TIME has released its annual roundup of inventions that made an impact this year. Some that made the list are really interesting and just fun (a real hoverboard), but others demonstrate innovative ways we can improve our health and the lives of others. Here are a few that stand out:
- PillPack: With this product, patients, especially those with many prescriptions and complicated schedules for when to take them, can have their medications and supplements sealed up individually, and they come in a 14-day supply of ticker tape of tearable packets. Users enter in prescription, physician and insurance information on the website and pay no extra fees on top of their standard co-pays to essentially have PillPack do the work for them.
- 3-D printing: This innovation covers the board as far as where it can be used and how it can change the face of many industries. In the medical field, it has made a huge impact when it comes to 3-D printing human organs and offering an entirely new angle to transplants and therapies. MedCity News has written a lot about this.
- Superbanana: In sub-Saharan Africa, up to 30% of kids under age 5 are at risk of going blind because of a vitamin A deficiency. Australian biogeneticist James Dale got backing from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a vitamin-A-enriched “superbanana” in response (bananas are a large part of the diet for this population). The plan is that village leaders will be given 10 free superbanana plants to grow, and in return they must give at least 20 new shoots to other villagers.
- Hemopurifier: This invention is especially relevant right now. The cartridge attaches to a dialysis machine, and its lectin filter attracts Ebola viruses and sucks them from the blood as it flows through. Even though it’s been used only once on a patient in Germany, it cured his Ebola infection. This technology could even be used in the future for other viruses like hepatitis.
