Medical technology of the future as it will be. Medical technologies of the future. Bioglass cartilage

We have all dreamed of telepathy while reading fantasy books, and it is not known if our dreams will ever come true. But already now there are technologies that allow seriously ill people to use the power of thought where they cannot cope due to their weakness. For example, Emotiv developed the EPOC Neuroheadset, a system that allows a person to control a computer by giving it mental commands. This device has great potential to create new opportunities for patients who, due to illness, cannot move. It can allow them to control an electronic wheelchair, a virtual keyboard, and more.

Philips and Accenture have begun developing an electroencephalogram (EEG) reader so that people with limited mobility can use mental commands to manipulate things that are out of reach. Such an opportunity is very necessary for paralyzed people who cannot control their hands. In particular, the device should help to do simple things: turn on the light and TV, it can even control the mouse cursor. What opportunities await these technologies, one can only speculate, and a lot can be speculated.

The development of medicine will allow people to live longer and cope with some now incurable ailments. But it is unlikely that new technologies will be cheap, and a long life will turn into new problems.

Speakers of the futurological forum "Russia 2030: From Stability to Prosperity" share with RBC readers their vision of how industries and social institutions will change in 15 years.

Predictor Doctor

Unlike political and sociological forecasts, which often provide for negative and even catastrophic global processes in the future, forecasts regarding science usually abound with bright prospects. In almost every historical period in the development of civilization, medicine was predicted to cure mankind of all diseases, a shocking increase in life expectancy, immortality and the emergence of new physical and psychophysiological properties in humans. These predictions never fully came true. People continued to get sick and die, and medical science continued to develop systematically.

Continuous improvement in the field of the human genome, sooner or later, should lead to the creation of personalized medicine based on the unique properties of each person, his inclinations to a particular pathology. This will allow implementing the preventive direction of medical activity, where the doctor will be in the position of predicting the future fate of each specific patient based on the expression of certain genes responsible, for example, for cardiovascular or oncological pathology.

The introduction of prenatal genetic diagnosis should sooner or later become a routine event. Most likely, at some point it will be possible to integrate into the human genome system using genetic probes in order to change the predisposition to a particular disease (which is already being implemented in preclinical studies). It remains to be seen whether people will like such an insight into their own future.

cell tablet

The prospects for experimental and clinical pharmacology are likely to lie in the area of individual drug delivery using nanoparticles, which will make it possible to treat with microdoses while minimizing side effects and complications. A fierce battle will develop between pharmaceutical companies for the development of advanced technologies for delivering drugs to cells and tissues.

In the near future, effective schemes for the radical treatment of such socially dangerous infections as HIV and hepatitis C will undoubtedly be found. Nevertheless, the improvement of antibiotic therapy will lead (and already leads) to the emergence of new generations of drug-resistant bacteria, the rapid evolution of viruses. Fundamentally new infectious threats will appear before civilization.

The problem of cancer, despite constant developments, is likely to be relevant for at least 100-150 years, and the underlying mechanisms of carcinogenesis will not be revealed, since they are associated with the basic biological causes of life and death at the cellular and subcellular levels. The treatment of oncological diseases will primarily be based on mass preventive examinations using updated lines of tumor markers with the identification of early stages of the disease.

The study of the brain and nervous tissue will reach a new level, providing civilization with fundamentally new opportunities. Neuromodulation and functional neurosurgery of the brain and spinal cord is undoubtedly the most interesting branch of practical neuromedicine and neurobiology. With the help of special electrodes installed in various parts of the nervous system, it will be possible to remotely control subtle motor and sensory disorders, treat pain and spastic syndromes, and mental illnesses. This is the future, but its developments are already in the hands of neurosurgeons.

Long life issues

There is also a reverse side of progress - the person of the future will live longer and therefore get sick more often. The issue of a new accessible environment for the disabled, the creation of biological prostheses will become even more relevant. Of great interest are the developments in the field of stem cells, the development of which can be directed along any path, which means that prospects are opening up for the restoration of the spinal cord after its complete anatomical break, the skin after massive burns, etc.

