If you have watched the famed space exploration movie Star Trek, then the gadgets we would be talking about would be no stranger to you, Tricorders. Remember the gadget Dr. McCoy waves in front of injured people that gives him the entire picture such required medical information form injured person and even dispenses the right amount of drugs to cure all ailments? Well that’s fast becoming a reality for medical technology has moved towards miniaturization by making medical gizmos and gadgets that are portable and capable of interfacing with mobile phones to send data to medical facilities allowing them to broadcast recommendations to the attending emergency crew, but it still can’t dispense drugs on its own.
Medical technology has been catching up and is one of the most to benefit from new discoveries made with materials and microelectronics and it goes on everyday. A new toothbrush, a new test for cancer and new genes discovered with use of some of the world’s most powerful computers that crunch numbers at the tera-flop level. All this to understand something that is not even visible without and scanning electron microscope. New fabrics such as the new ones with Chitosan that have their own built-in antibacterial capabilities and to ward off germs and bacteria. The stuff is so good they’re talking about using it for Military Uniforms. New materials that save lives such as Kevlar and Nomex that have resulted form studies of spider silk which is many times stronger than steel.
New and smaller medical gadgets mean more lives saved all over the world and in the battlefield. Man’s drive to improve the quality of life is getting better and better, just wish the money and technology would come cheap enough for them to help the millions of people who live below the poverty line of most developed countries where most lives are lost without a fight.