Medical technologies have advanced considerably in recent years. In fact, we have often heard of robots performing surgery and experimental organs printed with a 3D printer. We share with you those that are actively used today and that do not look for science fiction films.
If only it were real: Items from Sci-Fi movies!
We brought together the devices and technologies that we see in Science Fiction movies and wish we could have in real life.
It’s not a dream: these medical technologies are real!
Modern medicine helps us to prolong our lives and our suffering. Of course, since the antibiotics, painkillers and cancer screenings we are accustomed to have been in our lives for a long time, a development in this area is not surprising. However, there are also medical technologies that look like they came out of science fiction movies.
Advanced robot surgeons
Today’s robots are not as impressive and independent of humans as we see in science fiction movies. But developments show that this may happen in the near future. In particular, earlier this year researchers at Johns Hopkins managed to excite the medical world by publishing results showing that Intelligent Tissue Autonomic Robots (STAR) can perform a complex laparoscopic surgery in pigs that requires reconnecting the intestinal ends.
Stimulating the brain to treat depression
The idea of using electricity to treat mental illness can be repulsive in the early days of psychiatry, given the brutal and sometimes abused history of shock therapy. But today, this situation has been completely reversed thanks to advancing medical technologies.
Various brain simulation methods hold real promise in curing depression and other seemingly incurable diseases. In theory, these treatments could somehow reset or stabilize the dysregulated brain activity associated with neuropsychiatric disorders.
In October last year, a research team published results showing that personalized deep brain simulation techniques, which involve implanting a pacemaker-like device into the human brain, have successfully helped a woman combat severe depression for decades.
Of course, for now, this technology is quite expensive. But in the near future, we may see an increasing number of companies trying to produce similar technologies such as Elon Musk’s Neuralink. In this way, the field of use and treatment methods will also develop.
drug-eluting contact lens
Not every innovation in medicine is realized with the development of electronic devices. It is just as important to improve existing ones. This month, the FDA in the US approved the first non-drug contact lenses developed to reduce and prevent eye itching, which release a dose of antihistamine within a few hours. Down the road, this technology could be used to treat other eye conditions like glaucoma, infections, and cataracts.
gene therapy
Scientists have been working on the idea of editing human genes to treat so-called difficult or incurable ailments for quite some time. After all these years, the FDA has announced that it has approved at least two known gene therapies, the first of which was in 2017. In this way, it is stated that an important step has been taken in the fight against cancer.
genetically modified pig organ transplant
The medical world has been working on organ transplantation from other living things for a long time. Of course, we know that there have been some unsuccessful and banned clone attempts. But today, this situation has taken a very promising turn.
Last year, two different research teams successfully transplanted organs from genetically modified pigs into brain-dead humans. In January of this year, a team in Maryland succeeded in transplanting the world’s first modified pig heart to a terminally ill patient. However, they cannot currently offer this treatment to every patient waiting for an organ transplant. It will have to go through clinical trials for a long time. However, we can say that it is promising.
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