As a surgeon, I cannot but note the fact that the future of clinical medicine is not in surgery. Already today, all progressive surgery is based on minimizing access, the use of endoscopic and minimally invasive technologies. The era of bloody and dangerous interventions, which surgeons ironically call the "Battle of Stalingrad", will gradually become a thing of the past. The use of radiosurgery and cybersurgery technologies, as well as robotic operations, is already displacing the hand of the surgeon-operator from a number of specialties.

Dementia and Alzheimer's disease will become a serious medical and social problem: realizing this, scientists are already investing huge efforts to understand their underlying mechanisms. Extending life and preserving it for people previously doomed to death will pose new clinical and ethical questions for the doctors and scientists of the future; diseases will open before us, which are now difficult to even imagine.

The obvious consequence of this will, of course, be the massive use of active and passive euthanasia and the associated political, religious and philosophical changes. Euthanasia will become a technological phenomenon. A person will be able to live longer, but not the fact that he wants to.

The simplification of communication between people and the progress of means of communication, as well as the increase in the pace of life, will inevitably lead to a change in the structure of psychiatric pathology. Depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia-like psychosis will be of great prevalence and will require the introduction of new means of psychopharmacotherapy. The person of the future will consume mood-correcting drugs in a similar way to modern vitamin supplements.

An increase in the share of expensive and highly effective methods of treatment and prevention of serious diseases will contribute to the social stratification of society. The high-tech medicine of the future will be the medicine of the rich, while the quality of care for the poor will decline from one decade to the next. This will be the cause of protests and political phenomena, the consequences of which will be difficult to predict.

Will the doctor of the future become smarter and more progressive? Undoubtedly. Will the person of the future live healthier and happier? Hardly.

Alexey Kashcheev, neurosurgeon, lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia

We tried to figure out which of these forecasts can be trusted and which cannot.

Foreword

Recently we had a lecture on anatomy, where our esteemed professor E. S. Okolokulak spoke about the central nervous system - the telencephalon, etc. Unexpectedly for us, he announced that he had prepared a cartoon, and we looked at each other, they say, why do we, such serious people, need cartoons. It was, of course, a joke - and he meant the latest program, which was recently created jointly by doctors and programmers. He talked about the 3D representation of brain structures, both collectively and individually. But I was not very surprised by this, given that I spend hours watching science fiction films and tons of YouTube videos on this topic, and what our professor showed us with such enthusiasm seemed to me for granted. Of course, in fact, it took years to develop such a program, and this program is not passed on to anyone, but is stored almost in the professor's safe. But that's not the point.

The professor smoothly moved on to the topic of the future of medicine, and expressed his opinion, touching, however, only one area. He said that soon we will be spinning a 3D model of the brain in the air, just like in science fiction films, and there is no doubt about it. Such a solid and serious professor spoke of such things, and we could not doubt it for a second. Moreover, we live in such a time. Then he said that a few years ago, 3D brain scanning was a fantasy, and now many doctors in practice can easily look at brain structures in layers.

3D projection with gesture control

This is the first thing I want to describe, since our professor showed exactly this prediction in his lecture. In fact, 3D scanning is already used in practice today, and today we can scan the same brain, and then twist it, enlarge it, “cut” it in layers, and see what pathology is in a particular area. But! We do all this with the mouse, keyboard, that is, through the monitor screen. But what if in the near future we can project a real-time 3D model of the brain into the air, and twist it in different directions, enlarge it, “cut” it right in the air with the same gestures? Yes, it will be possible in the future! The proof of this is that scientists have already begun to work in this direction, and today we can control computer gestures, but still on the screen, that is, projecting a picture onto the surface (using the "Kinect" method). In the near future, however, such sensors will be improved, and we will be able to move models right in the air, just like Tony Stark from the Iron Man movie. To achieve this goal, I think, it will take about 10-15 years, no more. It will not come true only if the doctors themselves find it inconvenient.

Clothing-sensor

It’s not even worth discussing about this, because even now in India they have come up with such clothes that register various indicators of the body. It will be bought by those who need to scan their body functions at certain intervals, and at the same time do not want to spend time on examinations in hospitals. It will also be invaluable in sports.

All functions of the body will be displayed in real time, starting from the pulse, blood pressure and ending with the general muscle tone. Information will be sent to a smartphone, and from there it will be synchronized with a computer at home, or on doctors' devices. This will be the case in 10-15 years.

