In the past year, several significant tech advances have changed the way we think about the medical field. From groundbreaking emergency room equipment to data-gathering apps, this new hardware and software is already having a wide-ranging effect on doctors, nurses and their patients.
In a hospital setting, technology has the power to simplify and streamline complicated medical processes that reduce the frequency of errors and increase the efficiency of patient health care. This new tech can also help scientists and researchers gather important data and conduct medical studies with the click of a button. Here are three technologies that are already starting to save lives.
E-Aspirin
Medication’s healing power cannot be underestimated. It can cure diseases, alleviate symptoms and reverse chemical imbalances throughout the brain and body. However, this relief often comes with a cost, both financial and physiological.
Prescription drugs can be expensive — often prohibitively so — and the side effects can be nearly as debilitating as the ailment the drugs are designed to treat. What makes the ATI Neurostimulator so exciting is its ability to cure a common ailment without the need for a drug intervention. Call it electronic aspirin. This implant treats the most severe headaches simply by stimulating certain nerve bundles at the first sign of symptoms. The patient simply uses a remote control to trigger an electrical pulse. No need for a prescription.
The device is currently being tested on a chronic form of headache affecting the SPG nerve bundle.
Nano Tech
The biggest issue with nano technology isn’t necessarily the size of the devices, but rather the size of the incredibly small parts that are used to build these devices. Luckily, companies like Apple Rubber exist to provide a solution. The company designs and manufactures the small o-rings that are vital to the safety and effectiveness of precise medical devices.
O-rings serve as the vital link between moving parts and valves on any machine, large or small. Using advanced fluorocarbons, elastomers and silicones, the company has always been a standard in the aerospace, automotive and industrial industries. Now it has turned its attention to the medical field.
As scientists look to technology to solve increasingly sophisticated problems, the need for highly skilled, highly specialized companies like Apple Rubber will continue to grow.
ResearchKit
There is no medical research (and no medical advances) without data. If the scientific community is to have any kind of understanding of the effect of disease on the body, then researchers need a way to collect accurate medical information from a wide swath of people with different backgrounds and medical histories. Without data, we have no way to measure a new drug’s effectiveness or find the root cause of a global epidemic.
But how to collect a lot of data without spending millions of dollars and intruding on the daily lives of individuals? Apple provided a novel solution with the recent release of ResearchKit, an iPhone application that allows researchers to build custom tools for gathering health data on a massive scale. Using the phone’s built-in fitness tech, ResearchKit automatically tracks the health data of a group of participants and instantly provide results for scientific analysis. The app has already been used to gather data related to brain injuries in young athletes. It’s very likely this is only the tip of the iceberg.
