Modern Medical Technology

There are many reasons to become a surgical technologist, and numerous information reasons why I want to take this course. Taking this class made me see a whole other side of the profession then when I was doing my research. I have learned so much about the changes in medicine and about surgical technology itself that it’s hard for me to put in all in one paper. Through the course of this paper I will go over my own reasons to take the course, things that I personally learned over the last eight weeks, what my plans for the future are, and the different qualities that are needed in the field.

A major impetus to improving artificial limbs started when the United States encouraged companies to improve prosthetics instead of munitions (Norton, 2007). The combination of lighter materials and robotics assist has created huge advancements in functionality and has dramatically improved quality of life and potential for independent living. Even with the advancement of these limbs, the basic mechanical principals are still the same. Modern times allow for many different types of limbs to be created. Limbs can be created to match skin tone, freckles and fingerprints. There are three many ways a limb can be made to move. The first is attaching the limb to a moving body part to act as a gear shifter. Another variation is a motor attached and the person can switch modes by a mechanical toggle shift. The most advanced movement is the myoelectric capability. This is when electrodes are placed on the muscles of the residual limb. When contracted the arm will move according to which electrode fired. A microprocessor can also be attached to learn exactly how the person walks (Clements, 2008). Modern prosthetics offer valuable life skills, yet are very

From peg legs and hooks to robotic arms and legs, prosthetics have made an outstanding leap. Prosthetics have enabled amputees to regain mobility and their lives. The advancements in prosthetics have also led to a better understanding in surgical amputation and the construction of prosthetics. The question is what influenced the advancements of prosthetics and how it affected prosthetics. The answer lies within the history and the physiological components of prosthetics. Mobility and function, physiological components, and war all played an important role in the advancements of prosthetics.

1. Although medical technology brings numerous benefits, what have been some of the main challenges posed by the growing use of medical technology in the United States?

Technology has been advancing with the years, and it has changed how people live, communicate, travel, and learn. In particular, healthcare has changed due to the continuous technological advancements. Robotic advancements specifically have been transforming the health care industry. It is becoming noticeable that robotics are now being used for a variety of purposes in healthcare including drug making, moving supplies, administering drugs to patients, and monitoring patient vitals. A progressing form of robotics in healthcare is robotic surgery. One of the top functioning robotic surgery devices is the da Vinci Surgical System. Since 2000, surgical device has completed over 20,000 surgeries, which has set up the movement of using

Kaiba Gionfriddo was born prematurely in 2011. After 8 months, his lung development caused concerns, although he was sent home with his parents as his breathing was normal. Six weeks later, Kaiba stopped breathing and turned blue. He was diagnosed with tracheobronchomalacia, a long Latin word that means his that windpipe was so weak that it collapsed. He had a tracheostomy and was put on a ventilator – the conventional treatment. Still, Kaiba would stop breathing almost daily. His heart would stop, too. Then, his caregivers 3D printed a bioresorbable device that instantly helped Kaiba breathe. This case is considered a prime example of how customized 3D printing is transforming healthcare as

Imagine what our world would be like without x-rays, without heart monitors, and without advanced surgical tools; how would doctors diagnose, treat, or cure any patient?  How would we survive as a society if we did not have this medical technology readily available to us?  This is the reality of a world without Biomedical Engineering.  The Imperial College of London defines Biomedical Engineering as “a discipline that advances knowledge in engineering, biology and medicine, and improves human health through cross-disciplinary activities that integrate the engineering sciences with biomedical sciences and clinical practice” (Reyes-Guerra).  In today’s society, there are new advancements being made in technology every second, especially in the medical field.  What many people do not usually realize is that the research and products are being done and produced by biomedical engineers.  As this technology continues to progress, biomedical engineers have begun to change the way medical professionals approach a situation due to their research and production of artificial organs and limbs, however, these advancements lead people to question the necessity and ethics behind the topic.  The research being done by biomedical engineers is beginning to open up new doors in the medical field, giving doctors and patients more options of treatment, new ways of diagnosis, and possibilities of artificial organs and limbs.

