Blahun A. V., Segeda N. J., Komarova L.V.
Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University
PROGRAMS SAVING LIVES
It is well known, that the history of humanity is corkscrewing and the process of scientific knowledge isn’t an exception. For instance, the science at the beginning was presented by single philosophy, then for several centuries there was the separation of disciplines. Since the mid-twentieth century we see the process of scientific fields integration, which, without doubt, is of benefit to both science and humanity. The introduction of technology in medicine can be a vivid illustration of above mentioned. This tandem is developing with good productivity and rate. Things, which we could see in the science fiction books few years ago, are discussed at medical conferences on innovation.
Correct diagnosis is one of the most important tasks for medicine. Health Wear Company is developing the «smart clothing», which collects data on person state using chips. Japanese scientists have developed a smart toilet that can diagnose the state of user health during a morning visit. AliveCor Company has recently demonstrated the device working with the iPhone and able to read the ECG in all conditions.
The development of mobile technologies allows reducing the size of diagnostic devices. There are over 20 000 of applications for phones used for medical purposes. For example, the program Skin of Mine enables user to diagnose the dermatological diseases picture. Prevention is one of the most important moments of medical activity. For this purpose, the programs that help people lead healthier life are being developed. FitBit is one of such devices. It allows calculating the activity of the person per day. It analyzes the quality of sleep, counts calories. The Target Weight application for smart phones, using the received data, makes recommendations to the user, what he needs to change in his life to be healthy.
The use of technology is becoming more frequent in operations requiring high accuracy, for example surgery. Thus, the Italian laboratory CRIM Lab develops special robots in the form of capsules to diagnose digestive system. They have camera and means of moving along the esophagus.
Creating of 3-D printer has influenced the medical technology too. Dentures and scraps of tissue are already printed with bioprinter. The cells of the patient are used as ink. The sample of such a printer has been launched by the company Organovo.
As it is known, the human brain is often compared with the computer. Even today, people, who have lost limbs, are implanted chips in the nervous system, which can control the movements of a robotic arm or leg. The introduction of this technology will allow restoring the lost capacity in the paralyzed.
As we can see, the use of technological advances in medicine has three main areas: the personalization of medical data, the development of mobile self-testing instruments, replacement nurses to robots at the levels where high accuracy is needed. These tasks are extremely responsible for both the technician and the developer of software: bug here is no longer just a glitch, but a terrible mistake that may cause harm to human health. But at the same time, the awareness that the result of your work can help people not only to save time or entertain, but also to fight for life, is worth hours of hard study and work.