What innovations in the Top 10 of the Cleveland Clinic?

To improve patient care and outcomes, consider the advances that experts believe could transform healthcare in 2019.

They interviewed dozens of scientific experts, obtained more than 100 applications and created a list. Like the Cleveland Clinic 2018 Medical Innovation Summit closed today, the health system has released its annual list of the top 10 medical innovations, developments that its innovators expect to have the greatest power to transform health care over the next year.

As health systems explore ways to improve care and outcomes for patients, these ideas deserve to be examined and could help set priorities. Some innovations are specific to problems or conditions, such as pharmacogenomic tests to treat the use of opioids, as well as new diagnostic technologies and guidelines for the treatment of stroke. Still others involve advances that can impact many areas of medicine, such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotic surgery, virtual reality, and printing 3D.

The list of emerging technologies was selected by a group of physicians and scientists from the Cleveland Clinic, led by Michael Roizen, MD, responsible for wellness at the Cleveland Clinic.

"Healthcare is constantly evolving and we anticipate that innovations such as cancer immunotherapy and pharmacogenomics will dramatically transform the medical field and improve patient care at Cleveland Clinic and around the world," he said. Roizen said in a press release.

Here are the Top 10 Medical Innovations of 2019 listed in order of expected importance:

1. Alternative Pain Therapy: Fighting the Opioid Crisis

By providing the opportunity to adapt drug treatment, pharmacogenomic testing may provide a method for influencing the opioid crisis. This approach uses the genetic makeup of a patient to predict the metabolism of a drug, including some opiate-based drugs. It can be used to prevent adverse reactions and replace unnecessary and ineffective prescriptions with more effective drugs. Pharmacogenomics can also be used to predict which opioid analgesics do not relieve pain.

2. The advent of AI in health care

With applications for decision support, image analysis and patient triage, the AI ​​is already changing the way health care is practiced. It helps physicians make more informed point-of-care decisions and machine learning algorithms have the ability to highlight problem areas in images, assist in the selection process, and quickly make sense of the data contained in the physician's EMR system. The rapid adoption of this technology for these and other uses will continue to progress over the next year.

3. Expanded window for acute stroke intervention

The new guidelines released this year suggest an expanded window of time for stroke intervention. The longer delay should reduce the risk of disability and provide opportunities for recovery to an increased number of future patients.

4. Progress in immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer

Cancer immunotherapy, or biological therapy, uses the body's immune system to fight cancer. Although cancer immunotherapies have been around for some time, global research continues to identify new immunotherapeutic targets. Scientists are creating new life-changing cancer treatments through the concepts of joint therapy and modified T cells. With the ongoing discovery of new immunotherapeutic targets and biomarkers, effective therapies are emerging for a growing number of tumor patterns.

5. Patient-specific products obtained with 3D printing

The 3-D printing technology promises to affect many aspects of medical treatment. Because medical devices can now be adapted to the patient's exact specifications, they demonstrate better body acceptance, increased comfort, and better performance results. This method is used for the design of external prostheses, cranial / orthopedic implants and custom stents for the respiratory tract in case of diseases narrowing the airways. Work on prostheses and other bodily implants is also gaining momentum with some solutions approved for the commercial market. The technology also facilitates surgical planning for complex cardiac surgeries, as well as the latest total facial transplant of the Cleveland Clinic.

6. Virtual and mixed reality for medical education

Virtual and mixed reality systems help health professionals develop their skills and become an increasingly popular way to educate the next generation of health professionals. Simulation training enhances traditional approaches to learning and the immersive experience attracts all types of learners: audio, visual and kinesthetic. RV / MR systems can improve the educational process and better prepare health care providers for practice.

7. Visor for prehospital diagnosis of cerebrovascular accident

Hemorrhagic strokes – during which blood escapes from a broken blood vessel in the brain – are responsible for nearly 40% of stroke deaths. To speed up the diagnosis, health professionals are using new advanced technologies, such as the haemorrhage scanning visor, to detect bleeding in the brain. An effective diagnostic tool, the visor for scanning pre-hospital hemorrhages speeds up the diagnosis and treatment time.

8. Innovation in robotic surgery

The robots in the operating room offer surgeons the opportunity to improve surgical precision. Minimally invasive robotic surgery reduces recovery time and post-surgical pain. Continued progress should lead to more accurate and efficient surgeries with better surgical results.

9. Percutaneous replacement and repair of mitral and tricuspid valves

The expansion of percutaneous cardiac surgery, performed by means of a catheter through the skin, has important implications for the future of cardiac care by reducing the risks and associated trauma to more invasive procedures. After the successful percutaneous intervention of the aortic valve, a recent intervention of the mitral valve and percutaneous tricuspid has yielded significant positive results while filling a void in the field of cardiac surgery. The exploration of this technology in a larger patient population is underway.

10. RNA-based therapies

Like DNA-based gene therapies, RNA-based therapies have shown tremendous potential. By interfering with genetic data at the level of ribonucleic acid (RNA), scientists have the ability to intercept the genetic abnormality of a patient before it translates into functional (or nonfunctional) proteins. The most popular and effective mechanisms of RNA therapy include antisense nucleotides and RNA interference. These therapies are being studied in various rare genetic diseases such as Huntington's disease, as well as in cancer and neurological diseases, with the hope of treatment with other genetic data.