Advances in health technology and treatments

New devices that could save patients and doctors time and money.

Forget your smartphones and your iPads, as it is the health service that is the latest sector to be receiving a technological revamp, with a series of devices that are being designed to improve health care and save both patients and the health industry time and money.

According to a recent study carried out by professors and students at the Medical Electronic Device Realization Center (MEDRC) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, every year Americans are throwing away $33 million on unnecessary complete blood cell counts during routine check-ups.

According to a report on ABC News, in order to, not only reduce the waiting time for results, but to also lower the cost of routine blood screenings, the MEDRC is routing blood cells through a chip with electricity that are able to manoeuvre blood cells in every direction.

In inaugurating such a process, the device would only use one drop of blood as opposed to a whole vial in certain blood tests, which would consequently mean that that patients would get the results in minutes and it would significantly reduce costly lab work.

On top of routing blood cells electronically with a chip to save time and money, MEDRC researchers are also in the process of developing a wearable vitals monitor, which effectively monitors blood pressure at the neck instead of the arm.

In measuring blood pressure and the heart rate in such a method it would help doctors to trace high blood pressure more accurately, which would result in patients receiving better treatment and care.

Another health device also being developed is a smart ultrasound, which is being aimed towards producing images that are comparable to X-rays but without the high cost of X-rays and the risk of radiation.

The Smart ultrasounds would provide more accurate imaging of conditions such as tumours.