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THE CLINIC OF TOMORROW
When you walk into a dispensary in the near future, a doctor will be able to immediately get your medical records off your phone, diagnose your ailment instantly, and administer suitable drugs with a pain-free needle. What sounds like science fiction is fast being turned into reality by talented scientists across the world
Great technology is rarely something that revolutionizes our routines and habits. More often than not, great technology is something that seamlessly blends into our routines and habits to make them hassle-free.
In the future, the procedure of a check-up at your local doctor's clinic will be the same as what you go through today. The three steps will remain the same: Establishing the patient's history, diagnosing the disease, and then treating the malady. But the way these three steps are carried out is what will mark the medical breakthroughs, making our routines easier and painless.
ESTABLISHING PATIENT HISTORY
The first thing that any doctor wants to know is the patient's medical history. Now, at some point or the other, we have all forgotten to carry an important piece of paper during a visit to the clinic. But you have never forgotten to carry your phone, have you?
Storing all your medical records on your cellphone ensures that the doctor can always get the information he or she wants. Research companies such as Vital Record already have systems to digitize all your medical records, which are then stored on a secure server on the web.
They have also developed a mobile app called Med Records To Go—available for all major mobile operating systems—that will let you access your online medical records securely on your phone to show to the doctor.
The types of personal medical information that can be viewed on the cellphone include identification and general medical data, vital signs information, physicians, prescription and non-prescription drugs, medical history, treatments, emergency contacts, and so on.
Apart from clinical visits, this data could prove to be crucial if you find yourself in an accident or any emergency situation, since an attending doctor would be in a position to access your medical history immediately.
DIAGNOSING THE DISEASE
Once the doctor has your medical records, a few tests are usually needed to be able to diagnose your disease. Today, it means running around several departments of a hospital and waiting for hours or days to get the results. In the future, the doctor would get instant results through revolutionary lab-on-a-chip technologies.
Take, for example, the new "health chip" by European boffins at SINTEF (the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia), which looks like a credit card and contains a complete laboratory. The chip is engraved with a number of very narrow channels that contain chemicals and enzymes in the correct proportions for each individual analysis.
"The health chip can analyze your blood or cells for eight different diseases," say Liv Furuberg and Michal Mielnik of SINTEF. "It is capable of carrying out the same processes as a large laboratory, and not only does it perform them faster, but the results are also far more accurate. The doctor simply inserts the card into a little machine, adds a few drops of the sample taken from the patient via a tube in the cardholder, and out come the results."
The device has been successfully tested to detect cervical cancer, and the researchers are now working on other diseases.
Still, this method does require the painful procedure of drawing blood. But if a group of US-based scientists have their way, your entire diagnoses could be done simply by breathing into their gizmo.
A team at Purdue University has developed a special material to rapidly diagnose patients by detecting chemical compounds called "biomarkers" in a person's respiration, in real time.
"We are talking about creating an inexpensive, rapid way of collecting diagnostic information about a patient," said researcher Carlos Martinez, adding that this would just give an indicative result, which would require further tests to confirm or pinpoint the disease.
The team was able to successfully detect diabetes in lab tests, but warned that such breathalyzers are a decade away in actual practice.
TREATING THE MALADY
When the doctor knows the ailment, you finally get what you came for: the medicine to make you better. But given that each patient's needs are individual, it's important for a doctor to figure out which drugs are helpful, and which will cause side-effects.
British researchers at Imperial College London invented a handheld device called the "Snip Doctor", which analyses a person's saliva for specific
signs that could indicate a reaction to prescribed medications. It looks for specific DNA sequences that may be used by doctors to indicate how people are likely to respond to certain drugs, providing results in under 30 minutes.
"If the most appropriate drug dosages could be determined at the earliest stage, it could reduce the number of people admitted to hospital 'when medication goes wrong'. Most importantly, it could also minimize the trauma that repeat hospitalisations have on people and their families," says chief scientist, professor Chris Toumazou.
As for administering the injection itself, there are several studies being conducted to make pain-free needles, given the number of people across the world who are scared of it – not to mention kids.
The 'Ouchless Needle', developed by medical design company BellaNovus, is a disposable attachment for syringes, which delivers a short spray of vapo-coolant onto the skin before the needle goes in. The vapocoolant spray immediately refrigerates the skin, thereby reducing the feeling of needle penetration and making the injection more comfortable.
But this still doesn't take away the trauma and initial fright of seeing a big, fat needle about to prick your skin.
That's where
microneedle patches come
in. An array of tiny needles,
no longer than the width of a hair, are placed over a larger surface (usually the size of a small coin) to distribute the force of impact. By just pressing the patch into your arm, the drug is administered, and it's practically pain-free.
It's a bit like how a nicotine patch works, but not all drugs can be absorbed by the skin itself – some need to be pumped in. For this purpose, Babak Ziaie, a researcher at Purdue university, and his team have developed a tiny pump that's activated by touch from the heat of your finger and requires no battery.
"It takes 20 to 30 seconds," Ziaie said. "It's like a bandage – you would use it and discard."