3D printers of human organs

Of course, I couldn't help but mention it. A sensational topic precisely in our transitional period of time is 3D printers. 3D printers are no longer a curiosity, which produce figurines and parts from plastic, from which even weapons can be assembled. Now scientists from several countries are growing living organs by printing them on 3D bioprinters. They "opened" the kidney, but it turned out that this kidney functions only for 4 months - and that's it. At this stage, this problem is being solved. They will solve it in 5-10 years.

Advances in neurotechnology

It was this direction that interested me the most, because the brain and the nervous system in general are a galaxy of mysterious structures that are not so well studied by man. One, for example, had half a brain cut out and even more, but he is quite an ordinary person, with an average mind; another had a tiny piece of necrotic tissue cut out and became a vegetable. There are many unknowns in this field, and many scientists are working on this today.

Since I trained as an ambulance paramedic, I couldn’t help mentioning this either. Several possible predictions:

"Reversible death", which will give time to save the victim. For example, inject a cryo-solution instead of blood while a person is being taken to intensive care.
Obtaining reliable and necessary information about damages immediately from a smartphone or directly from the clothes of the victim.
Delivery of oxygen to any damaged parts of the body, especially to the brain, in a faster way - again, through a special solution.
Devices to keep the brain active, even if the body has stopped pumping blood. Something like a helmet, which is equipped with wires and tubes with blood substitutes.
In the resuscitation room, due to technologies equipped with the latest technology, resuscitators will not lose those precious minutes on which much depends.

Due to less attention to critical care medicine than to other branches of medicine, from researchers and governments, it may take 20 years to realize this prediction.

And the last forecast is universal computerization and integration of all structures of medicine

Innovations will directly affect all structures of medicine. Even such simple ones as prescribing medicines to a patient, filling out his medical history, obtaining information about him, about his diseases that he had before, about his hereditary diseases, with their probability ... All this will be synchronized in central servers and served on the tablets that will be given to each doctor when they start work. They will only have to attach an electronic patient card to the device. If there is no card - it does not matter, you can always fill in everything without even typing, but by talking (voice control). True, this will all be in our country in 50, or even 80 years.

In the end, I would like to say that all this is possible only if we do not limit ourselves. As our professor said: “Ten years ago, everything that we see now was only a fantasy and a figment of the imagination of writers and directors, and now, all this surrounds us. And there is no doubt that what is shown now in science fiction films and write in books - it will come true in the next 5-10 years. Well, maybe not in 5-10 years, but in the next 50-80 years it should come true for sure. I believe in it.

Do you believe in it?

Ibrahim Salamov

Medicine does not stand still. New discoveries and technologies make it possible to cure those diseases that until recently were considered incurable. Diagnosis of diseases is also reaching a completely new level. And today we will talk about 5 most unusual medical technologies modernity, which in the very near future may become commonplace.

The very phrase "British scientists" has long been humorous. After all, they often explore completely absurd and incomprehensible things that cause surprise among the public. But it happens that scientists from the UK do really important things. For example, recently doctors from this country presented a revolutionary medical technology.

It allows you to determine genetic diseases automatically from a photograph. A computer, based on pictures of a human face, can indicate what problems a person may have in the future.

After all, studies have shown that about thirty percent of the changes that occur with a person's face are due to his chronic and genetic diseases. And doctors from Oxford have created software that allows you to detect potential problems of patients based on the smallest details of their physiognomy.
Doctors have long been looking for a way to quickly deal with asthma attacks in patients. After all, for a long time the most effective option in such cases was a tracheotomy - surgical dissection of the trachea to insert a tube there. But scientists from the Boston Children's Hospital have come up with a new one.

They have developed injections that enrich human blood with oxygen for up to thirty minutes. This is necessary, first of all, for medical needs, operations and rescue of people in extreme conditions. But technology can also be used in sports and entertainment.

During an injection, fatty particles containing oxygen molecules enter the body. The latter are released upon contact of fat with red blood cells and saturate the blood with the resource necessary for a person.
Doctors from different countries are helped to find cancer in patients by specially trained dogs. It turns out that these animals are able to detect cancer cells in the human body and even distinguish one type of disease from another.

The most famous such dog is, which "works" in one of the oncology clinics in South Korea. His owners even decided to clone their pet in order to sell the dog with unique data to other hospitals around the world.

