The 6 Most Exciting Medical Technology Breakthroughs Of Recent Years

Amidst the flurry of hyped technologies, it's not easy to pinpoint which specific technological breakthroughs will have the most impact in the coming years.

Dr. Meskó, The Medical Futurist, reviews multiple reports, studies, and articles daily. Consequently, our days are filled with awe-inspiring developments. However, our aim here is to offer more than just a compilation of "wow, look how fascinating" stories.

To achieve this, we have selected technologies that:

• Have undergone significant breakthroughs in recent years, be it in regulatory, technological, or scientific aspects
• Are anticipated to have an increasing impact on healthcare in the coming years
• Are broad enough to encompass a wide range of applications, yet specific enough to avoid being lumped into vague categories like AI

1. CRISPR and gene editing

This regulatory approval and the growing number of clinical trials utilising CRISPR show a transition of CRISPR from experimental phases to tangible healthcare solutions. Such advancements pave the way for future innovations in gene editing to treat a broader spectrum of diseases. We consider the field seeing breakthroughs in two ways: in the regulatory framework and in the technology finally finding its way to clinical trials.?

Recently, we have seen the approval of the first CRISPR-based therapy, marking a critical shift from theoretical potential to practical application. The ‘Casgevy’ therapy is a one-time treatment developed for sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia.

It involves collecting a patient’s stem cells from the bone marrow, using CRISPR to edit a gene in these cells to produce high levels of fetal hemoglobin, and then reintroducing these modified stem cells into the patient after a conditioning regimen. This process, requiring hospitalisation for about a month, enables the modified stem cells to establish in the bone marrow and start producing healthier red blood cells.

2. mRNA vaccines

The rapid development and deployment of mRNA vaccines in response to the COVID-19 pandemic represent a groundbreaking moment in vaccine technology that yielded a Nobel prize to its inventors. This innovation played a pivotal role in addressing the global health crisis and opened new avenues for tackling a range of diseases, eventually including infectious diseases and cancer.?

The story of mRNA technology, from its early struggles to its current acclaim, highlights a journey of resilience and scientific breakthroughs. The success of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 has propelled the technology to the forefront, leading to its exploration in other medical applications, such as combined flu shots, malaria, HIV, and various forms of cancer. The versatility of mRNA technology is being harnessed to develop treatments for conditions like advanced melanoma, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, and even preventative vaccines for skin cancer.

The breakthrough in mRNA vaccine technology lies in its application for pandemic control, revolutionising how we respond to public health emergencies. It transformed our approach to future healthcare challenges.?

3. Telemedicine and virtual healthcare

Yet another segment boosted by the pandemic. In the past few years, telemedicine has become a critical component of healthcare delivery, allowing patients to receive care remotely and healthcare systems to extend their reach.?

The breakthrough here is the vast tech adoption, that - catalysed by the necessities - happened at breathtaking speed. Slightly more than three years ago we started introducing how various solutions work in the “new normal” of the COVID-19 scene. By now, we are accustomed to writing about virtual wards, why asynchronous telemedicine will inevitably arrive, and we list dermatology apps serving patients sitting in their armchairs.

4. Generative AI platforms for healthcare professionals

AI arrived, undoubtedly, with the loudest bang to our lives in the past year. However, the breakthrough was not brought by some major technological advancement, but by a profound change in public access. Large language models are of course not ancient, but not brand new either - they were just locked into specialised labs. The revolutionary step was to create an interface (and the enormous computing capacity behind the scenes) to let anyone play with it.??

Generative AI has significant potential in healthcare and is likely to become integral in future healthcare practices sooner than most of us would have thought a few months ago. If you are not familiar with the topic, here is an overview of this technology explaining what it is, how it works, and what we'll use it for.?

And talking about this exciting branch of artificial intelligence applications, we need to get familiar with another important concept: multimodality. It means algorithms that can interpret a wide range of inputs - text, voice, images, gestures, etc - just like humans do. Such multimodal large language models (M-LLMs) could serve as a central hub that facilitates access to various unimodal AIs used in the hospital, such as radiology software, insurance handling software, Electronic Medical Records (EMR), etc. Its capability to process, understand, and integrate information from varied platforms could render it indispensable.

Although healthcare-specific applications are not available by the hundreds yet - the stakes are too high, and the regulatory bodies need time to figure out the suitably robust AND flexible framework - we start to see examples specifically designed for clinical use. Such tools include Google’s Med-PaLM or Doximity’s GPT model.?

5. Photoplethysmography (PPG) for blood pressure measurements

While the first instances of measuring blood pressure (BP) can be dated back centuries, the practice to which we are more accustomed hails from the 20th century. This involved an inflatable arm cuff, a stethoscope, and a mercury-based scale. Over time, we arrived at slim digital devices that can be used at home. However, for quite a long time, the basics of blood pressure monitoring remained unchanged.

For the breakthrough that brings material changes, we needed reliably working devices with photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors. Using PPG results in sleeker devices that enable continuous, real-time BP readings, as opposed to one-off measurements at the doctor’s office.?

We tested several of these wearables, like the Akita smart bracelet, which is lightweight and designed to continuously monitor blood pressure throughout the day. Its readings are comparable to traditional cuff-based BP monitors. Other PPG-based devices like the BioBeat smart patch aim to monitor BP without visibly doing so. The sensor is applied through a skin patch on the body for reliable 24-hour monitoring.

6. Artificial Intelligence to streamline administration

If you follow us, you probably have seen many examples of the fascinating things artificial intelligence can do to help medical work. However, there is one segment we believe will emerge: algorithms that relieve healthcare workers from the burden of administrative tasks.

In this recent analysis, we have shown how the administration evolved and introduced already existing examples. The last few years have witnessed the emergence of voice-to-text applications. A blend of technology and practicality, these applications are not just passive listeners, but active participants in the consultation room.

Rather than doctors dividing their attention between patients and screens, these applications transform spoken words into written records in real time. Imagine the scene: A doctor, deeply engrossed in understanding a patient’s symptoms, holds a fluid conversation without the intermittent distraction of typing or scribbling.

Drawing inspiration from real-world success stories, like the general practice that has been working harmoniously with AI-powered scribe tools, it’s clear that the amalgamation of AI and clinical practice offers great potential rewards.