Valuable Innovations in Healthcare for 2017
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Valuable Innovations in Healthcare for 2017
Like many other modern sciences and arts, the medical sciences have come a long way in the last few generations. The advent of more powerful computers and more potent medications -- among other advances -- has provided modern patients with more treatment options than at any other time in history.The year 2017 has brought along with it some impressive medical innovations that hold the promise of solving many common medical issues more easily and thoroughly than ever before, and these latest healthcare innovations certainly warrant closer inspection.
New Ways to Fight Lymphoma and Leukemia
Leukemia and lymphoma have long been among the most dreaded cancers due to the difficulty in treating and eradicating them. The latest and possibly most effective weapon yet discovered to fight these aggressive cancers actually turns out to be the human immune system. Medical scientists have developed a revolutionary cancer-fighting tool known as Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR-T) technology.[1] CAR-T therapy involves the harvesting of the T-cells of patients, after which the cells are changed at a genetic level. The changes enable these modified T-cells to seek out and destroy cancer-causing cells once they are re-introduced into the bloodstreams of cancer patients.
Specialized Gene Editing Tools
As was mentioned in the preceding section, genetic engineering is now being applied in new and innovative ways in the fight against disease and infirmity. One new tool that enables medical scientists to make relatively targeted changes to the genetic code of various species is known as Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR).[2] This technology partially consists of special segments of DNA that are derived from bacteria and have the capability of using a specialized enzyme to break off selected sequences of DNA. This technique has been used to alter the genes of cells in both animals and plants and shows great promise as a major weapon in the war against disease.
Fast and Easy Biopsies
Medical biopsies have long provided physicians and other medical professionals with vital information about conditions that would be hard to diagnose otherwise. That being said, biopsies can also be a significant source of patient pain and discomfort, and new ways to collect the necessary tissue samples have long been sought by medical researchers. This type of revolutionary new method may have finally arrived.The new technique of dealing with tissue biopsy collection is known as a liquid biopsy.[3] This technique is based on the fact that scientists can now detect the genetic markers of different kinds of cancerous tumors circulating through various bodily fluids. By carefully screening for genetic traces of tumors in the urine, blood, and cerebrospinal fluid, physicians may now be able to detect the presence of tumors earlier than ever before, thus giving cancer patients greater odds of survival.These healthcare innovations are just a sample of the many new advances in modern medicine. When looked at as a whole, these advances hold the promise of providing healthier bodies and higher qualities of life for future generations.If you are interested in discussing how a telemedicine doctor network can help your healthcare organization, please click below.Contact us to find out more!References:[1] https://scholars.duke.edu/display/pub1059635[2] https://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/bio2.0/editing_genomes_with_the_bacterial[3] https://scholars.duke.edu/display/pub1170235[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]