The Guide to the Future of Medicine is Available: Download the E-book for Free!

I cannot tell you how happy I’m to announce the official release of my book, The Guide to the Future of Medicine which was just made available in black & white paperback, colored paperback and Kindle formats. Moreover, the Kindle format is for free (yes, totally free) until the 6th of September.

It contains over one year of hard work, 70 interviews and 22 trends that will shape the future of medicine including Augmented Reality, Surgical and Humanoid Robots, Genomics, Body Sensors, The Medical Tricorder, 3D Printing, Exoskeletons, Artificial Intelligence, Nanorobots, Virtual–Digital Brains, The Rise of Recreational Cyborgs or Cryonics and Longevity.

Through these, I challenged myself to prove that it is possible to use more and more disruptive technologies in medicine while successfully keeping the human touch.

With Lucien Engelen’s foreword, the many examples and extraordinary stories depicted in the book, you will hopefully get a clear picture where medicine and healthcare are heading at the moment, and more importantly, what we can do as patients, medical professionals or policy makers to prepare for the waves of change.

Please use the #medicalfuture hashtag on Twitter and tell me what you think!

Finger Device Reads to the Blind in Real Time

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) came up with a fantastic device that can read written words out loud for people with impaired vision. Not surprisingly, the device was printed out with a 3D printer and has to be worn on the index finger.

A synthesized voice reads words aloud, quickly translating books, restaurant menus and other needed materials for daily living, especially away from home or office.

Reading is as easy as pointing the finger at text. Special software tracks the finger movement, identifies words and processes the information. The device has vibration motors that alert readers when they stray from the script, said Roy Shilkrot, who is developing the device at the MIT Media Lab.

A few more years with such developments, and having a health issue will not be a disadvantage any more.

Talking Drug Box Against Accidental Prescription Overdose

Last year, the healthcare innovation world cup was won by AdhereTech that developed a drug box that changes its color when the next medication should be taken. Now here is Kaleo’s talking drug box that can provide spoken instructions to patients about how to administer an injection.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, more people die each year from drug overdoses than car accidents — and 70 percent of those deaths are caused by legally prescribed medication. Kaleo, a pharmaceutical firm, hopes it can change that. It’s creating a device called Evzio, a small, easy to use drug delivery system that can safely administer a life-saving dose of naloxone.

Many patients are afraid of needles, and the process of properly filling and using a syringe isn’t exactly user friendly. That’s why Kaleo equipped its device with not only clearly written instructions, but a voice: Evzio verbally tells users how to use it properly.

The company’s study concluded that 90% of patients could perform the task even though they have never done it before.

Exoskeleton For Paralyzed Patients Gets FDA Approval

Last year at the Singularity Europe Summit, I saw with my own eyes how exoskeletons such as the one from Ekso Bionics let paralyzed patients walk again. Now ReWalk just received FDA approval. Great news, important steps towards a much better world.

After his first few surgeries, when he regained use of his arms, he did what many of us would do in times of uncertainty — he turned to the Internet to research. He came across The ReWalk, a robotic exoskeleton developed by Argo Medical Technologies in Israel. Its inventor, Dr. Amit Goffer, was a quadriplegic who was searching for a better alternative to the wheelchair.

Read more news about the future of medicine every day on MedicalFuturist.com!

 

When a Medical Innovation Comes From a Car mechanic

Innovation in the digital and social media-rich era of medicine can come from anyone. Here is a proof as a car mechanic, based on a party trick, came up with a solution for difficult births.

A “potentially revolutionary” device to help women during difficult births has come from an unlikely source – a car mechanic from Argentina, who based the idea on a party trick.

Apart from having five children of his own, Jorge Odon had no connection with the world of obstetrics. He did however have a talent for invention.

This is the original trick:

And his innovation:

Simulations from the Future of Cardiology

Cardiology is a key area that could use some refreshments regarding the tools and devices used to teach its anatomy and physiology in the medical curriculum.

Based on a patient’s CT scan and using a mix of stereo lithography and other prototyping techniques, xCardio creates a copy of a human heart that is anatomically correct both inside and out.

While the main purpose of a new game, Relive, is to increase the awareness about CPR and push people, especially teenagers and young adults, to take a CPR class and be prepared to intervene in case of need.