1. 'Med Records To Go' lets you access your online medical records securely on your cellphone 2.SINTEF's health chip can analyze a patient's blood cells for eight diseases. The doctor simply adds a few drops of the sample taken from a person via a tube in the cardholder for instant results 3.BellaNovus's 'Ouchless Needle' is a disposable attachment for syringes, which delivers a short spray of vapocoolant onto the skin before the needle goes in. The spray refrigerates the skin thereby reducing the needle prick 4. Microneedle technology that could replace injections is made up of tiny needles placed over a large surface. By just pressing the patch into your arm, the drug is administered pain-free 5. The 'Snip Doctor' can analyse saliva samples to indicate how a patient is likely to respond to certain treatments
ESTABLISHING PATIENT HISTORY
The first thing that any doctor wants to know is the patient's medical history. Now, at some point or the other, we have all forgotten to carry an important piece of paper during a visit to the clinic. But you have never forgotten to carry your phone, have you?
Storing all your medical records on your cellphone ensures that the doctor can always get the information he or she wants. Research companies such as Vital Record already have systems to digitize all your medical records, which are then stored on a secure server on the web.
They have also developed a mobile app called Med Records To Go—available for all major mobile operating systems—that will let you access your online medical records securely on your phone to show to the doctor.
The types of personal medical information that can be viewed on the cellphone include identification and general medical data, vital signs information, physicians, prescription and non-prescription drugs, medical history, treatments, emergency contacts, and so on.
Apart from clinical visits, this data could prove to be crucial if you find yourself in an accident or any emergency situation, since an attending doctor would be in a position to access your medical history immediately.
DIAGNOSING THE DISEASE
Once the doctor has your medical records, a few tests are usually needed to be able to diagnose your disease. Today, it means running around several departments of a hospital and waiting for hours or days to get the results. In the future, the doctor would get instant results through revolutionary lab-on-a-chip technologies.
Take, for example, the new "health chip" by European boffins at SINTEF (the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia), which looks like a credit card and contains a complete laboratory. The chip is engraved with a number of very narrow channels that contain chemicals and enzymes in the correct proportions for each individual analysis.
"The health chip can analyze your blood or cells for eight different diseases," say Liv Furuberg and Michal Mielnik of SINTEF. "It is capable of carrying out the same processes as a large laboratory, and not only does it perform them faster, but the results are also far more accurate. The doctor simply inserts the card into a little machine, adds a few drops of the sample taken from the patient via a tube in the cardholder, and out come the results."
The device has been successfully tested to detect cervical cancer, and the researchers are now working on other diseases.
Still, this method does require the painful procedure of drawing blood. But if a group of US-based scientists have their way, your entire diagnoses could be done simply by breathing into their gizmo.
A team at Purdue University has developed a special material to rapidly diagnose patients by detecting chemical compounds called "biomarkers" in a person's respiration, in real time.
"We are talking about creating an inexpensive, rapid way of collecting diagnostic information about a patient," said researcher Carlos Martinez, adding that this would just give an indicative result, which would require further tests to confirm or pinpoint the disease.
The team was able to successfully detect diabetes in lab tests, but warned that such breathalyzers are a decade away in actual practice.
TREATING THE MALADY
When the doctor knows the ailment, you finally get what you came for: the medicine to make you better. But given that each patient's needs are individual, it's important for a doctor to figure out which drugs are helpful, and which will cause side-effects.
British researchers at Imperial College London invented a handheld device called the "Snip Doctor", which analyses a person's saliva for specific
signs that could indicate a reaction to prescribed medications. It looks for specific DNA sequences that may be used by doctors to indicate how people are likely to respond to certain drugs, providing results in under 30 minutes.
"If the most appropriate drug dosages could be determined at the earliest stage, it could reduce the number of people admitted to hospital 'when medication goes wrong'. Most importantly, it could also minimize the trauma that repeat hospitalisations have on people and their families," says chief scientist, professor Chris Toumazou.
As for administering the injection itself, there are several studies being conducted to make pain-free needles, given the number of people across the world who are scared of it – not to mention kids.
The 'Ouchless Needle', developed by medical design company BellaNovus, is a disposable attachment for syringes, which delivers a short spray of vapo-coolant onto the skin before the needle goes in. The vapocoolant spray immediately refrigerates the skin, thereby reducing the feeling of needle penetration and making the injection more comfortable.
But this still doesn't take away the trauma and initial fright of seeing a big, fat needle about to prick your skin.
That's where
microneedle patches come
in. An array of tiny needles,
no longer than the width of a hair, are placed over a larger surface (usually the size of a small coin) to distribute the force of impact. By just pressing the patch into your arm, the drug is administered, and it's practically pain-free.
It's a bit like how a nicotine patch works, but not all drugs can be absorbed by the skin itself – some need to be pumped in. For this purpose, Babak Ziaie, a researcher at Purdue university, and his team have developed a tiny pump that's activated by touch from the heat of your finger and requires no battery.
"It takes 20 to 30 seconds," Ziaie said. "It's like a bandage – you would use it and discard."
1. 'Med Records To Go' lets you access your online medical records securely on your cellphone 2.SINTEF's health chip can analyze a patient's blood cells for eight diseases. The doctor simply adds a few drops of the sample taken from a person via a tube in the cardholder for instant results 3.BellaNovus's 'Ouchless Needle' is a disposable attachment for syringes, which delivers a short spray of vapocoolant onto the skin before the needle goes in. The spray refrigerates the skin thereby reducing the needle prick 4. Microneedle technology that could replace injections is made up of tiny needles placed over a large surface. By just pressing the patch into your arm, the drug is administered pain-free 5. The 'Snip Doctor' can analyse saliva samples to indicate how a patient is likely to respond to certain treatments
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