The Changing Face of the Global Medical Ecosystem

Over the last few decades, the global healthcare industry is on a high by the unique confluence of innovative technologies and investments trends. Continuous technical breakthroughs, comprehensive medical research’s, new business models, along with the emerging players are changing the dynamics and are also shattering the traditional approaches at the same time. While escalating cost, fierce competition, increasing count of patients, new diseases are posing difficult questions, the same factors are the driving factors for today’s growth as well.

Out of the innumerable components, clinical trials, pharmaceutical innovations, and medical research stand to be the pillars for drafting the success story of the healthcare industry in today’s modern era. These life-saving vaccines, medicines and innovative solutions are the end-result of countless clinical trials, research work done by the physicians, and medical professionals. Insights provided and shared by these professionals have led to minimize or at least lessen the impact of life-threatening diseases at the global level. As scientists continue to explore the molecular world, the healthcare industry witnesses constant improvisations that help to fight and eradicate traditional diseases from the planet!

Virotherapy

One such breakthrough that has attracted the eyeballs of the medical fraternity is the on-going research work on ‘Virotherapy’. Termed as a major development to fight cancer, this is an evolving branch of medicine that could be a lethal/powerful weapon in fighting cancer. The foundation of Virotherapy was laid by a surgeon – Dr. William Coley, around a century ago. However, his ‘failed’ experiments were the preliminary steps that are on record and today’s progressive phase do carry the imprints of this previous works.

Through the advancements done in the field of genetic engineering, Virotherapy has seen the light of the day. In easy terms, this process involves a mutated virus that destroys the cancer cells without harming the healthy cells within the body.

Human Head Transplant

A decade earlier, talking about a face transplant would have been nothing short of a scene from a science fiction movie, however, today it’s a reality. Taking extensive inputs and stepping up the ladder, an Italian neurosurgeon – Sergio Canavero has claimed a 90% success rate that a patient can be treated and would be able to walk after a few months of post-surgery. However, even if it’s a success, the process would be too expensive and would be for the handful of the ‘richest’ people in the world!

As research work continues, Professor Canavero announced a successful experiment to reattach the head of a corpse to the body in November 2017. His next step will be to perform the experiment on a live, but a brain-dead person who has donated his body, only after which the first operation on a living person will be done. Interestingly, a 30- year old Russian suffering from a degenerative muscle condition – Valery Spiridonov has volunteered himself as the first living person on whom this experiment can be performed.

Artificial Pancreas

For a patient suffering from diabetes, this invention is nothing less than a God’s gift. As the pancreas of a patient suffering from diabetes produces lower quantities of insulin than usual, Medtronic’s MiniMed 670G is an innovative device that monitors blood glucose level and the insulin pump. This is approved by the US FDA (Food & Drug Administration). This device is immensely useful for the treatment of type 1 diabetes for the patients aged above fourteen years. Counted as the world’s first ‘hybrid closed-loop system’ it was released in March 2017 for commercial purposes.

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