But in Israel they decided to go the other way. They created an "artificial nose" technology that allows electronic detection of cancer cells. It is enough for the patient to exhale into a special tube, and the computer diagnoses one of several types of cancer in him, unless, of course, the person has this dangerous disease. What's more, this technological nose is many times more accurate than Marin's Labrador.

Pollen is an amazing substance that, once it enters the human respiratory tract, can then quickly spread to different parts of the body, including the digestive system and mucous membranes. It was this effect that scientists from the University of Texas decided to use for medical purposes.

A group of American researchers has created a technology that allows people to be vaccinated without the use of needles and injections. She learned how to coat flower pollen with the vaccine, which then penetrates the human body and carries the beneficial drug to its innermost corners, where it is then easily absorbed.

Interestingly, the most difficult part of this scientific project was trying to learn how to rid the pollen of all allergens. From this, in fact, the research began. And, having learned pollen dealergization, scientists were able to easily apply medical preparations to the purified material.

For many decades, specialized drugs have been the most effective way to combat depression. They caused side effects and addiction, which negatively affected not only the emotional, but also the physical health of a person. But recently a radically opposite method of dealing with this disease has been developed, based not on chemistry, but on electromagnetic radiation.

The helmet with the complex name NeuroStar Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Therapy System affects certain areas of the human cerebral cortex with the help of electromagnetic impulses, causing the neutrons responsible for pleasure to be excited.

Clinical experiments have shown that 30-40 minutes spent daily in the NeuroStar Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Therapy System helmet make people with depression feel much better, and thirty percent of such treatment brings complete recovery over time.

There are not many people in the world who can safely endure a visit to the doctor in order to receive an injection. Well, it seems that the nightmare of the majority of the adult and, especially, the children's population of the planet is coming to an end. If you need to receive an injection, you will no longer be “poked” with a needle. You will receive personal nano-robots. This is what the medicine of the future will be like.

A modern alternative to injections was proposed by two students at the University of York - Atif Saeed and Zakharia Hussain. Young people believe that injections have long outlived their usefulness. Today, this method of drug administration is unsafe. This inspired young researchers to propose a drug delivery option based on the use of nano-robots. The project was named "Nanject".

The basis of the new technology will be a nano-plaster. Its surface will consist of nano-robots. The penetration of nano-robots into the human body will be carried out through the skin, and their transportation in the body - through the circulatory system. So nano-robots will be able to reach diseased tissues.

Atif Saeed and Zakharia Hussain plan to produce plasters in two variations

The first of them will be distinguished by the presence of a meager proportion of drugs intended for transportation to the organs with which the patient experiences problems.
The purpose of the second will be determined by nano-robot liquidators capable of finding pathological cells in the body and heating them to a temperature that leads to their death. After that, the temperature of the nano-robots will drop, and their removal from the body will be carried out naturally.

The researchers believe that the nano-patch holds great promise. According to them, in the near future it is with its help that people will receive all kinds of medicines, vitamins, vaccines and dietary supplements.

The need for dental treatment will be eliminated

British specialists in the field of dentistry are engaged in the development of technology that allows growing teeth directly in the mouth of patients. This is the real medicine of the future. The technique includes two stages of restoration of a lost tooth.

Firstly, this includes the manufacture of a tooth germ. For this, epithelial cells from the patient's gums, as well as stem cells from mouse embryos, are used.
Some time later, a special impulse comes from the epithelial cells, which stimulates the transformation of the embryo into some type of tooth.
After the formation of a tooth in a test tube, it is transferred to the environment for further stay - the patient's oral cavity. Here the implantation phase is implemented, allowing the tooth to grow to the desired size.

Preliminary testing of the technique proves its success, so the daily use of such teeth growing is possible in the near future.

Teeth become virus detectors

Specialists from Princeton University have developed a chip that is placed on tooth enamel and signals changes in the state of the body. The chip contains gold, silk and graphene (ultra-thin film of carbon) as a connecting material.

The operation of the device is possible even without a battery, since the radio signal is transmitted using an antenna coil. Although the chip seems to be a complex structure, it is attached to the tooth enamel using ordinary water.

