原创 Electronics in Medicine - Future trends - Part 4

Dear Readers,

It is time to celebrate the spring season! Apart from the celebrations it brings with it a host of allergies too! Yes, this issue is again going to be on medicine and electronics and I assure you it would be the last one (atleast for now)!! Hope you enjoyed the previous articles in this series.

The future of medicine will mainly focus on prevention rather than treatment as the old saying goes atleast for many of the known conditions that we know today. I would like to highlight some of the future trends that are likely in the age of medical electronics. These technologies may appear in the market in the next 5 to 7 years!

Most of us are aware of the long term complications and associated costs due to diabetes. Constant monitoring is the key to keeping at bay the various complications. Today, this needs pricking with a needle and is a deterrent. How about 24 by 7 monitoring without the need for blood? This precisely is what some universities and a few companies based in the US are attempting. This involves the insertion of a tiny fluorescent material under the skin and this patch glows and changes colour based on the blood glucose levels when a tiny laser is made to shine on it. An electronic device can read these changes and notify the instantaneous blood sugar levels and sudden changes. Measurements can be taken at anytime one wants and the period can be automated completely! No needles anymore.

World over, one of the primary causes of infant death is SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Though cause of death cannot be explained fully, it is known that one of the primary reasons is due to the infant sleeping on its stomach. The parents are advised to monitor the infants until a year old for this and is obviously is not a fail proof method. Researchers at UC Berkeley and Intel have developed a prototype that senses when an infant turns on its stomach. This is based on sensor networks attached to the infants clothing. This technology has tremendous potential for patient monitoring applications. This should be commercially available in the next couple of years.

Our life is controlled by our destiny or is it so? How about our genes? Atleast our health condition is influenced by them! There is lot of research going on in the area of genetics. Many scientists are working towards decoding the human genome sequence. The genome sequence is like a finger print and is unique for every individual. Once a genome sequence is known, ones future health condition can be predicted and appropriate life style changes, corrective actions and specific treatments can be planned well in advance! The major hurdle now is the decoding process itself needs enormous computing power for comparison of billions of DNA pairs. It is prohibitive as of today. But with the great pace with which semiconductors are leading to the creation of very powerful processors and the pace with which the multi-core technologies are becoming available, may be in the next 8 to 10 years, one can get his/her genome sequenced within a couple of days and under $1000? This may become even simpler and cheaper considering the fact that computing is becoming ubiquitous. How wonderful if I can know that 10 years down the line I am likely to get a colon cancer or a Coronary Artery Disease or diabetes!

Such is the power of electronics and its direct impact on human healthcare. I will stop with this for the time being, though there are many more things to talk about in this field. May be I will touch upon them in my future blogs.

I will probably be moving on to a different topic next time!!

Wishing you a happy spring time and a great Holi festival!!!

Regards,

Paddy