The New Medicine: Medical Care's Increasing Reliance on Technology
Anyone who's watched ER or the other fast-paced medical dramas on TV has seen the actors expertly manipulate all sorts of medical equipment, from intubation tubes to IVs to complex diagnostic equipment. Medicine has seen a massive transformation, largely because of technological advances.
One little bit of medical equipment creating a big effect on diagnosis may be the endoscope. A slender, flexible little bit of tubing is fitted having an digital camera assembly with superb optics and inserted in to the patient's body, supplying doctors with images of a number of organs and enabling very accurate diagnoses. Now used routinely within a whole physical exam for folks over forty, that one device is in charge of catching a large number of precancerous and early-stage cancer conditions in the colon alone, saving a large number of lives annually. Other advances add a camera that may be swallowed, capturing of the digestive tract before it really is eliminated from your body and retrieved.
Lasers are another tool coming more to their own in the operating room and, in some instances, in the doctor's office. Ophthalmologists is capable of doing laser surgery on patients' eyes to correct an increasing amount of eye conditions and offer increasing numbers of people with perfect vision. Laser surgery in addition has been used to limit damage from diabetic retinopathy, thus saving at the very least some of the affected patient's eyesight. Lasers have already been used to execute knee surgery and also brain surgery; in the latter the laser can destroy diseased brain tissue while minimizing the harm to healthy tissue. Cosmetic or plastic surgeons are employing lasers now for several cosmetic procedures which are faster and less invasive than conventional surgery.
Another new technology which has entered the medical field is robotics. Mechanical devices have already been created, some operated yourself, others by usage of a foot pedal, still others operated electronically, which allow incredibly small and precise movements. Lasers applied to the brain frequently have a robotic component, as do endoscopic units.
Another medical advance has arrived at public attention with the return of wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan, a lot of whom have injuries requiring the amputation of arms or legs. Prosthetic devices are increasingly high-tech and high-function, allowing veterans to walk and also run with an increase of natural movement and, by using mechanical arms and hands, lift and manipulate objects.
As amazing as all these advances are, you can find even more ahead. Researchers are actually working on some type of computer program that may interact with someone's brain so that an individual can move a curser on some type of computer screen with the power of thought. Astonishing alone, consider if this new technological development reaches exactly the same stage as, say, Pac man was compared to the video gaming on the market. Tomorrow's medical developments may bring us treatments and also cures which we can not even know today.