10 Fascinating Tech Inventions that Will Change the Healthcare World

I love reading about new and innovative technology. Whether it be hearing of drones that could deliver food like in Uber, or deepfake videos of politicians, there is always something new to discover. However, with new innovation comes the ability to bring good into the world. Some are already doing that. In this article, I’m going to highlight 10 technologies that have the potential to revolutionize the world of medicine.

If you’ve read about what I have to say on ChatGPT, it’s no wonder that I would put it on the list. ChatGPT is a chatbot that can uphold detailed conversations and retrieve information for almost any question. Knowing this, the next step would be to attend to patients by assessing symptoms and giving accurate diagnoses. ChatGPT could also be used to write formal research reports or medical documents, not to mention assisting in medical education.

ChatGPT summarizing an excerpt from Science in Action 7 in one sentence.

That being said, ChatGPT does have its own share of issues. 52% of all its answers are false and sometimes it provides redundant information. In the world of healthcare, credibility is crucial. It will take many updates, setbacks, and trials before this search engine can be applied in medicine.

Telepathy is a chip that was created by the company Neuralink. The technical term is BCI (brain-computer interface). The chip works by being surgically implanted into someone’s brain, acting as a communication link that allows the person to control a computer through only their thoughts. So far, the first chip has only been used on one patient.

Visual depiction of the Neuralink chip

Telepathy and its competitors have the potential to restore some autonomy to individuals who have been paralyzed. The first patient, Noland Arbaugh, was paralyzed from the shoulders down for 8 years until this technology brought him the ability to use his computer freely again.

The chip could also be used to cure mental illnesses and neurodegenerative diseases that were once considered incurable. Elon Musk, CEO of Neuralink, has also stated that it could be used to regulate emotions and mood. Whether that is a good idea is another question.

However, the chip started to detach from his brain after the surgery. Now, he only has around 15% of the threads left, significantly lowering the technology’s effectiveness. Arbaugh described this as going from “an all-time high, just to be brought back down again.” However, he remains hopeful that the chip can be improved upon.

For the second patient, Neuralink has made adjustments (deepening the threads) that will hopefully solve or minimize the issues that Arbaugh has faced. However, due to the novelty of this innovation, long-term effects of BCIs are unknown. Additionally, brain damage, scar tissue, infection, and bleeding are all risks of an invasive brain surgery like the one Neuralink requires. Some question whether these are even necessary risks.

Despite all of the risks involved, there is no denying of the remarkable creativity of BCIs and what they have to offer in the future.

Organ donation is a huge strain on hospitals. Thousands of people die in the U.S. every year waiting for organs, and only 3 out of every thousand organ donors actually have their organs used. With these statistics, it is necessary to turn to other sources of regenerative medicine.

You might be thinking of xenotransplantation, where an organ from an animal is taken and put inside a person. Although this does have benefits as well, bioartificial organs (made from inanimate materials) can bypass all of the ethical issues and be produced at a much higher pace, once perfected.

A titanium heart transplant has allowed a 58-year-old man with a failing heart a chance to live again.

When you think of VR, you might be thinking of those headsets that people use to play realistic Minecraft. Besides that, VR is already used for medical practitioners to practice on before actual surgery. It is also used for medical students to train on. In the past, students were required to train on cadavers.

Medical students practicing surgical techniques with VR equipment

Unlike some of the other technologies on this list, VR’s biggest societal purpose may lie in healthcare. With surgeries and other medical procedures holding high risk, having medical students and even doctors hone their skills in VR is essential to perfecting their practice on real patients. This could save countless people who die on the operation table or after due to critical mistakes or devastatingly simple errors that could have been minimized had the practitioner had more practice.

VR could also be used to explain to patients in real-time about their treatment methods, skipping medical jargon and letting people thoroughly understand.

With 3D printing established, 3D bioprinting is a sub-category that involves creating organoids or tissues at a rate much higher than manually. These rapidly created biomaterials can be used to test for new treatments and the effects of certain diseases, hence enhancing scientific research efficiency.

Currently, the most common way of testing involves using animal models or tissues. Not only are there significant ethical procedures and considerations to attend to, but animal models do not have the genetic and chemical composition of humans.

With 3D bioprinting, human tissues could be regulated, allowing for more accurate research results.

Humanoid robots are often the villains in a dystopian novel. For us in the current future, however, they could be a friend. Companies around the world are developing highly intricate models. One notable example is Sophia the Robot, who has been on TV shows and dating competitions. Humanoid robots are recently announced to be working at BMW.

