Miracles Of Modern Meadicine
The last two decades have seen tremendous strides in technological advancement that have changed the way we live. Be it the digital revolution ¡n household and personal products, mobile telephony, nanotechnology or high speed internet. Advances in science and technology have brought us to an age which our preceding generations never imagined as future realities. And we are surely fortunate to live in these times.
Unmatched Advancement
Modern medicine has also seen similar leaps like technology, changing the way health care professionals now manage patients. The miracles of modern medicine have translated in to better health care for all. It has given us the ability to switch our focus from treatment to prevention, from palliation of symptoms of advanced disease to complete cure at early stages. Diagnosis and treatment modalities hitherto unheard of or imagined, are today a routine part of the medical armamentarium.
Innovative Procedures
The field of Gastroenterology and Endoscopy has moved ahead of its time. Science fiction movies of the previous millennium like Fantastic Voyage’ and ‘Inner space’ are today a reality’ This essentially shrugs aside painful invasive diagnostic procedures and surgeries that were used to diagnose gastrointestinal diseases.
Take the case of ‘Capsule Endoscopy’ this is a compact package of a high resolution wide angle camera along with four LED flashlights, a radiofrequency transmitter and an inbuilt battery power source, all packaged in to a small transparent capsule sized device. The Capsule Endoscope’ is swallowed with a gulp of water and that will be all you need to do.
This capsule painlessly travels down your food pipe, stomach and intestines, all the while capturing high resolution images of your insides at a phenomenal speed of four-six pictures/sec. It then transmits these images seamlessly in real time to an external hand held capturing device, while you relax in your doctor’s waiting room watching television or reading a book. The captured images are then transferred via specialised software to a PC ¡n your doctor’s cabin and he/she can sit and analyse the entire video to look for any pathology.
More Power To Doctors
Capsule Endoscopy gives a doctor the ability to diagnose and treat extrvemely small sub-millimetre pathologies in a persons intestines like in bleeding angiodysplasia& they diagnose small intestinal tumours before they are symptomatic or spread elsewhere. This procedure is also used to find out reasons for unexplained abdominal pain, internal bleeding or anaemia. Once the pathology is diagnosed and localised, special Balloon Enteroscopes can be passed orally, which can biopsy and sample tumours and cancers, burn or clip small bleeding lesions, enlarge narrowing of the bowel due to inflammatory bowel disease and even completely remove polyps and tumours from within. This ability to reach out to parts of the intestine hitherto unapproachable has changed the entire outlook to these pathologies and in the process avoided unnecessary, painful and prolonged surgeries.
Short Stays In Hospitals
Minimally invasive and endoscopic surgeries have provided patients the advantage of shorter hospital stays, less pain, infection and discomfort, minimal handling of internal organs and faster recovery. Many of these endoscopic surgeries can be performed as day care or out-patient procedures even without the need for admission.
This saves the patient time, leads to an early return to work and In turn increases work productivity. Indian gastroenterologists and endoscopic surgeons rank as one of the best in the world with their technical, innovative and intuitive skills. Patients from across the globe now come to India to get these procedures done here and this has significantly encouraged medical tourism.
The Advancements In Organ Transplant
The ability to replace tailing organs ¡n the body by organ transplantation would rank as one of the most significant clinical and scientific advances ¡n the medical field in recent years. Advanced liver diseases like liver cirrhosis or acute liver failure are now successfully treated by liver transplantation, avoiding certain death. Success rates are more than 90 per cent in most tertiary centres running transplantation programs. This gives a new lease of lite to ailing patients who a decade back, would have been looking at a very bleak future.
Advances in science and technology have brought us to an age which our preceding generations never imagined as future realities
A Better And Brighter Future
We are at the cusp of scientific knowledge and technological advancement in modern medicine. Considering the progress humanity has been making in the last three decades, it’s anyone’s guess what the future holds for health care. The science fiction of today ¡s the science of tomorrow.
Leave a Reply