Technology has revolutionized many aspects of healthcare that will change it forever. These newest breakthroughs are the fruits of years of study, research, and clinical trials or research of many medical experts and healthcare professionals. It’s amazing how much the world is enjoying the benefits of the medical world’s lifelong work that it’s impossible to ignore them.
The Most Recent Medical Breakthroughs
The COVID-19 vaccine, booster shots, and drugs are the recent medical breakthroughs that everyone has been talking about – although not all of them are in a positive light as the anti-vaccine movement is growing. The media frenzy surrounding the pandemic and the people who are choosing to be ignorant about the hard work of medical experts are getting out of hand, and they are the ones mostly getting the most coverage.
Healthcare is a human right and unfortunately, many people still do not have access to it. Fortunately, there are people who are fighting for healthcare to be free, or at least more accessible and affordable. While the fight for more affordable healthcare continues, the medical world has breakthroughs that many people could access if this fight ends in the favor of the people.
These events could be the reason why you may not have heard of other medical breakthroughs that are as important as the COVID-19 vaccine. Here are some recent medical breakthroughs you should know of:
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Telemedicine or telehealthcare
A major innovation during 2020 was telemedicine, which became very popular when the world was put on lockdowns, social distance, and travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This innovation allowed doctors to meet still and address their patients’ medical to be despite the distance. Despite vaccine rates being promising and restrictions becoming less strict, virtual healthcare will more than likely continue to be a trend.
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Oral medicines for migraines
In the U.S., migraine affects 39 million people, making it the sixth most disabling illness. One individual would go into an emergency room due to migraine attacks every day. In spite of these alarming statistics, the FDA has recently approved an oral and non-narcotic migraine medicine. When taken orally, it should alleviate the pain within two hours as it blocks the protein that spikes during these attacks.
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Smart Pacemaker Device
Arrhythmia is a condition that causes patients’ hearts to beat unevenly — either too fast or too slow. In the past decade, technological advances have enabled defibrillators and pacemakers to be implanted to treat patients with arrhythmias. With these new technologies, users can connect these devices to their smartphones, allowing their physicians to remotely monitor their heart condition and even control it to become more regular.
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Hepatitis C drug
Currently, there are 2.4 million people in the United States living with Hepatitis C, and more than half don’t know they have it. Non-treatment of a severe disease like Hepatitis C could result in more people getting infected and leading to cirrhosis, liver failure, and even liver cancer.
There is no approved vaccine for Hepatitis C, despite the healthcare industry’s efforts. The drugs used to treat it have side effects, but recently, a new combination of drugs has been approved that has an efficacy of 95%, which means that it is possible to stop the spread of this silent epidemic.
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Cystic fibrosis medication
The U.S. is home to approximately 30,000 people suffering from cystic fibrosis, a disease that severely damages the digestive, respiratory, and other organ systems. Although there were medications approved for cystic fibrosis before, they were only effective for a specific type of patient. The FDA approved a new drug combination in 2009, providing relief to more patients with cystic fibrosis.
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Device to treat postpartum hemorrhage
A complication known as postpartum hemorrhage may occur if excessive bleeding occurs during delivery. Approximately one in five women suffer from this condition, which requires blood transfusions and side effects medications. Negative pressure has enabled healthcare professionals to help women who have this condition by causing a vacuum-induced uterine tamponade.
The world was brought down on its knees by several pandemics and diseases in the past, and it’s currently still fighting Covid-19. But the medical breakthroughs the healthcare industry is constantly coming up with are reassuring that the future will be promising and that everyone will be in better health. It’s only a matter of time before the biggest health threats will become a thing of the past and until better treatments are made for other chronic diseases. For now, let’s take good care of our health, so we won’t need complicated treatments until we grow old.
