Which idea or invention do you think will have the biggest impact on the future of medicine?

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8 Comments

  • Toby Turlay - 10 years ago

    Dr. Pelligrini spoke of being able to inject a dye to illuminate cancer cells and how helpful it would be to distinguish cancer cells from healthy tissue. Dr. Jim Olson and his team at "The Hutch" have done just that. Tumor Paint is made from scorpion venom and illuminates cancer cells, making it possible to see where else the cancer may have spread or to not remove healthy tissue. Life changing. Life saving.

  • Patricia Dorfield - 10 years ago

    I agree with another respondent who voted for DNA having the biggest impact on the future of medicine for the same reason. If you can fix problems at their source the problems cease to exist.

  • Renee - 10 years ago

    Tumor treatment using imaging technology is already being done. This article mentions superimposing MRI onto a tumor or 'getting it to glow' as a future possibility, but this is being done by interventional radiologists on some rumors already. Cryoablation, RF ablation and chemoembolization are IR methods used in this way. The treaents, which are minimally invasive, are done under imaging guidance. It's done with liver metastaties quite often.

  • Beth - 10 years ago

    The body is the best self regulating machine there is, so I voted for the idea that you can assist your immune system to heal the body. This idea goes much further that just healing cancer. The body could grow new parts if needed (just like some animals do) and replace even defective DNA.

  • Ken - 10 years ago

    I voted for the environment solution because my life is in my hands. I've had so many bad experiences with doctors not paying attention and doing the wrong thing to me. I am a lover of technology, but until doctors are better trained, I am terrified of putting technology in their hands.

  • Elise - 10 years ago

    I have worked in medical for years and know the heartbreak of not being able to truly help. Not only does your doctor feel helpless, but from the nurses to the front desk staff to those who do xrays and all those in-between ache inside when there is nothing we can do. Medical research and these newest technologies give so much hope to billions across the planet. If I have to lose a little privacy, so be it. These advances give all of us hope for a world where healthcare is truly universal and wellness is the right of all people. Then maybe we would all have the time to work on being better people.

  • Ashley - 10 years ago

    I agree with Diane. It's uncomfortable knowing a microchip can be turned on and off wirelessly & virtually distribute medication. What's next, requiring infants to get it them when delivered in hospitals? Stop selling prescriptions taken by mouth to cut cost back and requiring everyone to update to a chip that monitors everything? That's unbearably uncomfortable to think about. How easy would it be for the government to simply plug turn it on if ever in a catastrophic event or a situation where they wait to gain control of the people. No thanks. I'll go back to the golden days of farming and livig without technology before turning to that. As smart as we are, I wonder when is enough enough when it comes
    To technology? How much further into the future can you push it before our basic abilities are
    Computerized and generated in a manner that can be "corrected" as though we have no free will? Good luck with that.

  • Diane - 10 years ago

    Some of these are a little disturbing from a patient rights perspective. I know I wouldn't feel comfortable if my doctor suggested constant monitoring of my medications and vital signs, or that she should be able to change my medications remotely without asking me, or that I should have to put up with even more data sharing than we're expected to now. I think doctors need to step back sometimes and realise that "can" doesn't mean "should", and that the patient is still the one in control.

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