From wearable bionic devices to a concussion management system for athletes, Cleveland Clinic’s Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2012 showcase new techniques, therapies and approaches to treating a host of medical conditions.
The list of breakthrough devices and therapies was selected by a panel of Cleveland Clinic physicians and scientists and unveiled during Cleveland Clinic’s 2011 Medical Innovation Summit.
The Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2012 are:
10. Genetically Modified Mosquitoes to Reduce Disease Threat – Researchers are now exploring new avenues to fight mosquitoes, starting in the laboratory where scientists manipulate the DNA of the insects.
9. Novel Diabetes Therapy: SGLT2 Inhibitors – There are many diabetes medications; most work by affecting the supply or use of insulin, which helps move glucose into the cells. But now there is a new class of drugs ready for prime time called sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 protein inhibitors, or SGLT2 inhibitors. These drugs represent a paradigm shift in diabetes treatment because they reduce blood sugar in a totally new way – by causing it to be excreted during urination.
8. Harnessing Big Data to Improve Heath Care – Health care data requires advanced technologies to efficiently process it in reasonable time, so organizations can create, collect, search, and share data, while still ensuring privacy. In this way, analytics can be applied to better hospital operations and tracking outcomes for clinical and surgical procedures. It can also be used to benchmark effectiveness-to-cost models.
7. Active Bionic Prosthesis: Wearable Robotic Devices – About 9 out of 10 amputations involve the leg, from the foot to above the knee. Thanks to remarkable advances in prosthetics research in the last decade, space-age plastics and carbon-fiber composites have b
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