8 • Innovative healthcare & alternative remedies


What’s ahead? S


mart watches and other wearables have turned out to be just the start of a brave new


world of everyday medical gadgetry. While no one can see into the future, current healthcare innovations and developments give us an idea of what we might expect over the coming decade in terms of gadgets that monitor, or even heal, whether in our own homes or in GP practices and hospitals. Here are some of the likely contenders that could transform healthcare in the 2020s.


Basic ventilators With airborne pandemics at the forefront of the public health consciousness for the foreseeable future, we’re probably going to see more inventions like the simple ventilator devised by Dr Rhys T omas of Glangwili Hospital in Wales. By treating patients early, it’s


hoped it will stop them needing an ICU ventilator, supplying them with purifi ed air as well as cleaning viral particles from rooms.


Mind-reading wristbands CTRL-Labs’ CTRL-kit detects electrical impulses, moving from the motor neurons down the arm to the hand almost as soon as the wearer thinks about a specifi c movement.


Healthcare Innovations • Sunday 26 July 2020


Rhonda Carrier looks into the gadgets that are set to revolutionise healthcare over the next decade


T e wristwatch-like device was


invented by neuroscientist T omas Reardon, who wanted to do away with the keystrokes required by a smartphone in general, but also to open up novel forms of access and rehabilitation for suff erers of neurodegenerative conditions or those recovering from amputation or a stroke.


Virtual-reality rehab London-based start-up Immersive Rehab is working towards using VR to alleviate the monotony and frustration of neurological-rehab. Its devices aim to expand the range


and type of exercises open to patients — enhancing the brain’s plasticity and in doing so repairing neural pathways — as well as to increase the amount of data available to caregivers, who can use it to both measure progress and adapt programmes.


Pocket-size ultrasound devices Costing around 50 times less than hospital ultrasounds, the handheld Butterfl y iQ, which was invented by Yale genetics researcher Jonathan Rothberg, simply connects to an app on your smartphone. Sold to medical professionals (or in


some countries distributed for free by T e Gates Foundation), the app could


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make medical imaging more routine and accessible to many millions around the globe.


Cancer-diagnosing AI T e Google Health team have created an artifi cial intelligence system that outperforms human radiologists in diagnosing lung cancer, detecting 5% more cases and producing 11% fewer


false positives than a control group comprising six actual radiologists. T is technology is important


because lung cancer can be diffi cult to treat — symptoms often only manifest themselves in the later stages.


Anonymous big data It’s a phrase that strikes Big Brother fear into many of us, but big data


IMAGE: GETTY


can be used for the common good. For example, California-based fi rm Evidation Health has developed a tool that draws health data points from a pool of three million volunteers who track their wellbeing with wearables such as smartwatches. T e data then feeds into everything


from lifestyle studies including sleep and diet to drug development.


New Life Mobility would like to say a big thank you to all the NHS staff,


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