Less invasive surgical technology such as laparoscopic procedures can reduce patient recovery time and allow for more low-cost outpatient procedures

For some amputees, there may be a physical and emotional pain with the lost of a limb. Bionics may not look and feel like a biological limb, but it comes close in providing the functions and fills the blank space of a missing limb. Providing individuals with bionic prosthetic technology assists in the reduction of health care cost by enabling an individual to maintain an appropriate activity level. Bionic limbs “enables people to return to work and other important daily activities faster and easier than before” ( Hixenbaugh, 2010, p. 721). With the use of bionics an amputee can walk with a natural gait and reduce the occurrence of stress on other joints ( Hixenbaugh, 2010, p. 725). This alleviates the chance of chronic or acute pain. An amputee can achieve a close to normal or normal metabolic energy exertion and reduced the amount of energy exerted from the amputee ( Hixenbaugh, 2010, p. 725). This may give the wearer the ability to withstand longer minor physical activities, such as walking for longer periods of time. Individals that wear BioM walk at 23% faster than the speed of wearing a traditional prosthetic ( Hixenbaugh, 2010, p. 725). This gives an amputee to walk at a natural speed. Through the use of external input bionics use, amputees gain the ability to safely walk on different terrains and stairs. Overall bionic prosthetics improve quality of life for amputee veterans as well as other individuals with

Many disabled people today live in a world where they are seen as incapable of completing normal daily tasks. Life is a struggle however they can’t do anything else but to carry on. The future of bionic body parts could indefinitely enhance a disabled person’s life. It would allow for them to be more mobile/active, and within that, gain many health benefits to securing a longer and healthier life. At a conference session discussing the future of robotic, a speaker called Harding showed his exoskeleton work in progress. It allowed a paraplegic man to simply stand up and walk with a little bit of aid. In future, products like this could allow paraplegics to get up and walk completely by themselves. This would have a positive impact on physical and mental health (Gibbs, 2015). A future product like this will benefit a diverse group of injured people, whether it’s military injuries or car accident injuries. At this present time, society faces a major problem with organ donations. More people are on an organ transplant list than what is going around, and every year lots of those people die before they get a transplant. Our future body parts made with advanced technology such as computer-aided jet-based 3D tissue engineering would solve this problem. Less people would be dying and more would be living longer. With these positive aspects does come some negative

Prosthetic limbs have been around for centuries, but what is one thing they all have in common? They have all been a nuisance. In recent years technology of the modern day Prosthesis has ventured to new heights, but they have not perfected an artificial limb yet. With the amount of people in need of prosthetic limbs, the demand for a perfect prosthesis is tremendous. The perfect prosthesis shouldn’t feel or even look like an artificial limb. Prosthetics should go unnoticed throughout the rest of the amputee’s life.

As today’s technology is changing, some of the most major effects of it are superior advances in the medical field. One advance in the medical field is tissue engineering. It is being developed for use in regenerative medicine and soon to be in wider use for other treatments. Tissue engineering’s goal for the future is for the medicine to be able to stimulate other cells around the damage area of the body to get them to grow and produce living tissue (Sciencedaily). Another medical advancement is the monitoring systems and how hospitals can better track for problems and signs of an emergency. This can also help the surgeons decide how to stitch up a patient for best recovery time (Sciencedaily). As technology keeps progressing, another medical advancement is the way surgeons are doing operations. Today, for complex surgeries, surgeons now will get help from the use of a robot for accurate procedures; this will help with the size of the incision and keep the recovery time shorter than during standard surgery.

The 21st century can rightfully be considered as the era of technology when the new inventions and discoveries will most likely affect all the segments of human life. At this point, some of the breakthrough inventions of our times have been in the medical field. Robotic surgery has become an almost common practice in the advanced medical world and new uses for robotic assisted surgery are everyday set in place. However, such developments also attract different interests and implications.

Try to imagine how different life would be without modern medical technology. Many of these improvements involved the combined application of engineering and biological principles to the traditional medical arts, giving physicians new perspectives on how the body works and new solutions. From providing better diagnostic tools and surgical procedures to creating more effective replacements for the body's own tissues and organs, engineering helped the 20th centuries doctors successfully address such long-standing problems of human health such as heart disease and with infectious diseases.

Over the course of many centuries, medical technology has developed to a great extent. Studies show that recent equipment has evolved more in the last ten to twenty years than in the past thousand years. Before human time, people learned to treat themselves by just using natural substances. Now-a-days, our hi-tech systems in the medical field have been created for the most effective tools for a high level of patient care. While they advance the tools, it will then allow for quicker diagnosis, less pain, and fewer costs, which in the end will help save more lives. Some people are accepting that modern technology can buy them more time to live while others might find it quite alarming because they fear