Each year brings us dazzling new achievements and ground-breaking discoveries in medical technology. We are certain that 2017 will not disappoint so we prepared a short list of the most promising technologies which might have the potential to change the world of healthcare.
The battle vs. Diabetes
AS of 2016, we have the artificial pancreas. This is a device designed to monitor blood sugar levels and release adequate amounts of insulin automatically. This is probably the biggest step forward we’ve had for a long time in the fight against diabetes. 2017 will be the year to spread the word and introduce the device to the global community of health care workers. The patients can expect their lives to change when they start to use the device. Furthermore, this year we expect Google to introduce their patented contact lenses they developed with Novartis. These will be able to measure blood glucose levels.
Pinpoint accurate oncology
Battling cancer has long been seen as a palliative method to prolong the patient’s life. We still do not have the cure for cancer, but scientists around the world are working hard to find solutions. One of these is cancer genomics. Doctors can now access patient-specific information about cancer and take the adequate steps to prepare treatment. Also, we have to mention liquid biopsy which emerged in 2016, but this year we expect it to take a full swing. Precision medicine has a lot of promising attributes. Let’s put it this way: we are not using cannons anymore, now we have sniper rifles.
Health sensors in driverless vehicles
Cars are becoming increasingly smarter. Someday we might see cars with fully automated functions. For now, we have limitedly autonomous vehicles, but self-driving cars are around the corner. Consequently, since we will be spending more and more time in cars without actually driving them, many companies offered to install various sensors into vehicles to monitor medically important data. Now we can expect to turn our cars into point-of-care, where we will gather information about our health, from blood checks to neuro-scans.
