10 Years Beyond: The Role of Biomedical Computing in Future Health Care

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By convention, the field of healthcare research was entirely occupied by physicians and doctors. They were the ones who came up with new methods to treat diseases and get better results from diagnostic tests. Technology, on the other hand, was always looked at as a way to solve problems that we faced that didn’t pertain to the medical sector. It was employed to enhance the quality of life and make day to day work easier. But as technology progressed, so did the areas of application. The structural balancing techniques which were previously used to hold a building steady were now being used to develop near-perfect artificial joints and prosthetic limbs. Transparent polymers, developed to enhance robotic vision, were being suggested as a candidate for an artificial lens for the human eye. Before anyone could even understand what was happening, engineering had taken up the mantle to further medical technology to dizzying new heights.

In the past few decades, one field of engineering in particular has stood out in terms of development and commercialisation; and that is electronics and computation. In 1965, when Moore’s Law was first established (Gordon E. Moore, 1965: "Cramming more components onto integrated circuits"), it was stated that the number of transistors (an electronic component according to which the processing and memory capabilities of a microchip is measured) would double every 2 years. This prediction held true even when man ushered in the new millennium. We have gone from computers that could perform one calculation in one second to a super-computer (the one at Oak Ridge National Lab) that can perform 1 quadrillion (1015) mathematical calculations per second. Thus, it is only obvious that this field would also have s...

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...d decision-making capabilities robots have to offer, they can be used for complicated surgical procedures in the very near future. Precision handling and perfection in surgical tool alignment are vital for surgeries that occur at the micro scale (like neuro surgery).

The advantages of using technology in healthcare are far too many to enumerate. As we become more and more dependent on intelligent machines in the medical field, computation technology, specifically, will have a vital role to play in the coming years. They simplify the design process of medical equipment (like prosthetics, stents, pacemakers, etc.), help simulate the effects of a particular device or drug on the human body, consolidate & manage patient records in a central database, etc. Computers are also living up to the challenge of fulfilling out ever-increasing demands of precision and efficiency.

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