AI and BCI Transforming Healthcare with EPIC Innovations

I've been in either university laboratory or operation room since 2015, 9 years of medical knowledge, learning and getting insights into healthcare industry and science. While my biggest passion is science - the way we explore life and how we can change it for better, I have continued my career in medical devices industry and since the start am fascinated by the technological advancement in medicine, incluidng the way robotics, AI and BCI transform healthcare with few epic innovations. In this blog post we will discover how innovation has been revolutionising the way we approach medicine and how it has reshaped medical practices forever.

While in another spheres robotics have fallen behind AI, in medicine, they are becoming more and more precise - the newest example is Da Vinci 5 by Intuitive Surgical.

There is certainly a lot to follow on. As someone who has started their professional career in this industry, I am excited to see further innovation and meaningful impact to patients life. The good thing is that most of the countries have access to those new technologies and devices. Other countries in Africa are still slower but making big leaps changes in eradicating diseases.

Here you have a list of few new trends in medical devices industry that are interesting and worth having them in the operation rooms.

1. From Triclip to ICDs and all about the Heart

Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) are indeed one of the most innovative medical devices implanted in the body, usually near the heart, to monitor the heart's rhythm continuously. They are designed to detect and treat abnormal heart rhythms, particularly life-threatening ones like ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF).

When the ICD detects an abnormal rhythm, it can deliver an electrical shock to the heart, known as defibrillation, to restore the heart's normal rhythm. This shock interrupts the abnormal rhythm and allows the heart to resume its regular beating pattern. Additionally, some ICDs can also deliver pacing therapy to help regulate the heart's rhythm and prevent arrhythmias.

These devices can significantly improve survival rates and quality of life for patients prone to life-threatening arrhythmias.

Category Heart has came to a significant advancement in the field of transcatheter valve repaire. The TriClip device by Abbott is a transcatheter tricuspid valve repair system designed to treat tricuspid regurgitation (TR). Tricuspid regurgitation is a condition where the tricuspid valve, which separates the right atrium and right ventricle of the heart, does not close properly, leading to the backward flow of blood from the right ventricle into the right atrium, potentially leading to stroke.

The TriClip device is intended to address TR without the need for open-heart surgery.

It is delivered to the heart through a minimally invasive procedure using a catheter inserted through a vein in the groin. Once in position, the device clips together the leaflets of the tricuspid valve, effectively reducing the regurgitation of blood and improving heart function.

The TriClip device is part of Abbott's portfolio of structural heart interventions, aiming to provide less invasive treatment options for patients with valvular heart disease.

2. Nanotechnology in Medicine

I cannot believe it is becoming a fuss just now. This was one of the main course I decided to take during my early bachelor years in Germany 5 years ago. While there are many challenges that nanotechnology can solve, I will focus on two main that will make an impact in healthcare. The first one is the way drug can be delivered. Nanotechnology enables the design of drug systems by the nanoscale, allowing for targeted and controlled release to specific sites at the body. One interesting example is the company Nanobiotix that develops nanotechnology-based therapies for cancer treatment, including its lead product NanoXray, which consists of nanoparticles that can be activated by radiation therapy to enhance tumor cell destruction.

Nanotechnology plays a crucial role in regenerative medicine by providing scaffold materials, growth factors, and nanobiomaterials for tissue engineering and organ regeneration. Nanoscale scaffolds mimic the extracellular matrix and support cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation, facilitating the repair and regeneration of damaged tissues. This automatically leads to the next big thing in Medicine:

3D printing of tissues and organs to ensure lifetime transplantation options and replacements. This could significantly reduce patients’ waiting time and lower the chances of complications that may occur as a result of delayed or unavailable medical devices

Some examples include printing of bones, which reduces the planning and design of replacement joints or bones trmenedously. Valve 3D printing was also already several printing successfully completed.

“Jonathan Butcher and his team at Cornell University pioneered 3D tissue printing technology to create living heart valves that possess the same anatomical structure as native valve.

To precisely produce an artificial valve, Butcher’s team had developed algorithms that process 3D image datasets of a native valve and automatically form the full 3D model of the heart valve. Bio-printing is then conducted in a dual syringe system with a mixture of alginate/gelatin hydrogel, smooth muscle cells and valve interstitial cells to mimic the structure of the valve root and leaflets.

Butcher believed bioprinting would gain much more traction in the tissue engineering and biomedical community over the coming years. The patient-specific tissue models would help healthcare professionals in learning disease pathogenesis and screening drug efficacy, or making living tissue replacements tailored directly to patient geometry.

