GUEST BLOG—By
Laine Bergeson senior Web editor of the Health & Well-Being and Living
& Learning channels of Next Avenue. You can follow her on Twitter
@lainebergeson.
Physicians and scientists at Cleveland
Clinic have announced their 9th annual list of top medical innovations for
improving patient care in the upcoming year.
Cleveland
Clinic is a top-rated nonprofit academic medical center that combines clinical
and hospital care with research and education.
Here are the
new technologies that are on its radar — and that you might encounter soon at a
hospital near you. Each is linked to a video clip.
1. Mobile Stroke Unit
High-tech
ambulances bring the emergency department straight to the patient with stroke
symptoms. In-hospital stroke neurologists interpret symptoms via broadband
video link, while an onboard paramedic, critical care nurse and CT technologist
perform neurological evaluation, providing faster, effective treatment.
2. Dengue Fever Vaccine
One mosquito
bite is all it takes. Fifty to 100 million people in more than 100 countries
contract the dengue virus each year. The world’s first vaccine has been
developed and tested and is expected to be submitted to regulatory groups in
2015, with commercialization expected later next year.
3. Cost-effective, Fast, Painless
Blood-Testing
Have the
days of needles and vials come to an end? A new technique uses a drop of blood
drawn from the fingertip in a virtually painless procedure, and it is estimated
to cost as little as 10 percent of the traditional Medicare reimbursement.
4. PCSK9 Inhibitors for Cholesterol
Reduction
Effective
statin medications have been used to reduce cholesterol in heart disease
patients for over two decades, but some people can’t tolerate them. Several
PCSK9 inhibitors, or injectable cholesterol-lowering drugs, are in development
for those who don’t benefit from statins. The Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) is expected to approve the first PCSK9 in 2015 for its ability to
significantly lower LDL cholesterol.
5. Antibody-Drug Conjugates
Chemotherapy,
the only form of treatment available for some cancers, destroys cancer cells
and harms healthy cells at the same time. A promising new approach for advanced
cancer selectively delivers cytotoxic agents to tumor cells while avoiding
normal, healthy tissue.
6. Checkpoint Inhibitors
Cancer is
notoriously difficult to treat. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have allowed
physicians to make more progress against advanced cancer than they’ve achieved
in decades. Combined with traditional chemotherapy and radiation treatment, the
novel drugs boost the immune system and offer significant, long-term cancer
remissions for patients with metastatic melanoma. And increasing evidence shows
they may also work on other types of malignancies.
7. Leadless Cardiac Pacemaker
Since 1958,
the technology involved in cardiac pacemakers hasn’t changed much. A
silver-dollar-sized pulse generator and a thin wire, or lead, inserted through
the vein keeps the heart beating at a steady pace. Leads, though, can break and
crack, and become infection sites in 2 percent of cases. Now, vitamin-sized
wireless cardiac pacemakers can be implanted directly in the heart without
surgery and eliminate malfunction complications and restriction of daily
physical activities.
8. New Drugs for Idiopathic Pulmonary
Fibrosis
Nearly
80,000 American adults with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) may breathe
easier in 2015 with the recent FDA-approval of two new experimental drugs.
Pirfenidone and nintedanib slow the disease progress of the lethal lung
disease, which causes scarring of the air sacs. Prior to these developments,
there was no known treatment for IPF, in which life expectancy after diagnosis
is just three to five years.
9. Single-Dose Intra-Operative
Radiation Therapy for Breast Cancer
Finding and
treating breast cancer in its earliest stages can often lead to remission. For
many women with early-stage breast cancer, a lumpectomy is performed, followed
by weeks of radiation therapy to reduce the likelihood of recurrence.
Intra-operative radiation therapy, or IORT, focuses the radiation on the tumor
during surgery as a single-dose and has proven as effective as whole breast
radiation.
10. New Drug for Heart Failure
Angiotensin-receptor
neprilysin inhibitor, or ARNI, has been granted “fast-track status” by the FDA
because of its impressive survival advantage over the ACE inhibitor enalapril,
the current “gold standard” for treating patients with heart failure. The
unique drug compound represents a paradigm shift in heart failure therapy.
About Cleveland
Clinic
Cleveland
Clinic is a nonprofit multispecialty academic medical center that integrates
clinical and hospital care with research and education. Located in Cleveland,
Ohio, it was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of
providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation,
compassion and innovation.
Cleveland Clinic has pioneered many medical
breakthroughs, including coronary artery bypass surgery and the first face
transplant in the United States. U.S. News & World Report consistently
names Cleveland Clinic as one of the nation’s best hospitals in its annual
“America’s Best Hospitals” survey.
More than
3,000 full-time salaried physicians and researchers and 11,000 nurses represent
120 medical specialties and subspecialties. The Cleveland Clinic health system
includes a main campus near downtown Cleveland, eight community hospitals, more
than 75 Northern Ohio outpatient locations, including 16 full-service Family
Health Centers, Cleveland Clinic Florida, the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health
in Las Vegas, Cleveland Clinic Canada, and, scheduled to begin seeing patients
in 2015, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.
In 2012,
there were 5.1 million outpatient visits throughout the Cleveland Clinic health
system and 157,000 hospital admissions. Patients came for treatment from every
state and from more than 130 countries. Follow at:
www.clevelandclinic.org.
www.twitter.com/ClevelandClinic.
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