 

See 6 Reasons Why I Wish I Was a Medical Student Now and how Synthetic Human Cadavers could be used in medical education.

 

Nanobiosym Health RADAR Wins Grand Prize at Nokia Sensing XChallenge

The Nokia Sensing XChallenge is one of those driving forces that can initiate real innovations in healthcare and the new grand prize winner was just announced. Nanobiosym is taking the ability to diagnose disease and monitor personal health outside of a hospital or pathology lab.

Nanobiosym® (NBS) is an innovation engine dedicated to creating a new science that emerges from the holistic integration of physics, biomedicine, and nanotechnology. NBS focuses on incubating transformational technologies that have the potential for game-changing impact and commercializing and scaling up these technologies for deployment in developed and developing world markets. NBS leverages science and technology to address our planet’s greatest unmet needs in global health, energy and the environment.

Here is their team video:

Your Cardiac Rhythm as a Password for Computer Access

The new technology developed by Nymi was just announced and will certainly raise important questions about security. This is a bracelet using ECG authentication serving as a password to access computers or open doors.

The benefit of the Nymi’s new and exciting ECG authentication is that it is highly secure without compromising convenience. The Nymi has a 3-Factor system ensures that you and only you have access to your Nymi, and control of your identity. To access the Nymi you must first have possession of the wristband. Second, you must possess your unique heart rhythm, and finally, you must have access to the secure application on a registered smartphone. Once you’ve authenticated, you will remain authenticated so long as the wristband is not removed.

While the idea is great, what about people with different forms of arrhythmia? What about ECG results available in medical records of almost everyone? I hope the team behind Nymi will give us the responses.

3D Printers For Living Tissues: Closer and Closer

One of the trending topics of the last couple of years has clearly been 3D printing as it has a lot to offer not only in medicine and healthcare but in any industries as well. How useful printing medical devices in underdeveloped areas could be, or even printing simpler drugs. But imagine a world in which you can print living materials and tissues.

A PopSci article described how a bioprinter works, here is the simplified process:

• Step 1: Engineers load one syringe with a bio-ink containing tens of thousands of parenchymal liver cells and a second syringe with a bio-ink containing non-parenchymal liver cells.
• Step 2: Software on a PC wired to the bioprinter instructs a stepper motor attached to the robotic arm to begin printing a mold (arranged in a honeycomb pattern).
• Step 3: A sensor tracks the tip of each syringe as it moves along and determines where the first syringe should be positioned.
• Step 4: The robotic arm lowers the pump head with the first syringe, which fills the honeycomb with parenchymal cells.
• Step 5: Engineers remove the well plate­ and place it in an incubator. There, the cells continue fusing to form the complex matrix of a liver tissue.

A similar process in action when Chinese scientists are successfully 3D printing living human kidneys is demonstrated in the video:

To produce mass amounts of the living cells, samples of human kidney cells are cultured in large volumes and blended with hydrogel, a water- and nutrition-rich material that makes up the 3D printed kidneys’ base. Afterwards, the printed cells can survive for up to four monthsin a lab thanks to this gel’s rich nutrient source.

The New York Times also has a great video about this topic.

But there is a huge technological issue. Printing something new in 3D requires detailed knowledge and prepared models. Therefore people now print objects of which the models are already available online. A solution might be provided by Makerbot Digitizer which actually replicates objects and print them in 3D. Again, imagine the same thing with living tissues.

It’s much more futuristic than just printing 3D objects, but its time will come.

Makerbot Digitizer costs $1400.

 

iRobot: The telepresence robot

In a few more years, in rural areas it’s going to feel like a doctor is there with the patient while the doc is miles away although the iRobot will be in its place.

 iRobot even retooled itself to build an emerging technologies group, announcing a partnership with InTouch Health to put its AVA telepresence technology to better use. Today the two companies are announcing the fruits of their labor — the Remote Presence Virtual + Independent Telemedicine Assistant, or RP-VITA. The project aims to combine the best of iRobot’s AVA telepresence units with InTouch health’s own bots, creating an easy to use system that allows physicians to care for patients remotely without stumbling over complicated technology.