With the steady advancement of these robots, they could be applied in a healthcare setting. In fact, they already have roles such as being used to practice surgery. They are also used as assistants in patient care.

Humanoid robots are able to have what ChatGPT lacks – empathy and meaningful interactions with patients. Although there will be some time before these robots are seen as an integral part of medicine, their qualities and purpose prove their potential in this field. In fact, some people might even be more comfortable speaking to a robot than another human.

There is also a concern about humanoid robots taking people’s jobs, in medicine or elsewhere. I agree that this is an important consideration to keep in mind, but argue that past experiences showed that innovation sustains and enhances people’s work. Jobs that are going to be replaced will hopefully have a long and gradual progression, allowing workers to switch fields or learn new skills. Job loss is a real worry, and it is something to discuss as technology advances.

Vision is our most important sense, taking up 60% of all sensory information in the brain. Imagine being cut off from that 60% and living with severely compromised vision or even complete darkness. For 2.2 billion people around the world, their vision is compromised.

The Bionic Eye is a device that is surgically implanted inside a patient’s eye. It is currently used for people with severe visual impairment or are completely blind, mainly types of retinal degeneration. In the future, it could potentially be used for other types of vision loss, or even for myopia.

In the meantime, of course, Lasik surgery is the better option for myopia.

Fitness trackers, biosensors, or even electronic skin patches classify as wearable devices. What’s different for these compared to your typical wearable device is that they provide some sort of health service to the individual. Fitness trackers can track your heart rate, and could even notify your primary physician of any changes in your system.

Biosensors are more technical, and can be worn outside of, on, or inside the human body. They give important information through measuring the levels of certain cells, enzymes, or biochemicals in your body. A notable example is the insulin biosensor, used for patients with diabetes. These biosensors measure glucose levels in your bloodstream by identifying a marker.

Biosensors could eventually expand in the market and be used for other diseases as well. They could even be used to detect foreign bacteria or chemicals in the blood.

Additionally, biosensors could be worn by the average person who does not suspect any illness, so that the individual is notified early on, should they develop a disease. In fact, 240 million people worldwide live with undiagnosed diabetes. Wearing biosensors could assist in lowering the amount of people that are untreated for health ailments.

Out of everything on this list, telemedicine is probably the technological concept that is the most applied in the current healthcare system. People could meet with their doctors through a phone call instead of at the walk-in clinic or care for their pets through calling with the vet.

However, telemedicine also involves wellness apps that involve logging in your data for clinicians to see. It could also include biosensors, as mentioned above.

Perhaps the key selling point of telemedicine is the efficiency. Whereas in the past, you would wait in the clinic’s waiting room for an inordinate amount of time, you could now call your doctor from the comfort of your home.

Telemedicine also benefits people living in remote areas, people with little access to transportation, and people who suspect they may have contracted an infectious airborne disease (COVID-19 being a recent example). It could also be beneficial for people who suffer from mental illnesses and would like to engage in therapy.

Of course, there are drawbacks as well. Telemedicine lacks the personal human interaction you would get in person. Additionally, calling would prevent doctors from doing physical exams or noticing subtle details about the patient (e.g. sudden erratic mood, certain lumps on the skin). For therapy, sometimes seeing another person right in front of you, listening to your problems, allows you to feel more heard than video or phone call.

Ideally, a mix of telemedicine and physical appointments is best.

The Xenobot is the only ‘technology’ on this list that is actually alive. Well, at least I consider them alive. Xenobots are less than 1 mm wide (0.04 inches), containing only heart and skin cells from frogs. They were created in a lab through microsurgery, and can now wobble, walk, swim, spin around, and participate in team activities. Since the newer versions, they can even reproduce in an arcane and utterly distinct way.

The opportunities of the Xenobot are vast. Their greatest potential lie in targeted drug delivery, such as bringing in drug treatments for Alzeimer’s and releasing the material in a controlled and therapeutic manner. They could also be used for early cancer detection.

The main benefits of using Xenobots are that they are biodegradable (so you do not have to worry about plastic or random metals accumulating in your bloodstream) and could help treat health conditions in a non-invasive manner.

There you have it. 10 technological inventions that (I think) have the potential to revolutionize healthcare as we know it. Although my insight in this matter is backed with data, there is no guarantee for most of these items. Whatever the future may hold, however, we can marvel at these wondrous creations and hope that in the future, they could be applied in saving lives.