Science fiction inspiration: Medical innovations

As an avid Star Trek fan, my mom raised me in the shadows of the famous exploits of the U.S.S Enterprise. The fantastical technology of Star Trek definitely peaked my interest and, in many ways, the show was a big influence on why I pursued a career in the sciences. Much of the technology of Star Trek is not as far-fetched as we would think. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek,  was a visionary, foreseeing incredible technological developments that are currently revolutionizing health care.

Sickbay beds
Sickbay beds were portrayed in Star Trek as individualized hospital beds that provide all health care needs for a patient. Cheaper, smaller, and more innovative medical imaging and diagnostic machinery have helped us reach a point where, in the not so distant future, sickbay beds may be in every hospital. However, the development of individualized health care, a relatively recent paradigm shift in disease treatment, is as important in the development of sickbay beds as the machinery itself. With the growing understanding of our individualized gene and protein makeup, in combination with improved imaging and diagnostic technology, a sickbay bed may be developed that can conduct patient specific directed therapy.

Tricorders
While sickbay beds are great for hospitals, they don’t do much for the doctor on the go. In many ways smartphone and tablet computers have revolutionized health care, by allowing hospital personnel to carry a massive amount of medical information at their fingertips, including medical records, x-rays, MRI scans and lab tests, but this is still a far cry from having a handheld diagnostic tricorder. The tricorder allowed Star Trek doctors to quickly determine the health of a patient and the best way to treat them. With the integration of new imaging techniques (using lasers and even iPhones), high pressured needleless vaccine injectors, and more non-invasive hand-held diagnostic devices such as the infrascanner, a tricorder device is not a far-fetched tool.  

Scalpel-less surgery
Imagine the scene: a futuristic doctor, holding a small handheld laser, efficiently cuts into a patient causing only a puff of smoke and not a single drop of blood. The smoke and the lack of spilled blood indicate that this type of handheld laser knife (at least as it is portrayed in film) likely cauterizes blood vessels. Without proper blood perfusion, the flesh will die. Thus, this type of laser scalpel may never be a viable health care device. However, improvements and innovations in scalpel-less surgery, including surgery using lasers, are presently changing the nature of surgery. For example, at the University of Virginia, doctors recently used focused ultrasound to shrink brain tumors and stop tremors in patients. Lasers surgery and treatment are used to treat numerous cancers including liver and colon cancer.

Tractor beams
In pursuit of a crux of many science fiction shows and movies, NASA is presently working on the validity of tractor beams in real life. An engineering conundrum, the ability to use lasers to pull an object through space has many uses, particularly scientific analysis of small particles. Optical tweezers, a basic form of a tractor beam that uses two lasers to trap and maneuver a microscopic particle, such as a cell, from one location to another, could eventually be used in health care. MIT researchers have shown some success in the use of optical tweezers to maneuver cells, which could be another useful technique for microsurgeries in the not so distant future.

Bionic visual implants
In the Star Trek universe, surgical implants allowed blind people to visualize the world through different electromagnetic wavelengths. In the real world, devices to allow blind people to see have been in development for years. A recent incredible innovation actually uses the tongue to visualize the world. A small camera on a pair of glasses, which sends electrical impulses to a device on the tongue, can help individuals  visualize shapes, words and people in a black and white 2-dimensional fashion. Retinal implants have also provided some success in the treatment of people undergoing macular degeneration.

Whether it is art imitating life, life imitating art, or some derivation thereof, our collective musings of future technology should always inspire the technology of today.