Nanomedicine: a great hope from the small world

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A new interdisciplinary field of medical science is currently in the making. Its methods only leave the laboratories, and most of them still exist only in the form of projects. However, most experts believe that it is these methods that will become fundamental in the 21st century. For example, the National Institutes of Health of the United States have included nanomedicine in the top five priority areas of medical development in the 21st century, and the National Cancer Institute is going to apply the achievements of nanomedicine in the treatment of cancer. A number of foreign scientific centers have already demonstrated prototypes in the fields of diagnostics, treatment, prosthetics, and implantation.

“Nanomedicine is a medical application of nanotechnology. Nanomedicine extends from the medical use of nanomaterials to nanoelectronic biosensors and even the possible use of molecular nanotechnology in the future”.

Nanomedicine aims to provide a significant set of research tools and clinically useful devices in the near future. The National Nanotechnology Initiative is looking forward to new commercial applications in the pharmaceutical industry that may include advanced drug delivery systems, new forms of therapy and imaging in vivo. Neural electronic interfaces and other nanoelectronic sensors are another active goals for research.

Societies are constantly looking for ways to improve health, in terms of costs, coverage, effectiveness, response to emerging diseases, and demographic changes. Nanotechnology has been critically examined to determine how the new capabilities it represents can be applied to current medical needs. Because nanotechnology inherits its approach to certain diseases derived from current medical research, its main objective has been towards non-infectious diseases e.g. cancer, and degenerative diseases.

Some developments in biomedicine at the nanoscopic level have the potential to create new generations of medical implants that are designed to interact with the body, monitor the chemical composition of blood and, if necessary, release certain medications. Bones, cartilages, and artificial skins that in addition to not being rejected by the body, seek to help some parts of the human body to regenerate. There are also new systems for diagnosis, imaging, and regeneration; in this way, it is intended that the side effects of current systems and/or procedures be mitigated.

A classic in the field of nanotechnology developments and predictions, Eric Drexler in his fundamental works described the main methods of treatment and diagnosis based on nanotechnology. The key problem to achieve these results is the creation of special medical nanorobots - nanomachines for repairing cells. Medical nanorobots should be able to diagnose diseases, circulating in the human blood and lymphatic systems and moving in the internal organs, deliver drugs to the affected area and even do surgical operations. Drexler also suggested that medical nanorobots would provide an opportunity to revitalize people frozen by cryonics.

Achievements of nanomedicine will become widely available by different estimates only after 40-50 years. However, a number of recent discoveries, developments, and investments in the nanotechnology have led to the fact that more and more analysts are shifting this date for 10-15 years downwards.

Read also: How Medical Diagnosis Has Been Impacted By IT, by Sudir Raju

So far, nanomedicine is a large industry, where sales reached 6.8 billion dollars more than a decade ago. In this industry, there are more than two hundred active companies, in which at least $ 3.8 billion are invested annually.

Two types of nanomedicine have just been tried in mice and are now required to be tried in people. We are talking about the application of gold nanocapsules for analyzing and guiding the antibodies as a vehicle for medical solutions. Those gold nanoparticles are composed of clusters of gold atoms prepared from the reduction of gold salts. Due to changes in their surface plasmon resonance, gold nanoparticles can be used for colorimetric assays. By means of the control of the aggregation of gold nanoparticles, it has been possible to detect matrices of biomolecules.

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Similarly, disposing of the lethality of medications is another use of nanomedicine, which has indicated promising outcomes in rats. The advantage of introducing nanoscale gadgets in therapeutic innovations is that those little gadgets are not so obtrusive, and they can be embedded inside the organism, and, what's more, their biochemical responses are much quicker. These gadgets work faster and end up being more practical, even more than the traditional ways.

