A consulting firm dealing with long-range, leading edge technological innovations and their consequences and implications for healthcare policy and practice.
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alt="http://hfdigest.com/wp-content/gallery/pics/robomed2.jpg" Three of four methods proposed by President Bush’s Council on Bioethics for getting around the ethical problems of using embryonic stem cells for research appear to be non-starters. But one might work. In any event, neither ethics nor the chilling effect of White House policy on stem cell research in the US has been enough […]
While nuclear and other exotic methods produce increasingly sharp and detailed images of the insides of our bodies, optical imaging can also play in that space. A fiber-optic scope and image enhancement software provides “surprisingly clear” pictures of tissue or bone damage with a minimum of pain and trauma. Optics are also producing increasingly sharp […]
Nanotechnology in the form of a molecular beacon, quantum-dot semiconductor, and magnetic nanoparticles is being developed at Georgia universities to detect cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, and infectious disease. Georgia is not alone in pushing into nanomedicine. Ohio (see Targeted Nanoparticles for Diapeutics in the Imaging section) and Michigan are also moving quickly into the territory. Why the […]
Last time we reported on 3-D printers, the price was US$30K and up. Now it’s down to a little over $20K. Give it another 2-3 years, and “early-adopter” consumers will have one at home. Perhaps they’ll also have one of the mass-produced, low-cost, disposable “gene chips” or DNA micro-arrays of unprecedented power and sensitivity that […]
Field trials have begun of a technology that turns your body into a local area network connecting the electronic gadgets you carry around with each other — and with any other gadgets or gadgeted people you touch. This technology makes sense enough to be our likely, and near, future. IBM and others are racing to […]
Looking for that special viral or bacterial genome — one that doesn’t even exist? All the equipment and support services you need to make one in your garage is available (used, but cheap) on eBay and other Internet sites. Sequence your Own: Expect to see a machine on the market by early 2007 that will […]
Sabotage DNA to Treat Cancer; Cancer Vaccines Re-invigorated; Electrostim Therapy; Gene Therapy — Optic Nerve Regeneration; Genetic Cure for Deaf Hamsters; GM Potato Prevents Hepatitis B; Nanomedicine Roundup; Nocturnal Dialysis; Pharmacogenomic Map; Brain-Machine Interface; Brain Stem Cell Therapy; Stem Cell Advance at ACT; Stem Cells in Reconstructive Surgery; Stem Cells Inject New Life into Xenotransplantation; […]
Korea on a Roll; Morphing Robots; Shape Shifters 2; World Robotics Expo Korea on a Roll www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/03/02/200503020022.asp A government-backed consortium of Korean information-technology companies plans soon to roll out consumer robots that will “take care of your simple daily chores, such as checking blood-sugar levels for diabetics or even reading to your children.” Three prototypes […]
Games Surgeons Play; Personalized Medicine; Virtual Patients; Younger Doctors Better; Home-use Genetic Tests Begin; Buy Health at Sam’s Club Games Surgeons Play Source article. A New York surgeon is using video games to help develop and train a new generation of surgeons. The surgeon — co-author of a recent study that concluded that surgeons who […]
FDA Speeds Drug Clearances; Increasing Life Span; Regulation of Embryonic Screening and Reproductive Cloning; US Losing Its Edge FDA Speeds Drug Clearances money.cnn.com/2005/03/24/news/fortune500/fdadrugs/index.htm?section=money_latest The US Food and Drug Administration approved 474 generic drugs in 2004, up nearly a third from 364 the previous year, and cut the approval process to a “record time” of 15.7 […]
