Currently, biotechnology drugs make up 10 to 15% of the pharmaceutical market in the United States, and this sector is growing faster than any other class of drugs. Biotech drugs include recombinant DNA technology, monocolonal antibodies, and gene therapy, and these drugs are revolutionizing treatment of diseases and complex conditions that previously had an unmet clinical need. The field of biotechnology is relatively new, and these drugs were like something out of science fiction novels only a few decades ago. Today, they are a reality, but they have come at a cost. The expensive and time-consuming research and development process make the drugs necessarily pricey once they are available on the market. Read more →

A young football player is running the ball downfield when he gets blindsided by two tacklers. They upend the player, who haplessly inverts in the air and lands on his neck. In an instant, his whole body goes limp, and the player has difficulty breathing. Paramedics are rushed to the field, and the player is speedily taken to the hospital, where a CT scan delivers the unthinkable news: complete spinal cord injury.

The player is stabilized medically, and a team of neurosurgeons are brought onto the case. They attach electrodes to the boy’s head, and begin mapping brain activity as they have him imagine using his limbs to carry out a series of specific tasks. Read more →

Anyone who has tried to visit a primary care physician lately likely knows first hand that there is a shortage of general practice physicians in the United States. Primary care physicians provide half of the health care obtained in the outpatient setting, but over the past several decades, career interest in internal medicine, particularly general internal medicine — the specialty primarily responsible for providing care to adults — has declined among medical students.

A recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study examining the factors that influence medical students’ choices in choosing a medical specialty, particularly internal medicine. Read more →

Most humans do not have the power to predict the future, but we can see it. At least we can see one-tenth of a second of it. The May-June issue of the journal Cognitive Science published a review by Mark Changizi of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, claiming that the human visual system has evolved to allow us to see fractions of a second into the future.

When light hits our retina, it takes approximately 100 milliseconds, or one-tenth of one second, for our brain to perceive an image. While it seems insignificant, the delay is consequential when dealing with moving objects. Read more →

The current US healthcare system is broken. Few would argue this point. Rising costs, decreasing reimbursements, more lawsuits, insurance hikes, and an aging population are just some of the difficulties that face both physicians and patients today, and the situation doesn’t seem to be improving.

One of the other major problems is the shortage of time. In order to make ends meet, doctors are being forced to see more and more patients in the same amount of time. For many physicians, what used to be an hour for new patients and half hour for established patients has been shrunk down to 20 minutes for a new patient and 10 minutes for an established one. Read more →

The possibility of fusing a mechanical device with the human brain becomes a reality.

Ladies and gentleman, I would like to introduce you to a new piece of technology. Lo and behold, the brain prosthesis. Wait. Did I just say brain prosthesis, as in an artificial replacement of the mind? Yes, that’s right; the brain prosthesis is going to be used to replace the damaged parts of our brain.

Hundreds of individuals who have lost their body parts due to traumatic injuries or congenital defects have already chosen to get artificial replacements. Read more →