Medical advances predicted for next 20 years will lower health costs

By Dick Pelletier

      

    The US Congressional Budget Office predicts health spending will rise from 17% of the economy today to 25% by 2025. This projection suggests that medical research will expand over the next 20 years as scientists attempt to turn cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity; and mental disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's into more manageable conditions, making them easier and less expensive to treat.

    Current biotech research holds great promise to correct many human flaws including vulnerability to disease and telltale signs of aging. Using stem cell and genetic engineering techniques, scientists are learning to regrow organs, tissues, muscles, and bones to regenerate aging and damaged bodies.

    Some wonder what changes we might expect in our healthcare and approach to wellness over the coming decades. Will we still suffer debilitating diseases; or will future technologies come to our rescue?

    In this article, we're going to explore home monitoring, nanomedicine, brain-machine interfaces, and exoskeleton suits and see how these forward technologies promise a healthier, more enjoyable lifespan.

    Home Monitoring – During this decade and the next, experts predict that new health monitoring systems, designed to keep patients out of the hospital and get them more involved in managing their own health, will revolutionize medical care, as we know it.

    Typical homes of tomorrow will include ‘smart' toilets that test urine and stool, bathroom sinks that analyze breath and saliva, and transmission systems that can forward this data live, along with blood samples, heart rate, pulse, and other biometric information via the Internet direct to healthcare providers.

    By 2020, most doctor visits will not require a personal appearance, which will slash healthcare costs. Consultations will take place via smart phones, rarely requiring face-to-face visits. Doctors will text recommendations for diet, physical activities, and other healthcare advice directly to patients.

    Nanomedicine – Tiny intelligent nanorobots, undetectable by the human eye, will cruise through veins, destroy pathogens, locate damaged cells and make repairs; again, eliminating many of today's healthcare expenses. In a recent blog, Institute for Molecular Manufacturing's Senior Research Fellow, Robert Freitas describes how this science works and predicts when treatments might become available.

    In a typical therapy to stop infection, patients swallow a pill with 100 billion nanorobots inside that search the body for unwanted bacteria, viruses, or fungi and immediately render them harmless.

    When finished, an ultrasound instructs the ‘bots' to exit the body through urine. The entire procedure takes about 30 minutes and leaves the patient 100 percent infection-free.

    In addition, these clever machines can replace faulty chromosomes in diseased cells with new ones. Armed with knowledge of the patient's genome, nanorobots find cells with DNA mistakes and create perfect error-free cells to replace them; or in many cases, simply rewrite the incorrect DNA code.

    One of the more important applications for nanorobots includes removing accumulated cellular damage and mutations that cause aging. This process will enable many ‘boomers and seniors to recapture their youthful health, strength, and beauty. The young remain young; the old become young.

    Nanomedicine promises to change forever how we treat sickness and disease. When might this futuristic science become available? Freitas believes that nanorobots could appear in clinical trials by as early as mid-to-late 2020s and will be saving lives everywhere as we trek through the 2030s.

    Brain-Machine Interfaces and Exoskeleton Suits – By 2030, human brains could connect directly to computers, and bodies could be reinforced with exoskeleton suits (think 6-Million Dollar Man). These technologies will not only enable the paralyzed to regain normal life functions, but they could also allow healthy people to enhance their normal bodies with an incredibly powerful Ironman-type body.

    The next 20 years promises to be a time of huge excitement for science and great hope for humanity. Will these advances happen on such a rapid timescale? Most future followers believe that they will.

This article appeared in various print publications and on-line blogs. Comments always welcome.