Get Ready for 3D-Printed Organs and a Knife That ‘Smells’ Tumors

奇妙的工程学

Hospitals areundergoinga rapidtransformation, andautonomoussurgical robotsare justthebeginning.

To thedoctors andnurses whoworked inhospitals75yearsago, whentheUK'sNational HealthService wasfirstestablished,the modernwardswould beunrecognizable. Inthefuture, hospitalsare likelyto lookeven moredifferent.Here aresome ofthe changesthat arelikely tooccur inthe comingyears.

「全自动手术机器人」

Johns HopkinsUniversityresearchersare workingon asurgical robotthat canperformsurgeriescompletelyautonomously. Therobothas3D visionand amachine learningalgorithm thatenables itto planand adaptduring asurgery.In2021, therobot calledSmartTissueAutonomousRobotperformed alaparoscopicprocedure onporcine-tissuemodels bysuturing theends ofa pigintestine.

Smarttoilets thatmonitor anddetectdisease.

InMarch2023,smart homecompanyWithings unveiledtheU-Scan,aurinalysisdevice thatattachesto thetoilet bowland monitorsbiomarkers inurine, includingketone andvitamin Clevels.Thepebble-shapeddevice lastsfor threemonths betweencharges andcan trackwomen's monthlyhormonalfluctuationsby measuringluteinizinghormone andpHlevels.

虚拟现实治疗

In arecent studypublished inTheLancet medicaljournal,researchersfrom theUniversityof Oxfordand healthtech companyOxford VRconcluded thatvirtual reality(VR) therapyis moreeffective thantraditionaltreatment inreducing thesymptoms ofagoraphobia.The VRtherapy,calledgameChange,places patientsin asimulatedenvironment, suchas acoffee shopor busride,and iscurrently beingused atGreaterManchester MentalHealthFoundationTrust.

3D-printedorgans havebeensuccessfullycreated.

In Februaryof lastyear,a womanin SanAntonio,Texas,receiveda3D-printedright-outer-earimplant.The earwas madeusingcartilagecellsharvested fromher leftear,which weremultipliedinto billionsof copiesand printedby3DBioTherapeutics'GMPrintbioprinter.This wasthe firstof itskind,but severallabs aroundthe worldhave sincesuccessfully3D-printedskin,bones,and evenminiatureorgans.

「无接触式监控」。

A teamofAustralian andIraqi engineershas developeda devicethat canmeasure apatient's bloodpressure withoutphysicalcontact. Themonitor takesa videoof thepatient froma shortdistance fortenseconds, andthen usesanimage-processing algorithmto analyzethe videoand extractvital healthsignals fromtwo regionsin theforehead. Theteam hasalso developedsimilarcontactless monitorsfortemperature andoxygensaturation.

“Ambientdocumentation” isa termthat refersto theprocess ofdocumentingan eventor situationin itsnaturalstate.

Nuance, aspeechrecognition companyowned byMicrosoft,has releasedan updatedversion ofits softwarethat allowsmedical stafftoautomatically generateclinical notesduring apatient’sappointment.Thesoftware, calledDAXExpress,usesambient AIandOpenAI’sGPT-4.More thanhalf amillionphysicians arealready usingthistechnology tonavigate operatingsystems andaccess patientrecords.The releaseof thisnew versionis expectedto furtherimprove theefficiencyand accuracyof medicalpractice.

PortableMRIscannersare anew andexcitingtechnology.

Hyperfine,a healthtechnologycompany,has developedtheSwoop, aportable magneticresonanceimaging(MRI)scanner.TheSwoopcan bewheeledinto apatient’sroom, connectedto astandard wallsocket,and usedto performa brainscan inabout30seconds.ComparedtoconventionalMRIscanners,theSwoopuses magneticfields thatare25timesweaker,resulting inlower-resolutionscans.However, thescanneris only$250,000, whichis sixtimes cheaperthan afull-sizemachine.

A knifethatdetectstumors bytheirscent

Intelligentsurgicalinstruments,such astheiKnife, candetect cancersand otherdiseases withinseconds.Thisdevice, whichcombines anelectrosurgical bladewith amassspectrometer, wasdeveloped byresearchersat ImperialCollegeLondon. Itworks bydeliveringanelectrical currenttobiopsytissue andchemicallyanalyzing thesmoke thatisproduced. Ina recentstudy,theiKnifeachievedan89 percentdiagnosticaccuracy forwombcancer.

■ByJoaoMedeiros,WIRED,May31,2023

Wired,May31,2023。