Doctors Name New medical innovations that will affect healthcare most
Always at the forefront of new technologies for improving outcomes in its patients, Cleveland Clinic recently announced the top 10 medical innovations that likely will have a big impact on healthcare in 2007 and far into the future.
A panel of Cleveland Clinic physicians and scientists selected its first-ever list of the top 10 innovations and revealed them during Cleveland Clinic’s 2006 Medical Innovations Summit in November.
Using state-of-the-art technology and evaluating next-generation products has long characterized Cleveland
Clinic physicians, says Christopher Coburn, Executive Director of CCF Innovations. “Their passion for getting the best care for patients drives a continuous dialogue on what technologies are just over the horizon.”
To be included in the list, an innovation was required to: have significant potential for short-term clinical impact; have a high probability of success; be on the market or close to being introduced; and have sufficient data available to support its nomination.
Top Ten Medical Innovations for 2007
- Cancer Vaccines: Targeted therapies, such as the HPV vaccine that was developed to prevent cervical cancer caused by human papillomaviruses, are used to ward off cancer and treat patients more specifically according to the type of cancer they have.
- Designer Therapeutics Using Selective Receptor Antagonists: Therapeutics can be used to block side effects of some pain medications that can negatively affect patients and lengthen hospital stays. Some also can control the body’s stress response to help control eating and smoking, while others can increase good cholesterol.
- Neurostimulation for Psychiatric Disorders: Neurostimulation, such as deep brain stimulation, is now being used to treat patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression and treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder.
- OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography): This noninvasive imaging technology can treat and diagnose eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and macular holes.
- Bronchial Thermoplasty: This therapy uses the controlled application of heat in the lungs to improve function, reduce asthma symptoms and prevent asthma attacks.
- Ranibizumab: Using drug therapy, physicians can inhibit uncontrolled blood vessel formation in the eye, which is the primary cause of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of new blindness in older Americans.
- Endografting: This minimally invasive repair technique, which has been used in cardiology, is now being used to treat vascular disease.
- Targeted Cancer Therapies: Advanced cancers can be blocked or altered by small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
- Left Ventricular Assist System (LVAS): This implanted device takes over most of the function of the heart’s main pumping chamber and helps to propel blood throughout the body.
- Convection-Enhanced Delivery (CED) of Drugs: A new drug-delivery method can administer medication directly to where it is needed without exposing the rest of the body to the drug’s side effects.
