Some of the medical device technologies in use today might seem more like they fit in a futuristic science fiction movie. Neuroscientists are exploring opportunities to use virtual reality and mind-controlled devices. Children’s hospitals embrace a new way to provide emotional support to their young patients. Cardiac patients can wear a garment to shock their heart back into a healthy rhythm. Anti-choking devices bring calmness to a choking emergency. Finally, medicinal contact lenses may soon replace eye drops. These are just a few innovative ways that technology is changing healthcare for the better.
1. Mind-Controlled Exoskeleton that Helps Disabled Walk
Spinal cord injuries are the leading cause of accidental paralysis, permanently confining patients to wheelchairs. In the United States alone, more than 250,000 people live without using their legs. Traffic accidents, sports injuries, and falls are the most common reasons they end up in the chair, and the majority of them are young–under 50 years old.
The medical community currently has no cure for restoring the function of a damaged spinal cord, meaning that there is no medical cure for paralysis. But thanks to advancements in technology, these patients may be able to walk again. Systems like mind-controlled orthosis (brace) along with virtual reality (VR) training environments for walk-empowering activities, or Mindwalker, use a brain-neural-computer-interface (BNCI) to bypass the spinal cord and send brain signals to the legs to coordinate movement.
Across the European Union and the United States, we have seen many advancements in technologies like this.
ABLE Human Motion is perfecting an exoskeleton prosthesis designed to help people with spinal cord injuries and lower limb paralysis walk again. ABLE’s medical startup mission is to help people with paralyzing disabilities live better and to enhance the quality of their lives. The most notable fact about ABLE Human Motion is that the company went from exoskeleton prosthesis conceptualization to a working prototype within 3 years.
2. ROBIN: Emotional Support Robots in Children’s Hospitals
More than three million children spend lengthy and sometimes frequent stays in hospitals. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was very isolating and depressing for young children who were not old enough to process these big feelings. But one thing that is helping is emotional support robots which have recently been trialed in children’s hospitals around the world to help these young patients cope with stress and depression.
One robot, Robin, was originally developed in 2018 to establisher peer-to-peer interactions and foster communication with children. And clinical trials were positive, with one nine-week study showing a 26% improvement in joy and a 34% reduction of stress in the average juvenile patient. I just love the big WALL-E eyes and sleek plastic body.
Robin appeals to children using AI-based interactions to build emotional connections. It can play games, tell stories, and make patients laugh with jokes. But most importantly, it can adjust its behavior to interact in an age-appropriate way so that the patient sees a peer instead of a scared parent or a clinical doctor. The robot helps children feel less isolated and makes medical procedures easier by distracting the young patients.
3. Biomedical Vest that Shows Heart-Related Problems
One particularly interesting category of medical devices is wearables. This includes everything from internet-connected yoga pants that monitor biometric data as you work out to products like the LifeVest®, a personal defibrillator worn by certain cardiac patients. LifeVest continuously monitors cardiac activity and can provide a life-saving shock treatment if the patient falls into an abnormal rhythm. It is essentially a wearable cardioverter defibrillator (WCD).
This device is for anyone at high risk for sudden cardiac death, such as some patients who are just returning to normal daily activities following a heart attack, bypass surgery, cardiac stent placement, or patients with severe heart failure. While AEDs are common in certain situations, patients must rely on a bystander to recognize the emergency and locate and use the automated external defibrillator (AED) within a few minutes.
Comparatively, with devices like LifeVest, no intervention is needed. The device can recognize a problem before anyone else is aware and immediately deliver appropriate shock treatments up to five times in an attempt to restore a normal heart rhythm. The device can alert a patient prior to delivering a treatment shock, thus allowing a conscious patient to delay the treatment. If the patient becomes unconscious, the device is designed to release a Blue™ gel over the therapy electrodes and deliver an electrical shock to restore normal rhythm.
4. The Dechoker, Anti-Choking Device
Choking is not an uncommon emergency. A few thousand people die from a lack of oxygen due to choking every year, and there are several thousand more non-fatal choking accidents.
Traditionally, the best way to clear the airway of someone who was choking was to perform a Heimlich maneuver, which can be difficult depending on the size of the victim and rescuer and, even when performed successfully, can cause broken ribs.
The Dechoker is a simple device that can clear an airway for anyone 12 months and older. It works using negative pressure and has been successful in clinical trials and real-life emergencies since its approval a few years ago.
Another device, the LifeVac Choking Rescue device, is also available. I purchased this for our family off of Amazon.
Device manufacturers expect that the results of clinical trials will assist in making decisions to update current resuscitation guidelines for choking emergencies.
5. Contact Lens Medicine Dispersal
Several medications are applied to the eyes. But the biggest challenge is that the eyes wash out most of the medicine in a short amount of time. The typical dose is often completely gone after just thirty minutes. Contact lenses, which do not have to be corrective, can hold the medicine in place longer.
These lenses are being considered for use to deliver antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and anti-allergy medicines. The prediction for the future is that medicinal contact lenses may entirely replace eye drops.
The important thing to note with this technology is that the lens manufacturers are not simply soaking the lenses in medicine. Doses are administered through controlled release using technology built into the lens structure.
The photo shows a patient inserting a medicated contact lens. (Photo:
Jeff Etheridge/Auburn University)
It makes sense that chronic dosing could yield more benefits than the periodic use of eye drops, not to mention the added convenience of potentially being able to forget about medicating for days at a time.
What’s in Your Strategy?
The clinical, regulatory, and quality expectations for cutting-edge medical devices around the world are increasing. Global Strategic Solutions, LLC located in the Silicon Valley area of California uses innovative technologies to conduct and systematically analyze the medical literature using proven methods that regulatory bodies accept. Additionally, we have expert clinical and regulatory strategists along with senior medical writing personnel to assist with your market application. Although changes are occurring all over the world, Europe is where the medical device revolution exists today. We have experts available now.
Final Thoughts on Cutting-Edge Medical Devices
This is only a small sampling of what is possible with the help of technology. We expect to see radical transformations in patient care and treatment efficacy using artificial intelligence and virtual reality technologies. Conditions that have previously been considered incurable or irreversible may have a second chance. Paraplegics confined to a wheelchair may be able to walk again using mind-controlled technology, and AI provides the perfect emotional companion for sick children living in hospitals. It won’t be too much longer before these technologies will be in our homes.
David R Rutledge, Pharm.D., FCCP, FAHA
President & CEO, Global Strategic Solutions, LLC, Silicon Valley in California.
www.GlobalStrategicSolutions.com +1 (630) 846-0350 cell David.Rutledge@GlobalStrategicSolutions.com