Given that patients sometimes lie to their doctors, with potentially devastating results, perhaps there’s a place for brain fingerprinting in medicine. There is definitely a place for the marked improvement in early-stage ovarian and cervical cancer diagnoses promised by trial successes of a new blood test and a “DNAwithPap” test. Plus: Light could be used […]

New diagnostic imaging techniques shed further light on the biological basis for schizophrenia and other mental disorders, and another promises a vast improvement over mammography. Diagnostic microchips are advancing, too, economically as well as technically, with a US$7 prototype lab-on-a-chip quickly able to identify bacteria in blood, and another counting immune cells in AIDS patients […]

Several competitors are racing to bring whole-genome chips to market, while others focus on smaller and cheaper partial-genome chips targeting specific diagnoses. Genetic analysis already took one big step with the invention of PCR to amplify DNA fragments. In the offing is XDNA, a way to make a single DNA molecule physically much bigger and […]

Electronic and fluorescent chemical devices built at molecular/nanometer scale can detect molecules ranges from DNA to TNT. These devices often rely on molecular imaging, which is advancing by leaps and bounds and has the potential to rapidly change the entire field of healthcare and the practice of medicine. In the meantime, simple breath tests could […]

The space program brings us a fast and relatively inexpensive way to detect subtle changes in cardiac patients before there are any symptoms. A haptic system under development will enable physicians to palpate a patient telemedically, over the Internet. A wand waved over a patient detects tumors. It’s not magic, but it is almost straight […]

The arrival of inexpensive, wearable diagnostic devices (culminating in the “wearable hospital” mentioned in the Acceleration section) is one sign that “medtech” has become the new frontier in applied technology. Other recent signs include: An AI-based program that can custom-tailor the optimum drug combination for individual HIV sufferers, An endoscopic nanoprobe to detect and treat […]