The medical breakthroughs that are happening within the global healthcare scene are phenomenal and destined to be game changers. Advancing innovations and technology are making the impossible possible. Consider the power of harnessing gut bacteria to heal disease. Or treating children with leukemia without chemotherapy.

These are just a few of the ways that technology is reshaping the healthcare field.

The Cleveland Clinic, a non-profit multispecialty healthcare and research center that has pioneered several medical breakthroughs in the past such as coronary artery bypass surgery, assembled a team of over a hundred doctors and specialists in late 2016 to evaluate the top medical innovations.

Let’s consider some of these innovations now…

Using Gut Bacteria to Heal

The human digestive tract is considered to be a gold mine of health promotion and disease prevention opportunities. Considering that trillions of bacteria reside within our body and that our health depends on the balance of these internal microbiome communities, researchers are discovering that their effect on our inner health is far greater than what they imagined.

These “intelligent” microbes are found to have an effect on the way our food is digested within our digestive tracts, how our body uses the pharmaceutical drugs we ingest, and even how a disease advances within our bodies.

Microbiome technology has tremendous potential to diagnose and treat disease and is leading the way into a new and exciting frontier of healing.

Immunotherapy to Treat Leukemia

Immunotherapy is a type of treatment for cancer that uses and boosts the body’s own natural defense mechanisms to fight cancer. So instead of chemotherapy to treat leukemia and lymphomas, the patient utilizes his own pumped up immune system to facilitate healing.

Imagine a T cell, a type of lymphocyte in the immune system, which is purposely reprogrammed through genetic remodeling to seek out and destroy all cancer cells within the body as well as any foreign antigen that poses a threat. Not only does this target and attack tumor cells but it also helps minimize the possibility of relapse.

This is exactly what happens with CAR T-cell therapy and the results from these cellular immunotherapies have been remarkable and hold considerable promise for the future.

Liquid Biopsies to Find Cancer

A new diagnostic method has emerged that has improved the possibility of detecting and diagnosing cancer using blood tests. Often the unpredictable nature of traditional “hit-or-miss” biopsies have left many oncologists shaking their heads and dreaming of a more consistent and reliable method.
Relatively new on the scene and making significant headway within the current research circles are blood tests known as “liquid biopsies.”

These blood tests differ from traditional biopsies as they detect actual DNA that has been shed from a cancerous tumor and not just the cell itself. This increases the likelihood of diagnosis as this circulating DNA may be a hundred times more present in the bloodstream than the actual cells themselves.

The potential for liquid biopsies is immense and can have a phenomenal impact on life expectancy as cancers can be detected and treated earlier than ever before.

Virtual Reality for Surgery

Over the past year, certain surgical specialties have been working with innovative 3D technology to improve their ability to see when in surgery. In particular, the fields of ophthalmology and neurology require a high degree of precision and often times the surgeon has his head down during surgery to ensure accurate interpretation of what’s in front of him. This head-down approach severely limits his peripheral vision and he may miss other vital information that is imperative to the patient’s well-being.

This revolutionary 3D technology allows surgeons to keep their heads up while viewing their patients within a virtual reality. Not only does this allow surgeons to have improved visual representation of their patients but also promotes better performance and execution of surgical tasks.
Although the market for surgical 3D technology is still expanding, the application of these virtual reality tools within the surgical environment to enhance patient outcomes is limitless.

Bioabsorbable Stents

The incidence of coronary artery disease is high in the western world and often people need to have tube-shaped devices or coronary stents inserted into their coronary arteries to prop open these clogged blood vessels to allow adequate blood flow to the heart.

Traditionally these stents have been composed of metal and have posed many problems to the patient. Not only do these metal stents remain there forever, but they may also increase the risk of potential blood clots.

Bioabsorbable stents are being developed to help overcome these challenges of traditional stents. Just like dissolvable sutures that eventually absorb into the living tissue after a period of time, bioabsorbable stents work the same way. These natural stents are made of a dissolving polymer that break down after 2 years and leave behind a clear and healthy artery.

Although only one stent has been approved in the US, vanishing stents hold major promise in promoting cardiovascular health for those suffering from coronary artery disease.

These are just a few of the medical innovations that are making waves in 2017 and are bound to transform the way we prevent and treat disease.

References:

• https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/life-sciences-and-healthcare/articles/top-10-health-care-innovations.html
• https://newsroom.clevelandclinic.org/2016/10/26/cleveland-clinic-unveils-top-10-medical-innovations-likley-game-changers/
• https://consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/2016/10/top-10-medical-innovations-2017-revealed/