4. Da Vinci 5 - surgical precision

Da Vinci 5 is the newest edition to Da Vinci family robots of Intuitive. It is made to fit everybody comfortably and it will be initially available to certain clinics promising amazing results with improved system.

Da Vinci 5 comes with more then 100 new enhanced figures including force- sending technology for less trauma on tissue, Next generation precision and image processing. Other major improvement is the 10,000 times more of computing power than the previous generation for advanced digital experience. All improvements are made based on surgeons and patient needs

5.   MVision AI

I have met MVision at one of the radiotherapy congresses and since then staying in touch and reading all about what they represent in the field of medical imaging for more precise diagnostics and pre therapy preparation using artificial intelligence algortithms. It allows access of AI into physicians department by offering AI supported prefixes contouring for radiotherapy. Such accuracy of Organ-At-Risk contouring can significantly improve cancer treatment and results for patients. It has auto-segmentation allowing for shorter times with confidence.

Overall, the contouring process is critical for ensuring the accuracy and effectiveness of radiation therapy treatments and requires close collaboration between radiation oncologists, medical physicists, dosimetrists, and other members of the radiation therapy team. With MVision this process is made simpler, more accurate delivery of radiation and minimize side effects.

6. RebrAIn is part of my selection because it represents an advancement in how imagining and programming is done for DBS (Deep Brain Stimulation) or Neuromodulation. It revolutionises neurosurgical interventions by coupling AI algorithms with MRI scanning to provide neurosurgeons and neurologists with the most precise targets for electrode placement in DBS surgeries. DBS is still the most advanced treatment, invented in France, and successfully treats neurodegenerative problems by implanting small devices and electrodes into the brain, preciously targeting regions which has a transformative role in patients moving and other processes, greatly improving their life.

RebrAIn seems to have recognised the importance of new algorithms into imagining and precise targeting to improve results and minimise side effects. It is definitely a fresh air from the heart of where DBS started for all the neurosurgeons treating those almost 70 Million patients suffering from Parkinsons, Tremor and Distonia.

7. Tools to detecting diseases earlier like wireless brain sensors or remote support like glucose detectors and smart inhalers.

This is definitely one of the key directions where AI will change people’s life forever. The tools creating a safer lives for everyone by detecting some near degenerative disease earlier, monitoring heart health and many others. So called AI predictions are no longer a distant dream. By analysing medical data those technologies are able to make diagnostics a lot earlier by detecting patterns that physicians way miss. The use of technology in healthcare is not new at all. However, the use of AI powered algorithms allows for more accurate and faster decision making compared to conventional diagnostics.

Three important things to remember - early detection, accuracy, speed. Two examples: heart disease predictions, certain cancer screening methods analysing genomics.

Some of the concerns connected to AI powered diagnostics is the personal medical data privacy and security I have pointed in my Rundown of AI.

8. CRISPR based gene-editing

While staying in America I have read a MIT story about one of the few patients with sickle sells disease that changed their lives by having access to the newly approved gene editing technolgy. Individuals with sickle-cell disease lack the ability to produce healthy hemoglobin, a vital protein utilized by red blood cells for oxygen transport throughout the body. Consequently, they produce deformed red blood cells that can obstruct blood vessels, leading to severe episodes of pain and, in some cases, organ dysfunction. Individuals with this condition often have significantly shorter lifespans compared to those without the disease.

The treatment itself is based on DNA-editting tehnology called CRISPR, developed by scientisst 11 years go. The first company that recived clearance was Vertex. Since the beggining of this year many have received the treatmemt which high costs of between 2 and 3$ millions makes it hard to reach countries where most of the bad genes are inherited and is the cause of death among children.

The challange remain - making these novel life changing technologies accessible to more people.

9. Neuralink and the first Telepathy micro device ever implanted to a human

A dream company to work for and a dream product to work on engineering. Yet another large milestone in the field of Neuromodulation - brain chips. Neuralink has helped a paralized person resore control by just using their brain. Targeting the region of the brain connected to movement, the company is aiming to restore functions and help people who are disrupted or have injuries operate computers, giving them access to the world, to work, meet their current needs and even further unlock potential.

Neuralink future prospective also plans to target the rapidly increasing number of depressive conditions using similar brain implants, the size just a of a coin.

Neuralink is opening solutions to quadriplegia (a form of paralysis), with patients trials to help them restore functions and "explore new ways of controlling a computer". It is exciting and aiming to help humanity. Currently open in US and the UK.