Healthcare 2.0

This week we had the chance to hear some great information in relation to the growing of technology in the health care industry and how these changes are helping us in more ways than one. Health care advances such as pharmaceuticals that can regrow bones, exoskeletons that help stroke victims walk again, and robotics that allow infants to socialize, etc. These current research experiments are making the impossible possible. Helping those, who at once were told were in situations that would not allow them to do things they once love, do those things again. I am going to focus a little on these new researches and explain why they are important to our ever evolving world.

The first drug designed to stimulate the growth of new bone won Food and Drug Administration approval back in February 2009 to treat osteoporosis, the brittle bone disease that affects 10 million Americans. The drug Teriparatide works by increasing the action of osteoblasts, bone-building cells. The allows the bones to become denser and in all more resistant to fractures. Given by injection daily the drug has not caused cancer in the 2000 people who tested the drug in the clinical trials. In the test patients there were significant increases in their bone's density at the hip and the spine as compared to other patients who took pills made of vitamin D and calcium. There was  a reduction in bone fractures among patients taking teriparatide when compared to a placebo. The importance of this drug goes further than just old people who are becoming weaker and more frail. This drug can help those children who are born with weak bones and who are not able to live an active "normal" life like their peers. In This advancement in medical technology is giving hope to the hopeless.

Another advancement in some medical technology is the exoskeletons that are helping people to walk again. It was developed by scientists at the University of Twente, the LOPES is a robot exoskeleton which help people who are partially paralyzed and stroke survivors patients regain their mobility. LOPES stands for "Lower-extremity Powered Exoskeleton. Designed to provide gait training and assessment of motor function  There has been many grants given by the Dutch government that has awarded large grants to fast-track the implementation of LOPES in practice by the end of 2011. This device will allow for so much research that will soon help those who no longer have full control of their legs are those who never had control of them ever.

Over at the University of Delaware, professor Sunil K. Agrawal, is working in the department of Mechanical Engineering co-authoring a paper that explores how infants can be trained to avoid obstacles using mobile robots with force feedback joysticks. A group of infants were trained to drive mobile robots within an environment simulating clutter within the workspace. The technology and algorithms were developed in her laboratory and tested at University Delaware early learning center, with the results displaying overwhelming support that this "assist-as-needed approach" yields faster learning than a conventional joystick. During the study, ten typically developing toddlers with an average age of 30 months were trained to drive a robot within an obstacle course. A toddler unable to walk independently due to spina bifida was also taught. The group study results showed that the force field algorithm had helped the very young children learn to navigate and avoid obstacles faster, more accurately and with greater safety. Again, another promising research that can help those children with special needs explore and acquire other functional skills using power mobility devices in real environments such as home or the classroom.

These three different but very helpful experiments are apart of this health care technology evolution we are currently experiencing. It is a pretty amazing thing to witness and is something that will hep change the lives of so many people! This growing interest in health care technology and this growing sense of accomplishment is revitalizing an industry that for a ling while seemed like it wasn't growing or changing. But now, with the recent developments that have been taking place, I am sure that the health care industry will continue to grow.