Engineering Pioneers a Health Revolution: Unveiling the Vital Role Shaping Modern Healthcare
New technology might make for flash new entertainment or inflammatory news stories, but nowhere is its real impact felt more keenly than in the medical sector. New innovative medical engineering such as that being done at 42T is causing the entire health industry to rethink how they handle diagnostic, maintenance, and treatment when it comes to all manner of diseases and conditions.
Artificial Intelligence
Nothing has claimed the tech sector like AI since the advent of the Internet itself, and for good reason: in only a couple of years the space has advanced by huge bounds, transforming it from a silly novelty to an invaluable tool for all sorts of applications. For the medical space, the impact on diagnostics and treatment plans is most profound.
A simple way of thinking about AI is an extension of computers as you know them. They’re very good at handling large amounts of data, but to get anything useful out of it a person has to know what to look for and how to interpret it. When it comes to diagnostics, AI can handle this part of the process far better than any human ever could. Fed with a vast array of historical patient data for say, a specific type of cancer, AI crunches through similar patients, their treatments, and their outcomes to provide a specific, personalized treatment plan for a new patient.
For tricky diseases like cancer, one size does not fit all: the vast array of available drugs and therapies can all react differently with every patient, and even for an oncologist with decades of experience it is impossible to consider all permutations for every patient. The ability of AI to personalize treatment plans for the primary physician to analyze and apply has already led to tremendously improved patient outcomes.
Wearable health monitors
You may already be familiar with FitBit or another wearable fitness tracker, those handy little devices that show your heart rate and count your steps each day, among many other helpful features for tracking your health. At the consumer level, these are already fantastic devices, and the additional health information they provide has already had a noticeable impact on overall hospital visits and health, but they’re only the tip of the iceberg in wearable technology 42T and others are working on it.
One great success story has already revolutionized the lives of many living with diabetes: the wearable blood glucose monitor. These are tiny devices that attach to the skin and constantly send blood glucose readings out to a reader, most often the patient’s phone. Not only does this give them an update on their blood sugar at any time, but receiving it doesn’t require those annoying pinpricks and blood tests several times a day.
For patients at risk of heart arrhythmia, wearable ECG monitors are far easier, faster, and less expensive than traditional ECGs. Wearable blood pressure monitors achieve a similar effect for conditions where watching blood pressure is helpful.
Robotic surgery
While surgery always labours to be minimally invasive to speed up recovery times, when a surgeon is operating with his own hands, there’s a limit to how minimal it can be simply due to the size of a person’s hands and tools.
The newest engineering innovation on that front is robot surgery. While it might conjure images of Rosie the Robot standing over the operating table with a scalpel, it involves the surgeon sitting nearby at a computer console that’s moving small robotic “hands” with a camera. These robotic hands can be controlled through extremely fine motions regardless of size, and the attached camera can show the surgeon the operating site magnified as much as is helpful. This allows for much smaller incisions and much more precise surgical solutions whenever a patient needs them, reducing recovery time and improving patient outcomes.
While doctors and nurses are at the frontlines of the medical industry, engineering teams like those at 42T are working just as hard at providing them with the newest, most effective tools possible to improve patient experiences and outcomes no matter their illness.