The top ten most anticipated medical innovation applications in 2015

    Located next to Lake Erie, Cleveland Clinic is the leading medical institution in the United States. Many of its internal and external specialists are internationally renowned, especially cardiology and surgery, which has been ranked as the best specialist hospital in the United States for 14 consecutive years. At the end of each year, doctors and scientists from Cleveland Clinic will form an expert panel to select 10 medical innovations that can significantly improve patient care and medical quality in the next year, and announce them at the annual Medical Innovation Summit.

    The selection criteria include: (i) significantly improving clinical care and bringing significant benefits to patients compared to current technologies; (ii) having a high commercial success rate; (iii) being able to be launched in the next year; and (iv) bringing significant benefits to mankind in terms of application or effectiveness. Based on this principle, the most anticipated medical innovations in 2015 are:

Mobile ward to treat stroke patients

    Every second counts in the treatment of stroke patients. The sooner the patient receives treatment, the greater the chance of recovery. Therefore, if various inspections and assessments can be actively carried out on the way to the hospital, the recovery will be better than starting to move after arriving at the hospital. The concept of mobile wards was born. The stroke mobile ward is equipped with medical staff, critical care nurses and CT technicians who can assess the patient's cranial nerve condition and check for ruptured cerebral blood vessels. At the same time, through telemedicine, the neurology specialists in the hospital can directly understand the patient's information via video, so that surgery can be performed immediately when arriving at the hospital.

Dengue vaccine

    According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 50 to 100 million people worldwide suffer from dengue fever each year, with patients distributed in more than 100 countries including Africa, America, Eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and Western Pacific. About 500,000 people need to be hospitalized for severe dengue fever each year, with a mortality rate of about 2.5%. Today, a dengue vaccine has been developed and tested, and is expected to be available in 2015.

Fast and painless blood test

    In the past, blood tests required blood draws, and the thought of inserting a long needle into the arm made many patients fearful. Now, new inventions only require a finger poke to squeeze out a drop of blood for blood tests. This method not only helps patients overcome needle phobia, but also reduces costs to 10% of the current level.

(Image source: Wikipedia)

PCSK9 inhibitors to lower cholesterol

    Over the past two decades, doctors have used statins to help patients lower their cholesterol and reduce their risk of heart disease. However, not every patient benefits from statins, so patients who have poor tolerance to statins need other alternative drugs. PCSK9 inhibitors are one of the options, and the FDA is expected to approve the first related drug in 2015.

Antibody Drug Conjugates

    Chemotherapy is a treatment method that kills ten thousand enemies but injures three thousand of your own. It can kill cancer cells but damages healthy cells at the same time. Therefore, chemotherapy is usually not recommended for patients with terminal cancer or weaker patients. Instead, antibody-drug conjugates can be used. This type of drug is highly cytotoxic and can target malignant tumors for treatment without affecting other normal tissues or cells.

Immune system counter-point inhibitors

    When T cells are activated, they will produce more inhibitory receptors to brake T cell activation and prevent autoimmune diseases caused by excessive T cell activation. Immune checkpoint inhibitors can regulate this inhibitory effect, making cancer cells invisible to the immune system and then inhibiting them from apoptosis. Currently, it has been proven to be effective in melanoma and lung cancer, and was recently approved by the FDA for the treatment of melanoma.

Pacemaker design

    Artificial pacemakers have been used in many patients. They apply continuous pulse current or voltage to the body surface, heart surface or heart muscle to control arrhythmia caused by irregular or too slow heart rate. From the past to the present, pacemakers have maintained a consistent design, transmitting current to the heart through electrode wires placed in veins, but this method has its risks and may cause instrument failure and damage. In order to eliminate this danger, new pacemakers can be implanted directly into the heart, and the size is reduced to the size of a capsule, which can be implanted through minimally invasive surgery.

Traditional and new pacemakers (Image source: Medtronic, Inc.)

New treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

    Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic interstitial lung disease. Scarring of alveolar cells affects gas exchange function and eventually leads to fatal breathing-related symptoms. If not properly treated, patients usually only survive three to five years. However, in 2015, we hope to see the FDA approval of two drugs, pirfenidone and nintedanib, for use in the treatment of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Single-dose intraoperative radiation therapy for breast cancer

    If breast cancer can be detected and treated early, the survival rate of patients can be improved. The early treatment method is generally to perform local lesion resection first, and then receive radiotherapy for several weeks after surgery. The new treatment method is to perform local radiotherapy on the lesion during the breast tumor resection. The irradiation time is about 10 to 20 minutes. Since the patient is still under anesthesia, there will be no discomfort. The effect of a single high-dose treatment during the operation is the same as the effect of traditional low-dose dispersion accumulation. Its advantage is that only a single irradiation is required during the operation, and there is no need to go to the hospital for electrotherapy afterwards, and unnecessary irradiation to non-breast tissue can also be reduced.

New drug for heart failure patients

    The FDA has granted expedited review of the clinical trial program for vasopressin receptor inhibitors (ARNI), which speeds up the review of new drugs to treat serious or life-threatening conditions. Past experiments have shown that ARNI can improve the survival rate of heart failure patients more than the most commonly used drugs today (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, ACE inhibitors).