原创 Electronics revolutionizing healthcare

Dear Readers,

Hope you had a good and safe festive season.

For good or bad, I am back again after a pretty long gap!

During this period, I happened to read about a lot of things and also listened to some of the leaders from the semiconductor industry. In subsequent blogs, I intend to share with you, some of the perspectives I really liked. Beware!

In the current issue, I would like to spend some time on technologies that have impacted every one of us, made a difference to millions across the globe, promises a better quality of life in the coming years and most importantly electronics was dominantly behind this revolution. It is the field of Medical Electronics!

Health care has always been an issue in nations across the world. Some of them face increasing costs. Some others have been unable to provide healthcare to all the people. Other challenges include the increasing geriatric population especially in the developed world and growing population with diabetes, coronary artery disease and other genetic and life style related disorders in the developing world.

Low cost diagnostic methods and an increasing awareness have helped such people. The diagnostic techniques have become more or less automated and affordable thanks to application of electronics. Clinical diagnostics like CT, MRI, Angiogram and Ultrasound have heavily relied on electronics technologies and have become portable. Home diagnostics like BP, ECG and Blood Sugar are increasingly becoming popular in many developing countries. These have shrunk to sizes that enable people to carry with them wherever they go true mobility. The integration capability of semiconductor chips have been a boon in terms of decreasing the cost and size and increasing capability, helping in transforming healthcare equipment into consumer items! At the same time they are amazingly accurate and even have found their way into clinics and hospitals in an extensive manner.

Telemedicine basically a convergence of medical, telecommunication and electronics technologies has become a reality and will soon make medical diagnostics truly global. Expert opinions will go beyond national boundaries. In a country like ours, telemedicine will revolutionize rural healthcare. Our satellites can be effectively put to use for such social programs.

Of course, all these are governed by standards and will be constantly scrutinized by bodies like FDA.

Though home diagnostic equipments have become mobile in terms of portability, they have really not become one in the true sense. They do not have any wireless capability for easy storage and analysis of trends. Moreover online monitoring from a nursing home or a hospital will generally be not possible. If you happen to visit an ICU (lets hope such situations do not arise!) a whole lot of wired equipment are used by the patient side for monitoring various vital parameters. This extensively hampers the movement of such patients around for some specialized tests and treatments. Can wireless technologies come to aid such patients?

Much of the diagnostic equipments to detect serious problems within the body are still invasive in nature. Some examples are endoscopy and angiogram. Such techniques pose some definitive threats like unexpected perforations that can lead to complications. These procedures have to be conducted by experts in the medical profession. Even with the availability of such advanced technologies, surgery will be the only choice for certain parts of the body. Again, many people are reluctant to undergo such procedures either because of fear or other factors, hampering prevention. Can the body be remote sensed? Are there such technologies?

Lets look at some of them in the coming weeks.

Regards,
Paddy