The nanobots of nanomedicine could be produced with the function of restructuring or repairing muscles or bony tissues. Fractures could be a thing of the past, nanobots could be programmed to identify fissures in bones and fix these in two ways; performing some process to accelerate the recovery of the broken bone or melting with the broken bone or even both, and thus with an infinity of diseases of various types dissolving substances of multiple varieties according to, in blood or in the area to be treated specifically, injecting small amounts of antibiotics or antiseptics in case of colds or inflammations, etc.

Currently, silver nanoparticles are being used as disinfectants and antiseptics in pharmaceutical and surgical products, in underwear, gloves, socks and sports shoes, in baby products, personal hygiene products, cutlery, refrigerators, clothes washers and all type of implantable materials.

Recommended: Nanomedicine: Latest Research and Reviews

4 Trends That Will Likely Hover Around Health IT In 2018

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As mentioned in previous posts by Sudir Raju, the use of IT in the healthcare industry has never been more important. In fact, given the rapid pace at which the industry is unfolding what is likely about to happen, it is important to have a look at what is ahead in the present year: cloud adoption and IT security will continue to grow in importance as 2018 keeps its course. Aside from that, there are other several aspects which will be covered later on in this post.

The Importance of Data and Information

After having take a look at different opinions from today’s health care leading voices, it is particularly difficult to simply overlook how data is being gaining importance, and how different sources of information are now being utilized alongside new technologies and other analytical methodologies to boost the and increase the use of information technologies in health care in hopes to achieve what the experts call a “digital transformation”. They all seem to agree upon the fact that all agents should aim to propose a value-based healthcare, and that that is actually something that is in the works—suggesting that important steps towards this achievement have already been made. Basically, the ability to harness data and information in order to get and discover new insights about data itself will be key to determining future success in this new era.

As mentioned in a previous posts, aside from developing new ways to interact with today’s healthcare industry, it is also key to come up with ways of enabling different agents and institutions to integrate their databases so that they can interact properly without facing any possible setback. Combining data, and establishing a shared “data pool” will be paramount as more sources of information are developed. This is also vital for other reasons: on one hand, this will definitely suppose a major improvement for health outcomes; on the other hand, it will allow the industry itself to reduce the costs commonly associated to its operation in this scenario. However, this also poses new challenges: general and overall acceptability of information across facilities and other clinics; the interaction between traditional and non-traditional information sources will determine the degree to which it can be standardized for all agents involved. 

Artificial Intelligence and Its Interaction With Health IT

According to experts there seems to be a correlation between big data and information pools and the ongoing development and further application of artificial intelligence to health IT. However, although both things are unquestionably going to play a major role in the upcoming years, the simultaneous use of AI and other technologies is raising some questions, as AI itself is likely to end up removing jobs; however, it is undeniable that the use of AI within the whole healthcare industry can carry out the vast majority of robotic processes and different automation activities which can result in more productive results and outcomes. Be that as it may, it is not that easy to put both things together and make them work in perfect harmony.

Why Blockchain Is Going To Play A Major Role

While the healthcare industry is paying special attention to the application and further use of artificial intelligence—for the tech sector really needs to start sorting out the massive amounts of information and data coming from clinical and non-clinical sources—, there is an undeniable need for more advanced technology to protect such data, especially nowadays where it seems to be several arguments in favor of implementing blockchain while the democratization of information takes place. 

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The Digital Transformation

As mentioned above, today’s state of the art of the health IT is rather diverse and motley. There are several premises which are used to define what will become of the healthcare industry once it adopts IT to a much larger extent. When it comes to digital transformation, we are talking about the possibility for the healthcare industry yo make and put consumers at the very center of the interaction, diversify competition and, ultimately, increase interaction rates. Of course, the underlying issue will always be improving the healthcare quality. Nonetheless, although all these things seem to have been already defined, the adoption and implementation rates are still far from being acceptable; and although there has been an ongoing development of apps, technologies and health-related devices using top technology, and even though these developments are capable of reaching out to more individuals at a much faster pace, the question about joint operability still remains open since it seems to be much harder than initially thought to provide the needed comprehensive real-time experience the industry expects to attain. Thus, is not hard to see why venture capitalists are paying special attention to consumer-oriented initiatives, for it is undeniable that the industry will also become highly profitable amidst its development.

