Last week, the Cleveland Clinic put out the 2013 version of its Top 10 Medical Innovations, an annual list of medical technologies that it expects to have the biggest impact on healthcare in 2013. At the top of the list was bariatric surgery for diabetes, followed by neuromodulation therapy for headaches.
Although the Clinic touts its list as a researched and well-thought-out look at the next big innovations, Dr. Michael Roizen admitted during the list’s reveal that the committees who put it together have historically been a bit early with their predictions.
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A look at some of the Clinic’s choices from years past confirms that. Here are a few examples of technologies that have – and have not – lived up to their hype over the past five years”
Last year’s top innovation was catheter-based renal denervation to control resistant hypertension, a leading reason for physician visits in the U.S. and a condition associated with higher risk of cardiovascular disease. There’s been lots of hype about this technology, and trials conducted thus far have seemed to show that the technique can help lower blood pressure in uncontrolled hypertension. Devices made by Medtronic, Covidien, ReCor Medical, Vessix Vascular and St. Jude Medical are being marketed in Europe, but still no devices have been approved for use in the U.S. Medtronic has said it hopes to have its Symplicity device on the market in the U.S. by 2014.
The No. 7 innovation on last year’s list is another with a lot of talk around it: active bionic prosthesis. Such devices for arms, legs and hands are being built by teams at Vanderbilt University, Northwestern University and Chicago’s Center for Bionic Medicine, to name a few. The technology may be there, but the ability to mass-produce these devices and market them isn’t just yet. Most insurers do not pay for this kind of innovative artificial limbs, according to the Clinic, and one example of a bionic leg costs $130,000.
Two years ago, the top innovation was new molecular imaging biomarker for early detection and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Developed by Avid Radiopharmaceuticals and later acquired by Eli Lilly & Co., florbetapir (Amyvid) binds to amyloid plaque in the brain, presumed by researchers to be a telltale sign of Alzheimer’s. It’s supposed to help doctors detect the plaque in a PET scan. When Lilly initially applied for FDA approval, the regulatory agency requested that a training system to help physicians interpret the scan be developed. In April of this year, the FDA approved the agent (although there’s been quite a bit of criticism of it).
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The No. 3 medical innovation in 2011 was the first therapeutic cancer vaccine. Provenge was approved for use in men with advanced prostate cancer in 2010, but its maker, Dendreon, has been the subject of a never-ending slew of criticism following lackluster early sales. The drug is expensive and cumbersome to give, and critics have raised questions about its benefit. Just last week, though, Dendreon reported 27 percent growth in revenue from Provenge in the third quarter.
In 2010, the Clinic chose bone conduction of sound for single-sided deafness as its top innovation. Bone conduction hearing implants have been around for awhile, but they usually require a surgical procedure for implantation. The Clinic’s choice, Sonitus Medical’s SoundBite, is a non-surgical, removable hearing device that transmits sound through the teeth. It received FDA clearance in 2011, and clinical trials have demonstrated that it was as effective as surgically implanted devices in improving speech understanding in people with single-sided deafness. The device is now being rolled out in Europe.
Here’s one that’s really taken off, albeit several years after it topped the Clinic’s list. For 2009, the top innovation was circulating tumor cell technology, which looks for cells originating from solid tumors circulating in the blood. As a diagnostic tool, it’s designed to help doctors detect cancer and monitor treatment effects. The FDA approved Veridex’s CellSearch System for use in breast, colorectal and prostate cancers, and in June 2011 the company announced a partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital to develop a second-generation product. A number of smaller companies are using the technology to develop point-of-care devices as well.
