Innovations are transforming healthcare through the creation of technologies, treatments and protocols that help provide patient solutions. Innovations are a catalyst for change and are transforming the healthcare landscape by addressing the fundamental challenges of today’s healthcare providers. Through innovation, the medical community is building a healthier world by improving quality of care, reducing costs and optimizing patient outcomes.
Here are five healthcare innovations to look for in 2015:
Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit
Every year in the United States, approximately 800,000 people suffer a stroke. In addition, every four minutes someone dies from complications due to a stroke, making strokes the fourth-leading cause of death in America. People who survive a stroke often live with disabilities ranging from nerve cell deterioration to severe brain and cognitive function damage.
In order to help improve stroke outcomes, some hospitals in the United States and Germany are now using specially-equipped mobile stroke treatment ambulances that are outfitted with the necessary medical staff, medications and tools for stroke treatment. The mobile unit is able to take a CT scan within two minutes, and send the results via a 4G broadband wireless network to the hospital, where neurologists and neuroradiologists can then make a diagnosis and prescribe the most effective treatment plan.
PCSK9 Inhibitors for Cholesterol Reduction
Cholesterol is a waxy substance present in cells throughout the body and is responsible for many important functions. Unfortunately, elevated levels of the bad kind of cholesterol (LDL) can lead to heart disease. First introduced in 1987, statin medications help change blood cholesterol levels by blocking HMG Co-A reductase, which is a primary enzyme the liver needs in order to make cholesterol.
Blocking this enzyme results in a decrease in cholesterol inside the liver, which in turn, increases the organ’s ability to remove cholesterol from the circulating blood. Though statins work well for many people with high LDL levels, some people don’t have enough of a reduction and continue to experience negative cardiovascular problems.
However, patients are now beginning to see the emergence of a new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as PCSK9 inhibitors, that are self-injected once or twice a month. Study results report that as much as half to two-thirds of patients taking the PCSK9 inhibitor medication saw their LDL cholesterol levels reduced by 75%!
There are now several of these drugs currently in development and they are expected to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the end of 2015.
Antibody-Drug Conjugates
The scientific community has learned a tremendous amount about cancer in the past two decades. Advances have been made in cancer biology recently which have led to significant progress in prevention, detection and treatment of the disease. Despite the many advances, one of the only real forms of treatment for cancer remains chemotherapy, which not only destroys cancer cells, but the surrounding healthy cells as well.
However, a new treatment option has been created which targets and attacks a protein found only in or around tumor cells. Antibody drug conjugates could be the answer to the medical community’s dreams of precision killing with fewer side effects. To deliver the drug, the conjugates use antibodies, the large molecules in our immune systems that bind to the cell surface of various bacteria and virus to keep it from taking hold. These antibodies are created in a lab and specifically engineered so a patient’s immune system won’t see them as a foreign body and try to destroy them.
Once given to the patient, the drug works its way through the bloodstream in search of specific cancer cells. When it finds one, a toxin is released, which damages the cancer cell as it attempts to divide, resulting in eventual cancer cell eradication.
Leadless Cardiac Pacemaker
The average adult’s heart beats between 60 and 100 times per minute at rest, but if a person has bradycardia, their heart rate is slower than normal. This indicates a problem with the organ’s electrical system.
To combat this potentially serious health issue, several million Americans rely on a surgically implanted cardiac pacemaker which keeps the heart beating at a steady pace. You may be shocked to learn, however, that the technology that runs a pacemaker has not changed much since it was first developed back in 1958.
These devices consist of a pulse generator (about the size of a silver dollar) that rests just below the collar bone in a secure surgical pocket just under the skin. Then there are very thin wires, called leads, which stretch from the pulse generator to the heart. When leads detect that a person’s heart rhythm has changed, they send a signal to the pulse generator which responds electrically to keep the heart beating at a normal rate.
Over time, though, these leads can break and the insulation around them can crack, forming an infection site. Though leads can be replaced, it can be a difficult, stressful and time-consuming procedure.
However, in 2014, there was a breakthrough which could transform the pacemaker as we know it. Starting in Europe, there was approval for a tiny leadless and self-contained pacemaker. It’s no bigger than a large vitamin, and comparatively it’s about 10% the size of the traditional pacemaker. Plus, it can be implanted directly into the heart without surgery. The whole procedure takes roughly half an hour.
This pacemaker nanotechnology has completely eliminated surgery, lumps and scars on a patient’s chest. In addition, it has eliminated restrictions placed on patient’s daily physical activities, as well as any complications due to malfunctioning insulated connecting leads. Though it has not yet been approved for use in the United States, late-stage clinical trials are currently underway.
Intraoperative Radiation Therapy for Breast Cancer
According to the American Cancer Society, nearly 233,000 cases of invasive breast cancer affected women in America in 2014. Moreover, they estimate that 63,000 cases of noninvasive breast cancer occurred, as well as more than 40,000 deaths from the disease.
For many women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, the most common form of treatment is usually a lumpectomy or partial mastectomy, after which a course of follow-up external beam radiation therapy is administered to the entire breast for approximately five times a week for three-to-six weeks. This treatment also helps reduce the chances of cancer returning to that area.
The time requirement and often expensive costs for treatment can pose a challenge to many women, especially those who have travelled long distance to facilities that offer radiation treatments. Because of this, many women shorten, or completely forego, this course of action, which can greatly increase the chances of their cancer returning.
But now there is an advanced breast cancer radiation therapy called intraoperative radiation therapy, or IORT for short, which has the potential to deliver high doses of radiation during the lumpectomies, concentrating it in the cavity were the tumors were removed. This means that the radiation treatment will not negatively affect the surrounding organs, and will be able to do in a half an hour what traditional radiation therapy does in several days or weeks.
