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" If anyone questions the practical value of the Human Genome Project, consider these developments from just the past few weeks: A DNA test for race has been used in a homicide investigation, Future Brits will receive customized care, now that their DNA is being stored at birth in a a national databank, A genetic contributor […]
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 […]
Diverse devices reported recently include the following: Nanoscale submarines that cruise the vascular system fixing problems along the way are a step closer with the development of prototype “biobots” and nanoscale electric generators. A living cell or bacterium on a chip gives early warning of airborne killers. An improved method of finding matches in a […]
Computer memory built from nanoscale components — molecules or carbon nanotubes — might be as close as five years hence. So too might quantum computing, with serious venture capital backing an innovative approach. When you add to the mix: An easier way to link millions of computers and computing devices on the Internet together to […]
In the Chinese character, danger and opportunity spell crisis. The crisis caused by exponentially accelerating technology is epitomized this month by the opportune yang of nanoparticles able to clean up the environment, and the dangerous yin of a world dissolved into a uniform gray goo by self-replicating nanoparticles run rampant. A similar crisis afflicts our […]
As new study results prove the efficacy of a test for cervical cancer, new therapies — a vaccine and two drugs — add to the arsenal of increasingly effective cancer weapons. An experimental vaccine for Alzheimer’s disease has also showed signs of success. The arsenal of diagnostic and therapeutic devices receives boosts from more precise […]
The pharmaceutical industry is always in the news, for astonishing new drugs, breath-taking profits, unsettling business practices, and all points in between. Recently, a TV health channel that carries their advertising messages to the patient’s bedside has been challenged, their high charges for orphan drugs are being resisted, and their sophisticated use of information technologies […]
A robot may soon represent you at meetings. The technique is clunky and expensive, but an improvement over videoconferencing. Eventually, given reported improvements in robot vision and gait, your surrogate may soon move more smoothly in remote company, and give you a better picture of what is going on, through its improved vision. Speaking of […]
For good or ill, perceiving itself dependent on technology for cultural advancement, humanity in general abhors the status quo. Having already achieved printer and computer display resolutions of high-quality photographic levels, we face a never-ending status quo of picture-perfect two dimensional images. We can of course always tinker with the form factor of displays, such […]
The Acceleration section of HFD is intended to give a sense of how things are accelerating with respect to technology in general, partly because general technology is as applicable in healthcare as anywhere else, and partly to give a sense of the context within which healthcare-specific technologies are being developed. This month’s disparate crop of […]