Why The Use Of Health IT Has Become Paramount

In light of today’s fast-paced technological developments, developing areas and, in reality, all sorts of fields can benefit from the ongoing use of Information Technology, commonly referred to as IT. Under the scope of the healthcare industry, health IT is somewhat of a broad term that describes the traditional use of different technologies to both record and analyze health metrics. There are several technologies that embody the health IT spectrum: record systems, health devices and apps. All of them are responsible for providing physicians and researchers with accurate data so that they can provide patients with even more accurate diagnostics. For example, with the use of health IT, a nutritionist can tell a patient why they should follow a specific diet instead based on information provided by metrics, thusly minimizing the room for error and misinterpretations.

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As previously mentioned by Sudir Raju, the sole purpose of health information technology is to increase the degree at which doctors and physicians treat their patients properly, or, better said, to help them provide patients a much better healthcare—which also means making healthcare more balanced and equal for all individuals, as this information, the metrics physicians are able to collect through the use of the aforementioned different technologies, help healthcare ministries develop and implement policies in order to improve the healthcare system.

Thus, no wonder why institutions and researchers spare no efforts in bettering what they find and what they have found in terms of improvements. Health IT improves the rate at which the healthcare system delivers its services to patients. Besides, by paying special attention to new technologies, healthcare providers can minimize errors and increase patient safety, aside from obviously strengthening the interaction between providers and individuals. In fact, in poorer locations and areas where healthcare is rather a developing field, the implementation of these technologies is no less than mandatory. Otherwise, it would be impossible for locals to access affordable and reliable healthcare services.

By implementing health IT in medical facilities, clinics and hospitals can improve the quality of their services. In fact, this actually serves two different purposes: doctors and physicians can provide better services while accurately understanding more about what they already know about diseases, pathologies and other symptomatologies. When it comes to having a much broader picture about a patient’s medical history, information, especially accurate information, is key. Therefore, health IT is what ultimately allows physicians and doctors to better comprehend and interpret an individual’s medical history, thusly being able to provide them with better treatments and medications, which in the end allows the patient to receive a much greater probability of recovery depending on the case.

In short, health IT is paramount, especially under today’s conditions: climate change, overpopulation, natural disasters, etc., all these things combined require accurate treatments aside from a rapid response from healthcare service providers. The gap between rich and poor areas keeps growing over time, and medical services cannot be considered a luxury only a portion of individuals can afford, therefore, what the medical and scientific community aims to achieve is to reduce the fatal rates in those locations while making healthcare more accessible and accurate for all individuals. From that point on, it is quite easy to describe the perks of implementing health IT: whether it is empowering doctors to have accurate information at hand or prescribing the right medication, the scope of implementing health IT goes beyond any conception.

In fact, seeing the rate at which new diseases appear, health IT has become more than paramount: in order for physicians, doctors and scientists to develop new medications and treatments, they need to get a hold of accurate information. Without health IT, it would be impossible for them to assess new pathologies and diseases, and ultimately the whole healthcare system would fail at providing information about them. Thus, the benefits of the right metrics when it comes to assessing new diseases cannot be simply overlooked. Aspects such as healthcare records, better healthcare system, patient care, safety, less fatal rates, effectiveness, efficiency, and equity highly depend on the implementation of new healthcare information technologies. No wonder why the healthcare community works hand in hand to make the impossible possible within a very limited period of time. The race against diseases and healthcare inequality is a tough one.

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Last, but not least, health IT would be pointless were it not possible to integrate different sources of information. Given the importance of this field, the scientific community is also working on better ways to integrate different findings or to simply make clinical findings about diseases as well as patient records accessible: different physicians, different doctors, different clinics, whichever the case, they all need to be able to access specific information, especially if this information was collected by another person at a different place.