In the last year, Biomedical Engineering has continually knocked on the doors of innovation. There are many more breakthroughs than those listed here, but these are the big ones that revolutionized the whole landscape of medicine and healthcare throughout the world.
People were able to witness the birth of several technologies during the beginning of the twenty-first century, some of which are currently benefiting patients throughout the world, while other gadgets might lead to important advancements in the near future.
- AbioCor Artificial Heart
A group of surgeons from Louisville, Kentucky, succeeded in implanting a new-generation mechanical heart in a patient in July 2001. The gadget, dubbed AbioCor, was implanted in a man who was suffering from cardiac failure. The artificial heart was created by Abiomed, Inc., a Danvers, Massachusetts-based firm.
Although mechanical hearts had previously been implanted in people, AvioCor has shown to be more technologically sophisticated than all of its predecessors. It’s worth noting that past artificial hearts needed the user to be wired into a massive console through tubes and electrical power wires that ran through their skin. The patient would have to be bedridden as a result of this.
- Bio-Artificial Liver
Dr. Kenneth Matsumura had the concept to create a new bio-artificial liver. He chose to take a completely different approach to building an artificial liver. Rather than designing an equipment with a plethora of instruments to carry out each of the liver’s tasks, Matsumura decided to build a system that uses liver cells taken from animals.
- Pill with a Camera
It became feasible to detect the early indications of caner after the creation of this camera pill.
The gadget was created with the objective of capturing high-resolution color photographs in tight places.
It can identify early symptoms of esophageal cancer, the most rapidly increasing malignancy in the United States.
The pill is the diameter of an adult fingernail and twice as long, according to Eric Seibel, the principal researcher at the University of Washington.
Because the new scanning gadget is tiny and does not require anesthesia or sedation,
- Bionic Contact Lens
Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle developed the bionic eye. For the first time, they were able to combine an elastic contact lens with an imprinted electrical circuit.
Wearers may perceive the world by superimposing electronic images on their natural vision.
The bionic contact lens, according to the researchers, may be used by drivers and pilots to provide directions and weather or vehicle information.
The lens might also be used to track a person’s biological state, such as cholesterol levels and the presence of viruses and germs. The information gathered can then be wirelessly transmitted to a computer.
- iLIMB Bionic Hand
The iLIMB, which was invented by David Gow in 2007, was the world’s first artificial hand with five separately powered fingers.
As a result, users who utilize the device may grab things of various forms, such as coffee mug handles.
Gow had to overcome a slew of challenges in order to create the iLIMB. The iLIMB is made up of three different parts: the finger, thumb, and palm, each with its own motor control system.
- Robots Assisting in Surgeries
Surgeons have been utilizing robotic arms for some time, but in the twenty-first century, technology advanced significantly in the field of robotics, and researchers are now working on robots that can do various procedures on patients independently.
Surgical robots were demonstrated to a group of scientists from Duke University in North Carolina. They tested the machines on a dead turkey (whose flesh texture is comparable to that of humans) and discovered that robots had a 93 percent success rate in a prostate tissue-cutting procedure.
- A device that reads people’s minds
“Mind-reading” is a psychological term that refers to the unconscious observation and interpretation of nonverbal clues such as facial emotions and head movements. People can detect each other’s emotional states using these clues.
Three MIT Media Lab scientists came up with the idea for this innovation. The mind-reading equipment examines the user’s brain signals and informs them to the emotional state of the person with whom they are conversing.
- Elekta Axesse Elekta
Axesse is a modern gadget that is used to treat cancer nowadays. This technology was developed to treat a wide range of conditions across the human body, including malignancies in the spine, lungs, prostate, and liver.
The gadget comes with a comprehensive set of useful tools. It can aid stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), stereotactic radiation therapy (SRT), stereotactic body radiation treatment (SBRT), and radiosurgery procedures (SBRS).
- eLEGS Exoskeleton by Berkeley Bionics
The exoskeleton from Berkeley Bionics, nicknamed eLEGS, was created to assist persons with paraplegia and is one of the most spectacular technologies of the twenty-first century.
The exoskeleton for paraplegics is a lightweight, artificially intelligent bionic device that may be used at home as well as in hospitals, allowing users to stand, walk, and even climb stairs.
- EyeWriter
This gadget was created to assist persons who are confined to their beds in communicating. Researchers from the Ebeling Group, the Not Impossible Foundation, and the Graffiti Research Lab came up with the idea.
The EyeWriter makes use of open-source software and low-cost eye-tracking eyewear. As a result, it enables persons with neuromuscular diseases to interact with others by writing or drawing on a computer screen by sensing their eye movement and translating it to lines on a screen.
