TECHNOLOGY WILL SAVE OUR MINDS AND

BODIES(MEDICAL)BY: MACKENZIE MATCHES

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

• Medical technology surrounds a wide range of healthcare products and is used to diagnose, monitor or treat medical conditions or diseases that affect humans.

HISTORY OF MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY Medical technology has come a long way. One of the first medical devices called the ophthalmoscope

was invented by Hermann von Helmholz in 1850. The purpose of this invention was to allow the interior of the eye to be viewed. (health guide info, 2009)

Thankfully, x-ray was invented due to physics professor discovering that radiation can penetrate solid objects of low density so doctors could find out what was going inside the human body without doing surgery.

HISTORY OF MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

• Technology made a great impact on medical procedures and allowed for complex surgical procedures to be developed. (Health Guide Info, 2009)

• In the last 50 years the use of medical technology has expanded incredibly. Technology has become very popular for medical uses especially when storing data, medical records, controlling instruments and working out complex calculations on a computer.

• Computers can now be programmed to perform robotic surgeries with great success.

• A key contribution to the growth of medical technology is the application of basic science and engineering.

TYPES OF MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES

• Currently used medical technologies

Electronic aspirin

• Up-and-coming Medical Technologies

Gene editing using CRISPR

Water purification systems for prevention of infectious diseases

ELECTRONIC ASPIRIN• Electronic aspirin is a patient-powered tool for blocking SPG (sphenopalatine ganglion) signals at the

first sign of a headache. This is great for people who suffer from chronic headaches or facial pain.

• The electronic aspirin is a permanent implant of a nerve stimulating device in the upper gum on the side of the head.

• When the patient feels a headache coming, they place a hand held remote controller on the cheek with the implant. The signals stimulate the SPG nerves and block the pain-causing neurotransmitter.

ELECTRONIC ASPIRIN CONT’D

• Electronic aspirin is being used in some places, but it’s also still being investigated and researchers are looking for a way to treat the SPG long-term.

• The procedure to get this small device implanted isn’t complicated. It is about as easy as a wisdom tooth extraction. (innovation essence, 2014)

• The remote sends radio signals to the implanted device that triggers a little electrical charge to stimulate the nerve cells.

• For people who only get headaches now and again just stick with aspirin or Tylenol in pill form. The electronic aspirin is only recommended for people who get excruciating migraines and headaches regularly.

GENE EDITING USING CRISPR

• There are some pretty new and exciting medical technologies coming in the next year.

• Gene editing using CRISPR is going be very interesting.

• CRISPR stands for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.

• CRISPR is a method in which the purpose is to completely eliminate genetic diseases.

HOW GENE EDITING USING CRISPR WORKS:• In the past, there have been gene editing attempts that were quite pricey and not so easy to do. First a nuclease enzyme called Cas9 is released that uses an introduced guideline RNA molecule to find a

different DNA target sequence in living cells. The enzyme cuts the DNA, which is repaired to disrupt an unwanted gene or edit a gene.

• This is all done fairly cheap. It costs as little as $30 in a laboratory.

RISKS OF GENE EDITING USING CRISPRS

• This method sounds amazing and seems like it would be very successful, but there are some downfalls or risks to using this method.

The side effects if more than just the DNA is accidentally cut The unknown impact of altered organisms on ecosystems The ethics of altering human embryos

• The pharmaceutical industry has been looking into CRISPR-based gene therapy and there is talk that they will possibly start to do some clinical trials in 2016.

WATER PURIFICATION SYSTEMS FOR PREVENTION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES

• Contaminated water and poor sanitation are not uncommon in the developing world.

• It is estimated that more than 700 million people in the world are drinking unsafe water and according to the World Health Organization, more than a million children under the age of five die each year because of the contaminated water.

• A new technology is coming soon that will ensure safe drinking water for poor countries so that they can drink water safely without worrying about infectious diseases they catch from drinking the contaminated water.

HOW WATER PURIFICATION SYSTEMS WORK:

• The purification system will take sewer sludge and turn it into safe drinking water.

It boils the sewer sludge

Captures the produced liquid and processes the vapor into clean and safe drinking water.

The solid waste gets incinerated within the machine, which burns the waste, creates heat and generates a high-temperature steam which fuels the process.

• It’s a very interesting and neat idea.

TECHNOLOGY HAS AND WILL CONTINUE TO HELP OUR MINDS AND BODIES

• Using technology for medical purposes has been the greatest thing for our world.

• Medical technology has come so far in improving our everyday lives and helping people who didn’t think they had a chance at living after finding out some bad news about their health.

• The technology used in medicine these days are changing everyone’s lives for the better and it is absolutely incredible.

REFERENCES

G. (2009, September 11). A Brief History of Medical Technology. Retrieved April 14, 2016, from http://www.healthguideinfo.com/health-testing-technology/p7398/

Ophthalmoscope. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2016, from http://www.mrcophth.com/Historyofophthalmology/ophthalmoscope.html

• Electronic Aspirin | Innovation Essence. (2014, October 12). Retrieved April 17, 2016, from http://www.innovationessence.com/electronic-aspirin/