It Technologies in Medicine
Medtech is the general name of the industry, covering the creation of innovative medical equipment and software for it. Technologies from the non-medical sphere come to the medical field. As a result, it makes possible to solve health problems in alternative ways, for example, 3D printing of implants, prostheses, and more. A huge amount of research in the creation of synthetic organs are already accumulated, which in the future will replace the inactive natural body. It is no coincidence that in 2016, American and European medical equipment companies attracted a total of about $4 billion in investment. They mainly invested in the development of heart valves, neurosurgical devices, equipment for gastroenterology and gynecology, and orthopedic appliances.
Telemedicine is also gaining popularity, that is, the remote provision of medical services, when the patient and the doctor are removed at any distance, and the quality of services does not suffer at all. Actually, consultations via video connection have already taken place a long time ago, but their effect was very limited.
The fact is that for the doctor it is a very important examination of the patient. In addition to tests’ results, he should see the color of the skin and eyes, abnormal manifestations on the body surface. Until recently, photographs were used for this purpose, but they could not convey all the characteristics. Symptoms of skin diseases are present in 90% of other diseases, so this is a very important stage of diagnosis. But today there are many intelligent scanning programs that use image recognition technology. These technologies sometimes recognize skin diseases, such as eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis, and more.
It is worth noting the great progress in the field of robotics, for example, robotic surgeons. Such technologies are especially relevant for operations in the eyes, where a person is not capable of providing the necessary accuracy, but the robot is quite capable. Johnson&Johnson Medical Devices Limited recently announced the acquisition of French Orthotaxy, a developer of robotic solutions for orthopedic surgery, including in the field of knee surgery. Founded in 2009, Orthotaxy has developed a knee joint replacement technology. Although this technology is still being finalized, the acquisition may signal the development of the next major category of surgical solutions associated with the work.
Another important area: high-tech pharmaceuticals. It is about the point of drugs’ delivery to the right organ with the subsequent removal of metabolic products. Already today, there are nanorobots that deliver drugs directly to the affected cell. Moreover, tiny autonomous robots that are capable of operating as intelligent drug delivery devices for the treatment of cancer are being tested.
There are first successes in the treatment of a person at the genetic level when DNA is subjected to change in order to remove a possible genetic predisposition to diseases.