Everyone knows that medicine is constantly changing, but did you know that medicine is making big strides even today?
There are new announcements in the medical community every single day.
If you’re interested in hearing about the most recent medical breakthroughs, keep on reading. Here’s a list of the top ten recent medical breakthroughs.
- Oral Immunotherapy for Peanut Allergies
Peanuts are everywhere. At least, it can seem like that for people who are allergic to them.
Some people can die if they are even exposed to a tiny amount of peanuts.
A new oral immunotherapy pill is showing promise. It slowly builds the patient’s immunity to peanuts. By exposing them to increasing amounts, their body can sustain the peanuts.
This could save so many lives in the future. Many people with peanut allergies may ingest peanuts accidentally. This kind of immunotherapy could prevent any death from happening after this kind of mistake.
- Stem Cells and Heart Attacks
Stem cells are being used in patients that have had heart attacks. Heart attacks can cause damage to the cardiac muscle cells. Stem cells can grow into new and improved cardiac muscle cells to replace these cells.
But, where do stem cells come from? These are cells that are found in fetuses. Scientists are using these unspecialized cells for all kinds of reasons.
For heart attack patients, stem cells are making all the difference. It could mean complete recovery for these patients. They can specialize into cardiac muscle cells and replace those damaged cells.
- 3-D Printing
Another recent medical breakthrough is 3-D printing. This may not seem like it has anything to do with medicine, but its use in the medical world is astounding.
Physicians have been 3-D printing joints, implants, prosthetics, and more. This material is much more comfortable than the other materials that are normally used.
Using 3D printers is a cheaper and easier way to go about making these materials. It is also a more precise way of making patient-specific treatments. This can help with lower medical costs and better-fitting products.
3-D printed materials will also last longer than other kinds of materials. This means that patients won’t need more money, time, or stress for follow-up surgeries.
- Health Wearables
Health wearables like Fitbits and Apple Watches are becoming more popular as the years go on. It may not feel like it, but these devices are wonderful health tools.
By tracking several personal health metrics, these watches can help patients with personalized health. You know how many calories you’re burning through exercise-tracking.
Most recently, medical technologists have integrated electrocardiograms. This medical tool can detect many serious heart conditions and has done so already.
- Virtual Reality
New technologies in virtual reality have done good things for many people. The medical community is included.
Medical students are using virtual reality to see medical situations in a safer yet more realistic way. Students are able to see patients, perform procedures, do surgeries, and more.
This is an added step in between the classroom and clinical practice that can make a big difference in future physicians. This extra practice is important and can prevent mistakes from taking place on an actual patient.
- Telehealth
Many health professionals are going online. You may have heard of this by now: telehealth.
Telehealth was created to get rid of needless physical appointments. Some patient appointments are conversations that can take place over a video or phone call.
These telehealth appointments are great for people who don’t want to worry about going out and hanging out in a waiting room. They are also often cheaper and faster.
Patients with chronic illnesses have found telehealth helpful for their regular appointments. The uses of telehealth are endless.
- CRISPR
CRISPR, or Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, has been one of the most popular technological advancements. You may know it as the new, controversial gene-editing technology.
Scientists have discovered how to cut out certain pieces of DNA. If they cut out the bad parts of DNA, they can remove diseases and the like.
This is most controversial when it comes to fetal genetics. What genes are okay to edit?
- Robotic Surgery
Robotic surgery may seem like something you’ve only seen in movies, but it is finally here in the real world. As expected, it is amazing.
Robotic surgery is a more accurate way for physicians to perform surgeries. It also allows for smaller incisions sites that lead to smaller scars.
This technology also allows for more control and flexibility during medical procedures.
Robotic surgeries may lead to fewer surgical mishaps in the future. As computers are programmed to perform more and more surgeries, robots will be used more often.
- Smart Inhalers
Over 25 million Americans have asthma, but most of them aren’t sure how to use their inhaler. Physicians became concerned, and smart inhalers answered the call.
Smart inhalers measure the time that you use the inhaler. They also measure how much medication you use.
This technological advancement will help physicians understand medication use. It will also help asthma patients understand how much medication they’re actually using. The amount of medication may indicate how many exacerbations they’re having.
Smart inhalers could completely change the paths of all asthma patients in the future.
- Bio-Printing
Scientists are using bio-printing to make artificial organs for patients now. While this may seem risky, it’s actually quite groundbreaking.
Patients have been having reactions to donor organs. However, bio-printing doesn’t produce patient reactions. These artificial organs are engineered specifically for these patients.
This is one of the newest advances in medical sciences, and it looks very promising. Medical printing is great for specializing patient care and making sure that patients don’t have adverse reactions.
Celebrating Medical Breakthroughs
These and other medical breakthroughs are important. New vaccines, cures, procedures, and treatments are being researched every day.
As we go forward in medicine, we should celebrate these advancements. They save lives.
For more on health, feel free to read more from our health blog.