Week 10 Discussion Post 7 Document | IHP 600 - Social And Organizational Issues In Healthcare

The article “Future Technology 500” was actually pretty terrifying to read. Although we should be excited about the advances of medical technology, some of these advancements has me questioning as to the safety and how this could ever happen. The two topics I’d like to review and discuss are “synthetic organs” and “nanobots.”

Artificial Organs:

The thought of artificial organs was once thought of to be impossible, however, the user of an artificial kidney is has been successful in many part of the world and implants such as heart valves, vascular grafts and pacemakers are all pretty normal (Nose & Malchesky, 2011). Scientists are successfully creating artificial hearts, lungs, livers, windpipes, urethras, and more (Forbes, 2016). The opportunities here are endless. If a life can be saved by an artificial organ, then so many people would be able to live whereas in 5 years ago, they would not have. The problem with donor shortages is far too great. The challenges here are making it safe and effective to use and also the compatibility due to the uniqueness of the human body. Additionally, this will lead to more “cloning” and the possibility of that doing more damage than not, is also something to think about.

Nanobots:

Nanobots, tiny biological machines, will be able to deliver drugs on a cellular basis in the exact dose and exact area of the body that needs it (Future Technology 500, 2021). The possibility with this is that because the delivery of medicine is going to the exact location that it is needed, other healthy tissues and cells may not get damaged or altered (De Rojas, 2021). For example, chemotherapy may kill off good tissues but a Nanobot can circumvent this by protecting the drug until it gets to the correct area (De Rojas, 2021). The challenge is that with any man-made item, there are imperfections and things may not go as planned. Within the body, there are many blood vessels that may interfere with the Nanobot getting to the correct location (De Rojas, 2021). The use of magnetic force has been proven to be the most popular way of directing the nanobot to their target (De Rojas, 2021). There are many unfavorable conditions such as bacteria, that could hinder the Nanobot from getting to the correct location (De Rojas, 2021). Additionally, reaching the brain is another major challenge with this experiment.

References:

De Rojas, Carlos. (2021, October 20). Arming Biological Nanobots to Deliver Drugs Inside our Bodies. Labiotech.eu.Retrieved from https://www.labiotech.eu/in-depth/nanobots-drug-delivery/#: ~:text=Nanobots%20are%20tiny%20biological%20machines,biggest %20challenges%20of%20drug%20delivery . Future Medical Technology. (2021). FutureTechnology500. Retrieved from https://www.futuretechnology500.com/index.php/future- medical-technology/ Nosé, Y., & Malchesky, P. (2011). Future of Artificial Organs; Therapeutic Artificial Organs. CambridgeUniversityPress.Retrieved from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/mrs-online- proceedings-library-archive/article/abs/future-of-artificial-organs- therapeutic-artificial-organs/

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The Surprising Future of Artificial organ Transplants. (2016, September 26). Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/oppenheimerfunds/2016/09/26 /the-surprising-future-of-artificial-organ-transplants/? sh=717e68fc2f59