Top 10 medical innovations for 2019

Author Ольга Кияница

2019-03-08

The Cleveland Clinic recently announced its annual list of the top 10 medical innovations for 2019. Similar news was announced at the Medical Innovation Summit at the end of 2018, which was held in Cleveland, Ohio. The achievements that are expected to improve health care were selected by the Cleveland Clinic group of doctors and scientists.

1. Pharmacogenomic Testing

Pharmacogenomic testing allows to determine the genetic composition of patients in order to adapt the prescribed treatment based on the individual drug metabolism. For example, pharmacogenomic testing can determine how a patient will respond to opioid therapy in order to reduce the abuse of opioids.

In practice, clinicians are in no hurry to implement pharmacogenomics, despite technological advances in this area and greater access to genetic testing. Stakeholders in the United States and Europe are studying the clinical utility of pharmacogenomics and developing appropriate guidelines.

Video: Alternative Therapy for Pain: Fighting the Opioid Crisis

2. Artificial Intelligence

The British Encyclopedia defines artificial intelligence (AI) as “the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks usually associated with intelligent beings. This term is often applied to the project of developing systems endowed with intellectual processes characteristic of man. For example, the ability to reason, discover meaning, summarize, or learn from past experience. ”

Although artificial intelligence technologies corresponded to a person performing tasks such as mathematical calculations or playing chess, they still have to match the human ability to cover broad areas of information.

With regard to health, AI can help in the diagnosis and assist physicians in identifying pathology in diagnostic studies. In addition, AI can help interpret a host of electronic health data.

Video: The Advent of AI in Healthcare

3. Treatment of acute stroke

In 2018, the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American Stroke Association (ASA) released new guidelines for patients with acute stroke, particularly using the “Expanded Window” procedure.

A summary of the changes, according to the Stroke Council of the American Heart Association:

“These 2018 recommendations are an update of those for 2013, when up to six positive tests of mechanical thrombectomy of the“ extended window ”type were published (MR CLEAN, ESCAPE, EXTEND-IA, REVASCAT, SWIFT PRIME, THRACE), which appeared in 2015 and 2016 years In addition, over the past 3 months, two studies (DAWN and DEFUSE 3) have demonstrated a clear advantage of mechanical thrombectomy with an “expanded window” for some patients with large vessel occlusion, which can be treated for up to 16-24 hours. ”

Video: Expanded Window for Acute Stroke Intervention

4. Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, using the immune system to fight tumors. In particular, immune checkpoint inhibitors have shown great promise in treating large tumors such as melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer. It is assumed that someday immunotherapy options will exist for all types of tumors.

Video: Advances in Immunotherapy for Cancer Treatment

5. 3D printing: products for a specific patient.

3D printing allows you to create products that are beneficial to health, taking into account the specifics of a particular patient, including prostheses, implants and airway stents. These individual creations increase comfort and performance because they are modeled after measuring the patient's body, while offering minimal risk of postoperative complications.3D printing also finds use in planning surgeries such as interventions on the heart or even facial skin grafts.

Video: Patient-Specific Products Achieved with 3D Printing

6. Virtual and mixed reality for medical education

Virtual reality / mixed reality (VR / MR) applications have become popular in medical education. Thanks to its exciting approach, VR / MR is suitable for all types of students: audio, visual and kinesthetic.

VR is a fully computerized version of the world and requires the use of virtual reality glasses. MR, or Augmented Reality, superimposes computer-generated images or sounds to actual settings that are displayed only on the screen.

VR / MR allows medical students to study and study life and death in the safest and most efficient way. Other VR / MR applications include surgical modeling and diagnostic imaging.

Video: Virtual and Mixed Reality for Medical Education

7. Visor for the diagnosis of pre-hospital stroke

In 2018, the FDA introduced Cerebrotech Visor, which is a non-invasive instrument for spectroscopy and measuring changes in the distribution of brain fluids. The results are combined through machine learning to improve the algorithms and identify certain brain pathologies, such as stroke, trauma and swelling.

In particular, this technology helps detect hemorrhagic stroke, which, although less common than ischemic stroke, causes 40% of deaths from this disease.

Video: Visor for Prehospital Hemorrhage Scanning

8. Innovation in robotic surgery

Robotic surgery solutions are less invasive and faster, and are often associated with improved clinical outcomes, such as reduced healing time and reduced pain. Robots in the operating room allow surgeons to achieve the utmost precision in surgery. Today, surgical robotic platforms are highly developed and are used everywhere, from the spine to endovascular procedures.

For example, the da Vinci surgical system, which is probably the most well-known platform for robotic surgery, translates the virtual movements of the surgeon's hands into the smallest movements performed by the robot inside the body. All this is visualized by laparoscopy. The da Vinci system has been used in the treatment of more than 3 million patients worldwide.

Video: Innovation in Robotic Surgery

9. Percutaneous heart valve replacement

Advances in technology make it possible to perform heart surgery by the percutaneous route. Replacing aortic, mitral or tricuspid valves through a catheter eliminates the need for open heart surgery and improves the results of the operation.

Video: Mitral and Tricuspid Valve Percutaneous Replacement


10. RNA therapy

RNA therapy blocks RNA genetic abnormalities before these abnormalities are converted into functioning or non-functional proteins. Examples of this technology include antisense nucleotides and RNA interference. This treatment is applicable to rare genetic diseases, cancer and neurological diseases.

Video: RNA-Based Therapies


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