To date, the invention is not yet suitable for its intended use. It is large enough, and is not protected from damage while brushing your teeth or eating. However, engineers stubbornly talk about the huge potential of this device in the context of monitoring human health. According to the developers, this is the first step towards the medicine of the future.

The chip was tested on a cow's tooth with volunteers agreeing to breathe on the device. The device instantly transmitted new information to the monitors. Interestingly, in the future, the chip will determine the presence of harmful bacteria and viruses not only by analyzing exhaled air, but also by analyzing the components of saliva.

US soldiers will have super vision

The American firm "Innovega" appealed to the government of the United States of America with a request to consider all the advantages of its new development. This is a technology that can significantly improve the visual perception of environmental objects.

According to the head of the company, Steve Willey, its use in contact lenses will allow to achieve the expansion of a person's angular vision, as well as the simultaneous focusing of the gaze on several objects. Such a modification of vision will allow you to surpass opponents during the conduct of hostilities. The first customer of a batch of devices was the Pentagon.

It is reported that devices to improve the quality of vision will be used not only in the military-industrial complex. Steve Willey announces that lenses will soon be available for free sale, which will make it possible to distribute the technology among the general population.

However, ophthalmologists warn of the dangers of using the new development. Experts believe that these lenses have a negative effect on the eyes and visual acuity, because they reduce the contrast of images perceived by a person.

Synthetic blood can be tested on humans

The world's first license for the study of synthetic blood with its testing in humans was received by a group of scientists working at the Scottish Center for Regenerative Medicine (Edinburgh). In the manufacture of synthetic blood, the researchers took stem cells isolated from the body of adult donors as a basis.

This qualitatively distinguishes the received blood from the previous variants, the production base of which was the embryos. If the tests of the new product are successful, it will be able to level the problem of a lack of donors and blood, as well as save humanity from the problems of infection when transfusing poor-quality blood.

In addition to testing synthetic blood, researchers are going to test medicines made using stem cells. There is already a permit for this. It is expected that these drugs will be effective in the treatment of patients after stroke and patients who suffer from a number of diseases such as cancer, diabetes or Parkinson's disease. Such drugs will become the basis of the medicine of the future.

The movement of objects will be realized due to the power of thought

A group of engineers from ATR, a company based in Kyoto, Japan, has developed a system that guarantees the execution of various actions with the help of thoughts. The experiment was called the Network Brain Machine Interface.

A number of tasks have been successfully implemented in it, including controlling the hands solely with the power of thought or turning the lights and the TV on and off. Thoughts even made it possible to change the direction of movement in a wheelchair!

Amazing results are made possible thanks to a helmet equipped with many sensors:

The device captures the smallest changes in blood flow and the slightest fluctuations in impulses emanating from the brain.
This information is sent to the analytical center, which is located in a wheelchair.
After analyzing the request, it is addressed to a specific device equipped with a reading sensor.

To date, the interval between the receipt of a request and the execution of a command is 6-12 seconds. However, the developers are determined to achieve a result of 1 second in 3 years. In addition, they plan to bring the accuracy of command recognition closer to 80%.

The company is expected to bring the device to market by 2020. Experts believe that the device will greatly facilitate the lives of people with disabilities and older people. For the disabled, the medicine of the future can restore a full life.

The guy with the bionic arm

The first and only British teenager with a bionic arm is named Patrick Kane.

When the boy was 9 months old, a meningococcal infection caused sepsis and the need to amputate his right lower leg and fingers on his right hand. At the age of 1, Patrick got prostheses that served him for 15 years, and on his 16th birthday, his parents gave the teenager a super-technological gift in the form of a bionic hand from the Scottish company Touch Bionics.

The bionic arm is controlled by a smartphone. The package includes a special application for the iOS operating system, which allows the owner to exercise control over the movement of his limb. It includes tutorials that will help you get the most out of your device.

On the wrist of the prosthesis are sensors that record electrical impulses during muscle contraction. The user can select any of 24 capture types. The bionic hand is ultra-sensitive, allowing you to pick up a piece of paper without wrinkling it as little as possible. At the same time, the artificial arm is capable of lifting loads up to 90 kg.

Assessing the functionality of the invention, Patrick Kane does not hide his delight. He claims that the bionic hand allows you to perform everyday operations with a much higher level of comfort than it was with prostheses. This is the real medicine of the future. The black model of the bionic limb preferred by the teenager costs between $38,000 and $122,000, depending on its size.

