Augmented, virtual, and mixed reality are all technologies opening new worlds for the human senses. While the difference between these technologies might seem arbitrary at first, it greatly determines how they could be used in healthcare. While AR lets users see the real world and projects digital information onto the existing environment, VR shuts out …
Mixed reality opens new ways for medical education Read More »
Research has geared up lately in the area of brain-computer interfaces (BCI). Dr. Gary Marcus, at New York University and Dr. Christof Koch at the Allen Institute for Brain Science told The Medical Futurist that brain implants today are where laser eye surgery was decades ago, but the field will advance significantly in the upcoming …
Brain-computer interfaces bring hope for the paralyzed Read More »
There are already famous examples of real-life cyborgs, and I am truly convinced that such creatures will not only populate the terrain of sci-fi movies, but they will be everywhere around us in the very near future. The ‘cyborg-craze’ will eventually start with a new generation of hipsters who implant devices and technologies in their …
If guns, bars of chocolate, even entire houses can be 3D printed now, and the biotechnology industry is even working on printing out living cells; why would the appearance of 3D printed drugs be surprising? It’s a logical sequel that’s already happening. In August 2015, the FDA approved an epilepsy drug called Spritam that is …
In November 2017, Qualcomm and United Healthcare announced that they have integrated Samsung and Garmin wearables into their national wellness program. It enables eligible plan participants to earn more than $1,000 per year by meeting daily walking goals. I believe this is just the beginning of a beautiful friendship between health insurance companies, wearable manufacturers, …
Regarding technological development, there is always a risk for the emergence of so far unknown illnesses and conditions. New types of diseases might appear due to the excessive use of virtual reality solutions, video consoles or smartphones. Examples include virtual post-traumatic stress disorder (v-PTSD), which might be the diagnosis for gamers who participate in large …
Synthetic tea? Lab-grown meat? Artificial milk? Nutrients and vitamins in a protein shake? Sci-fi movies like the Matrix, Star Trek or The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy showed us a glimpse of the future of eating disconnected from Mother Earth. Some innovative solutions are already here, promising an option for alleviating the overstraining of natural …
Artificial food as the hope against food shortages Read More »
Researchers and medical professionals have noticed in the last years how useful voice-based solutions can prove to be in healthcare – both in diagnostics as well as in supporting their daily tasks, such as administration. Scientists found that characteristics of patients’ voices – or as medicine labels them, vocal biomarkers – reveal a lot about …
In the last decade, rapid technological advancement has resulted in a shift toward digital health in medicine. This shift is theorized as a cultural transformation of how disruptive medical technologies providing digital and objective data accessible to both caregivers and patients lead to an equal level partnership between physicians and patients with shared decision-making and …
Patient empowerment as a consequence of the tech revolution Read More »
With the development in 3D printing as well as circuit printing technologies, flexible electronics and materials, applying so-called digital tattoos or electronic tattoos on the skin for some days or even weeks became possible. Some researchers use gold nanorods, others graphine or various polymers with rubber backing to apply the tattoo on the skin without …
