gene-editing technology. It can modify genes making them more resistant to incurable diseases like cancer and HIV. There is a lot of controversy, however, surrounding the use of CRISPR, with religious groups condemning it as a mockery, a tool that tries to play the role of God. It is only a matter of time before the technology becomes the standard way of treatment in the near future.
Conclusion
Technology and medicine are bedfellows; where one goes, the other one is never far behind. As time progresses, we are bound to see even more unbelievable medical solutions that no one would have envisioned a decade ago. At the heart of all these innovations is the insatiable need to rid humanity of all diseases once and for all.