The Japanese have learned to make the skin transparent

Scientists from Japan have been trying for a long time to find a reagent that would make the skin of living organisms transparent. The purpose of these works was to facilitate the process of studying the work of internal organs. It seems that a breathtaking discovery still took place.

So far, the resulting “transparency serum” has only been tested on mouse embryos. Now experts are working to improve the safety of a strong chemical. This will allow testing of the reagent in animals and humans. The drug was codenamed Scale A2.

Blood vessels will be grown in the laboratory

A group of adventurous researchers working at Yale University and Duke University (Western Carolina) has opened a new page in the history of medicine. Scientists have created a network of laboratories whose specialization is the cultivation of blood vessels with their further use in various operations.

Up to this point, the operation used the veins and vessels of the patient himself. This method had significant limitations, because such a donation could be impossible due to the lack of suitable vessels in the patient.

The basis of the new method was by no means cloning, discussed by mankind with heightened interest.

The essence of the technology is to isolate the muscle tissue of corpses, which is placed in a bioreactor.
Here tissue development takes place in specially designed containers that ensure its recovery.
In addition, these reservoirs help to increase the strength and elasticity of the tissue, which turns into a circulatory system by tightening a network of tiny cells.

The bioreactor is called the main component of the technology. The first use of this device dates back to 1999. Then, with its help, they tried to create heart tissue, which happened under weightless conditions. The existence of the device was known only to a few, because it was going to be used not only for growing human tissues, but also for cloning food.

The new technology of the future should solve the problem of organ donation and transplant queues. The developers say that its implementation in modern technological progress will be carried out in the near future.

While the project is at the development stage, but funding should come immediately after receiving positive results. NASA will become a mandatory participant in the project, because organ growing plants must certainly be located in space in order to neutralize the effect of earth's gravity on cell growth.

Elixir of youth discovered

Harvard researchers have figured out how to rejuvenate old organs. It is expected that this medical technology will make human life longer. Its essence is reduced to receiving a single injection.

The technique was developed on the basis of observations of the genes of old age.

The general principle of aging is the loss of the body's ability to form healthy cells that would divide and produce new cells. This is due to the fact that telomeres (the ends of DNA strands) are getting shorter. Reaching a critical length, they provoke the aging of the body.

Ronald DeFino became the curator of the next experiment. In the laboratory, mice have been created that do not have the ability to produce telomeres. It turned out that when the condition of the cells deteriorated, the animals immediately died. The experiment was repeated with the addition of administering enzymes to mice through a syringe. As a result, the aging process of rodents began to reverse, and their cells began to rejuvenate.

Being able to make similar modifications to humans could help provide cures for premature aging. True, scientists still face many questions, including the moral side of DNA modification, the biological aspect of the impact of technology on descendants, and the potential overpopulation of the planet by eternally young people.

English doctor brings the dead back to life

Sam Parnia is called a doctor from God. This resuscitator manages to bring people back to life even after a three-hour clinical death! The specialist found his first job in England, and now he is working in the USA. At Stony Brook University Medical Center in New York, Sam was able to raise the near death rate from 16% to 30%. According to the expert, this is not the limit.

Sam Parnia convinces others that he is not a magician, and the results of his work are just a tribute to science and common sense. He is deeply convinced that modern medicine continues to exploit outdated methods and technologies. The resuscitator invented his own technology for resurrecting people, which he called the “Lazarus effect”. It saves the lives of at least 40,000 patients a year.

The doctor does not hide the nuances of his method from other medical professionals or ordinary people. This technology became the subject of a story in his own book. However, other specialists are in no hurry to use the knowledge gained. Still, because the method requires considerable effort and a lot of time for each patient.

The basis of the "Lazarus effect" is information about the apoptosis stop system, which determines the programmed cell death.
After a person is clinically dead, he is immediately cooled.
His blood is driven through a special device for blood purification - ECMO. Thus, the internal environment of the body is cleared of carbon dioxide and saturated with oxygen.

Using the method, Sam Parnia managed to save football player Fabrice Mumamba, who was in a state of clinical death for several hours, and a girl from Japan, whose state of imaginary death lasted 3 hours.