Medical breakthroughs
Here’s a snapshot of some of the incredible medical innovations that promise to boost your health, longevity and quality of life.
Science is coming up with amazing innovations that promise to boost our health, longevity and quality of life
INGESTIBLE BELLY SENSORS
Tummy troubles? Your doctor may soon direct you to swallow a sensor the size of a vitamin pill. Developed at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, this capsule can detect information about your belly health and relay this to your phone and GP. The sensor ‘pill’ runs on stomach acid and dissolves, leaving no trace. It can detect problems such as irritable bowel, inflammatory bowel disease, bleeding and carbohydrate malabsorption. “Ingestible sensors will also offer a reliable diagnostic tool for colon cancer, which means that in the future they may replace more invasive colonoscopy screening tests,” says the co-inventor, Dr Kyle Berean.
DRONE DELIVERIES
Working a little like a medical Uber delivery, drone services – such as the Angel Drone project here in Australia – are undergoing trials to transport vital medical supplies such as anti-venom for a snakebite or plasma needed for blood transfusions. Faster than road transport, they may help save lives because they can drop insulated medical supplies straight to the site of accidents and emergencies, areas of the city congested with traffic or remote locations in the outback or country. In the near future drones may also pick up pathology samples such as blood or urine and drop them straight to labs for faster testing turnaround. Pushed for time in the future? You may be able to dial a drone to pick up your prescription from the doctor’s office, have it filled by the nearest chemist, then deliver it to your office or home.
STROKE DETECTING VISORS
Getting fast diagnosis and treatment of a stroke can save precious brain tissue. Enter the Cerebrotech visor, which uses low-frequency energy waves to check the distribution of cerebral fluids in the brain. Abnormal patterns can then be picked up which indicate the occurrence and severity of a stroke with a 92 per cent accuracy. The visor is expected to be commercially available in America next year and may become available in Australia after further safety trials.
A CANCER DETECTING PEN
In the future if you have a lump removed from your breast you may no longer have a nail-biting wait to discover if it is cancerous. Instead, a handheld device called the MasSpec Pen takes only 10 seconds to give surgeons an on-the-spot diagnosis of cancer which is 96 per cent accurate. Developed by a team of scientists and engineers at the University of Texas, the pen will help surgeons more accurately decide which tissue to preserve and which to remove, reducing the risk of the cancer recurring. Clinical trials in America have already begun which means the availability of the pen may only be a few years away.