07 Feb Winter healthcare news and medical translation

As patients more and more want to be active participants in information exchange and decision-making processes concerning their health, and technology is rapidly advancing, integrating big achievements in other fileds to the healthcare sector, data collected via personal monitoring devices will be growing. It can be related to physical activity, nutrition…, and the data will be collected by the patients wearing the devices, not the professionals.

New healthcare tendences

Current healthcare systems are unsustainable. Technology is outpacing bureaucratic authorization systems at lightning speed. People more and more understand that prevention is the best way to go. And even the concept of prevention has been widened by nutrition, exercise, anti-stress practices and wellness. Physiotherapy contributes to prevention. But it also can be part of healing processes and functional recovery and it is practiced both in and out the healthcare system.

Hydrotherapy, for example, is not only a medical therapy any more, but a way to feel better or highlight  beauty. Other therapies based in oriental medicine are clearly extended in the West world too, as those concerning recharging energetically and recovering circadian rhythms. Massages and anti-stress therapies are also highly demanded, as over stress is a big health problem in todays world.

Recent studies show the connection between music, or specific types of music and healing. That is the case of the Mozart effect showed that listening to Mozart’s Sonata for two pianos in D major, K.448, that reduced epileptic seizures in South Korean children. Listening to music or singing old songs also improves cognition for Alzheimer patients significantly. And it even affects depression levels reducing then as explained in a medical study carried out among old adults in Singapore. The latter study showed that patients felt much better after listened their choice of music, just 30 minutes per week.

New healthcare inventions

• Multi-channel ECG (as the ECG Dongle), record information from different views of the heart, and provide a more complete picture of electrical activity. Usually 12-lead ECGs.
• (Viatom Checkme Pro) All-in-one package multi-sensor that function as a health trackerers, recording the patient’s ECG (electrophysiology of your heart), measuring patient’s blood oxygen saturation, the number of steps patient’s takes a day, serves as a thermometer, a blood pressure tracker, a sleep monitor and a reminder.
• (The Wishbone thermometer) small, easy-to-use thermometers, that measure and monitor temperature using a smartphone.
• AI and symptoms data bases are great tools for your personal healthcare.
• Others, like Tellspec, will soon be measuring the number of calories in our food.
• (Wiwe) one-channel ECG smart sensors using a unique, intelligent algorithm that evaluates the properties of the ECG wave to calculate if there is a risk of a fib-related stroke and sudden cardiac arrest.
• Digital (Withings) Blood Pressure Monitors, easy to use, stylish, FDA-approved and  wireless. The pacient puts on the cuff, turns on the device and the Health Mate app automatically launches.

Going beyond what is usual in the healthcare and medical translation sectors

 Here are some news that probably surpass your imagination.

– Personalized medicine

Chemotherapy and radiation, the main cancer treatments, cannot be utilized in targeted ways. Therefore, they also affect the functioning of healthy cells, which sometimes can be even life-threatening. However, the last 5 years, biopharmaceutical companies have nearly doubled their R&D investment in personalized medicines. Biopharmaceutical researchers predict a 69% increase in the development of perzonalized medicines over the next five years.

Biopharmaceutical industry considers that about 73 % of oncology compounds in the pipeline and 42% of all compounds have a potential to be personalized medicines. In this sense only between 2015 and 2016, more than 5,500 new genetic testing products were marketed.

The Science of personalizing drugs based on DNA, Pharmacogenomics, is growing and seems to be a critical area to improving both prescriptions and drug therapies in the future. The reason is that according to recent studies, people metabolize medication on a wide scale and DNA is the cause of considerable variations.

– 3D drug printing

Currently the biggest challenge for 3D printing may be the regulatory environment more than technology itself. FabRx, UK biotech company stablished in 2014, will be commercializing printed tablets within the next 5-10 years. According to them, it could even be a regular technique in hospitals and pharmacies in the same period of time to create personalized drugs in specific doses.

SOURCES: Okodia Blog, World Medical Innovation, Medical News Today, Cleveland Clinic, News UNM, Health catalyst, Medical Futurist, HBr.