Top Medical Breakthroughs Happening Now

Medical experts expect significant developments in three key areas this year: Technology, stroke treatment, improved medical treatments based on a patient’s own immune system and genetic make-up.

1. Technology

Artificial Intelligence (AI), virtual reality, and 3D printing are the key areas to watch for medical breakthroughs. AI is helping doctors weed through the massive amount of patient information available to them to make better decisions on everything from patient triage to how your account is handled by a medical billing company.

Look for increasing “virtual visits” to the doctor. Changing Medicare rules are beginning to allow for such visits, so experts predict by 2023 emergency room visits will be reduced by roughly 15 percent.

Virtual reality is also used in physician education and professional development. Using technology from the gaming world, doctors are able to simulate operating and treatment environments to help professionals sharpen their skills.

Finally, 3D printing is having a significant impact on creating custom prosthetics for external use and even some skull and orthopedic implants. Since items are specially fit for the patient, there is greater acceptance and comfort. However, printing developments don’t stop there. According to a CBS News report earlier this year, scientists are working on 3D organ replacement. The “ink” that would be used would be actual blood and tissue from the patient, in theory cutting the chance of rejection by replacing an organ with an exact replica constructed from the patient’s own tissue.

2. Stroke Treatment

Two things to look for in the area of treating strokes, according to doctors at the Cleveland Clinic. New guidelines in stroke treatment suggest there is an expanded window of treatment beyond what has been called the golden hour, the first hour after stroke symptoms begin. With more time in which to work, experts expect better outcomes for stroke patients. Besides, some physicians are now using what’s called a hemorrhage scanning visor to detect bleeding in the brain. This can help with hemorrhagic strokes, which experts say account for 40 percent of stroke deaths.

3. Genetic and Immunotherapy

Three terms to watch for this year are pharmacogenomic testing, immunotherapy, and RNA therapy.  In response to the opioid crisis, new alternatives are being explored for pain treatment. One of those uses pharmacogenomic testing, that is using a patient’s genetic makeup to gauge how they respond to medications and then adding, deleting, or altering dosages of drugs for more patient-specific treatment.

Immunotherapy, in which the body’s own immune system is activated to fight disease, continues to gain ground in the treatment of cancer. While this is not new, it is a developing approach to cancer treatment. Medical experts expect effective therapies based on biological markers will soon exist for all types of cancerous tumors.

Finally, there is RNA therapy. Think of RNA as the middleman between DNA and human cells. Mostly, the RNA carries the information from DNA to the cells to activate how DNA wants them to function. By altering the RNA information, doctors hope to interrupt a genetic abnormality before it becomes a physical reality.

The key to many current medical breakthroughs is to make medicine much more patient-specific rather than symptom-specific.