The new year is here, with many of us reflecting on the year past. But this can also be a time to look forward and consider what’s to come.
Every year, great new innovations happen in the field of medicine. These technological advances in the field help us to live longer and healthier lives. They increase the convenience at which we can care for ourselves and others, and they support the quality of our lives.
The innovations of the coming year should be no different. There’s much to look forward to. The best and brightest scientists, programmers, and innovators working to create a better tomorrow.
Read on and we’ll walk you through the advances in technology in medicine that will be coming in the year 2019.
Increased Artificial Intelligence Support
The incredible folks over at IBM Watson are working hard to support our doctors in hospitals around the country. They have created and are continuing to expand an artificial intelligence system. This system helps to better diagnosis and treat patients.
This system allows doctors to have a wealth of personalized information that is pertinent to the patient. All this information available at their fingertips. So far, it’s used in oncology and radiology practices, but there are plans in place to expand its use in the coming year.
Artificial intelligence does not answer medical questions but it can match data from a patient to possible and likely causes. It can also help doctors predict outcomes to different medical procedures based on existing medicine.
Such technological support will never replace the need for knowledgeable doctors or pharmacists. It can provide a great deal of assistance to them on a day-to-day basis.
Pharmacist technicians make difficult decisions every day about patient care. In addition to this, they must keep careful track of inventory, insurance, and dosages. An increased artificial intelligence support system can help such a position out immensely.
For more on what challenges doctors and pharmacists face, check out this guide.
A Nutrigenomics Fad Is Right Around The Corner
A brand new user-based field of research and medical advice is about to explode next year.
Ancestry and genome analyzing service 23andme was already a huge hit this past year, with huge amounts of Americans tracing the ancestry of their genome back around the world.
The information contained in this genome analysis can actually tell us a lot more than our ancestry. It has a lot of helpful things to say about our health and our body’s needs.
Nutrigenomics is a rapidly expanding field that looks to help connect users with that information. After DNA sequencing, an app or service could analyze it and suggest what foods you should eat or avoid depending on your genetic makeup.
It sounds futuristic, but it’s already happening. A few California based companies are already using such information to provide specific meals for users.
Gene-Editing Hits Clinical Trials
Speaking of the genome, further staggering advancements in the area of gene-editing should be coming this year.
The new editing method known as CRISPR has the potential to completely revolutionize the medical industry. This gene-editing method has already proved successful in altering the genome of mosquitoes. This research helps to prevent malaria and could save millions of lives in the future.
Further experiments on mice proved CRISPR’s ability to treat mice with muscular dystrophy.
Scientists and medical professionals have high hopes for CRISPR’s potential in the future. Some believe that gene-editing could help us make our own cells less susceptible to various forms of cancer. CRISPR, if successfully implemented, could help the human race avoid a large number of serious diseases.
More clinical trials should occur in the coming year, as we creep closer and closer to the potential of a gene editing breakthrough.
Trackable Health Changes The Insurance Game
Users are providing helpful data to businesses in almost every industry, and the medical industry is no different. Quantifying patient’s current health takes some of the risks out of the insurance game. Insurance companies will be eager to use customer data as part of their policy creation process.
Fitbit and other similar devices can help paint a quantifiable portrait of a person’s physical fitness and health routines. Such data will become increasingly valuable to insurance companies in 2019.
A lack of exercise may prove to be a liability to people’s life and health insurance premiums in the near future. Health monitoring devices will see a huge uptick in sales and popularity as people try to use the data to lower their costs.
Some predict that consumers will buy as many as 245 million wearable devices will in 2019. A future in which an insurance company releases such a device to monitor clients is not so far off. In fact, its likely right around the corner.
Exciting Advancements In Technology In Medicine
The world is a rapidly changing place. As new challenges arise, an army of scientists and researchers are fighting to meet them. Technology is expanding faster than ever before, with each year bringing new amazing innovations. The exponential growth leads to advances that are impossible to predict with any accuracy.
2019’s new technology in medicine will likely surprise everyone. Some of the above innovations are likely to spring up, but there are sure to be many others that seem to come out of nowhere. How will such innovations change our health and our lives? We’ll have to wait and see.
Check out our blog for more information on the future of tech and medicine.
