Devices & Diagnostics, Health IT

Future of med devices: Nanorobots in your blood stream, calorie tracker chip in your arm

Ten years ago, if anyone said that a multifunctional device would one day allow people […]

Ten years ago, if anyone said that a multifunctional device would one day allow people to play a word game with anyone in the world as well as enable a doctor to get ECG data — many would simply say baloney.

Of course, the  iPhone and iPad are no longer a figment of anyone’s imagination.

With the same idea in mind, MedCity News asked doctors, digital health experts and healthcare futurists, what is in our collective health future?  Here are some ideas they had:

GPS pacemakers and defibrillators

Self-described healthcare futurist Joe Flower said that back in 1993, he imagined a world where a person with an implanted heart device suffering from a heart attack could be located within minutes by an ambulance.

With the widespread use of GPS technology and electronic health records, (and the appropriate patient consent of course) this is soon going to be a reality, Flower said.

So, what are we going to see? Let’s imagine a patient traveling on business who suddenly keels over and falls on the street, clutching his heart. Within a few minutes, an ambulance pulls up and an emergency medical technician jumps out. The EMT has already accessed the person’s medical records because the pacemaker contains that data  and has contacted the patient’s care team in his hometown. The pacemaker is also connected to the person’s smartphone, which makes the initial 9-1-1 call for emergency help.

All the technology to do this is currently available, so it’s a matter of time before this becomes a reality, Flower said.

Targeted medicine using nanorobots 

Nanorobots are essentially injectable machines the size of a red blood cell than can be controlled from outside the body.

These minute devices can be controlled so that they can be steered to the area of interest — a diseased part of the body. These devices can recognize a tumor, an aneurysm or any other malady, and inject medicine to kill the diseased cell.

“This is targeted medicine at its best,” said Dr. Michael Smith, staff doctor, clinician and community liaison with Life Extension.

Smith added that these devices fitted with a camera can be driven to the area requiring medication, or can be programed based on the person’s body shape to self propel to the diseased area.

He imagines that nanorobots would become most ubiquitous in the treatment of cancer.

Embedded tracking chips

Health and wellness afficionados are already using the Nike Fuel Band and FitBit. But Sarita Bhatt, managing director, social strategy and platforms at Euro RSCG New York and Euro RSCG Tonic, believes that the future will see a move from external tracking to internal tracking.

In other words, embedded chips in our bodies will not only track calories burned and consumed, activity and sleep level, but they will also gather a variety of physiological data such as blood pressure and heart rate. And of course transmit that data to a device of our choice.

This is #quantifiedself on steroids.

Down the road, you can also imagine something implanted in your teeth that can track what you are eating, said Matthew Holt, co-chairman of Health 2.0 and founder of the Health Care Blog.

Artificial intelligence to boost lost human function

Multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are diseases that can destroy a human being — movement and thought are both restricted. Bhatt imagines a future where AI can help regain some of this lost function.

She is not entirely sure how this will occur, but she speculates that certain devices would increase the understanding of our brain such that it would prompt people to see a cup in front of them and not only know that it needs to be picked up but enable them to do so as well.

Extremely advanced high-tech prosthetic limbs developed for wounded veterans are already bringing lost functionality back. An AI element would be further advancement in this regard.

You will see the doctor rarely

We are just now scratching the surface of remote monitoring, believes Holt, but this will become a big part of how healthcare delivery will change in the future.

“There will be much, much better connection between the patient and their healthcare organization,”  Holt said, using cheap yet, HD-quality group video chat capabilities.

Bhatt agrees, and notes that in the future, you will see the doctor mainly for severe cases of illness or injury.

[Photo Credit: freedigitalphotos user chanpipat]

Shares0
Shares0