Have you heard of multiple complex brain surgeries performed by 20 robots that once required 2 hours of dedicated efforts by eminent surgeons? In the modern era, mechanical innovations and engineering has made outstanding inroads into surgical beds.
A report of Credence Research asserts, that the overall clinical mechanical innovation market was at$7.24 billion in 2015 and is presumed to become $20 billion by the year 2023. Robots are investigating and treating patients in common or distant zones. Prosthetics and orthotics aid patients who are paraplegic and hemiplegic. Pocket-size ultrasound devices cost 50 times less than the expensive machines in hospitals. Machines are better than medical experts at spotting lung tumors. These are just some of the remarkable mechanical innovations now transforming medicine and healthcare at a remarkable pace.
Know that no one can predict the future, but it can be at least glimpsed in the dozen mechanical innovations and concepts below. Like the people behind the innovation of these concepts, they stand strong at the vanguard of health care.
In today’s blog, we will walk you through certain applications of mechanical engineering in the field of medicine and healthcare. This list is neither exhaustive nor exclusive but a representation of how public health and medical science are likely to become in 2021 due to the immense contribution of mechanical innovations engineering.
1. EpiForAll
It is an affordable alternative to the epinephrine auto-injectors present on the market. These devices are used in the treatment of Anaphylaxis, a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction. The team who invented these devices has also created a remarkable version for low-resource communities worldwide that makes use of readily available, low-cost epinephrine ampules.
2. MistEase
Glaucoma happens to be the second leading cause of irreversible blindness. However, elderly patients often find it incredibly challenging to take their eye medications due to innumerable limitations in dexterity and vision. Thus, MistEase has been invented by mechanical engineers. It is a device that makes it easier for elderly people to administer their eye drops remarkably. It has been approved for clinical study and is being tested on different patients.
3. Medical Supplies Delivered By Drone
Since March, UPS has been conducting a trial program known as Flight Forward. Here an autonomous drone is used in the deliveries of critical medical samples incorporating blood or tissue between two branches of a hospital situated in Raleigh, NC, located 150 yards apart.
In October, the FAA gave the company approval to expand its service to 20 hospitals around the US over the next two years. In the words of David Abney, the CEO of UPS, one day UPS Flight Forward can be expected to be an incredibly important part of the company that can assignment help in delivering urine, blood, tissue samples, and medical essentials like drugs and transfusable blood.
4. Brain-Machine Interfaces
In 2015, State of The Union Address, President Barack Obama called for a renewed focus on the development of more advanced artificial limbs and other prosthetic devices. At least 6 million Americans are paralyzed, and 100,000 live with an upper-arm amputation. In response, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has redoubled its efforts to drive the performance and reduce the six-figure price tag of existing devices that translates a user’s neural signals into computer-controlled limb movements.
One of the most novel twists on paralysis repair regenerates damaged spinal cord tissue with spinal implants made of multifunctional polymer fibers. Positioned alongside damaged neurons, the fibers can be configured in countless ways to deliver drugs, transmit electrical signals, or guide light beams used as optical nerve switches. Furthermore, the nerve repair fibers can also be organized as scaffolds or 3-D structures to support natural nerve tissue as it regrows.
5. Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
PETA has protested against scientific animal testing time and again for years. Further, the testing of animals is not the most effective way to study the effect of drugs on human beings.
A remarkable approach can be using human tissue to test a drug in-vitro (in the lab). This is where tissue engineering creeps in. The aim of tissue engineering is to develop viable tissues like liver or neuronal cells in-vitro.
We will give you an example of how mechanical engineering principles are used in tissue engineering. We need to replicate the same environment in our body as closely as possible to mimic the activity of neurons in the human brain in the laboratory. Hydrogels made out of collagen and agarose proteins are often used to mimic the environment of the human body in the lab.
But, before making use of these hydrogels, one needs to be well-versed with their material properties like the elastic modulus, viscosity, gelation temperature, and the like. This is where the concepts of rheology taught in the fluid mechanic’s course come in handy.
6. Research In Biomechanics
The application of solid mechanics and engineering mechanics principles to develop therapeutic devices like prosthetics and exoskeletons is popularly known as biomechanics. These prosthetics and orthotics help in the mobility of patients who are hemiplegic and paraplegic. An intriguing area of research in biomechanics has been to find the fracture toughness of human bones accuratelyEssay Writer. This will help surgeons of the present era to come up with novel strategies for bone fracture fixation.
Similarly, Linear-elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) fracture toughness, nonlinear elastic fracture mechanics fracture toughness (JC), Crack-resistance curves (R-curves), and nonlinear methods incorporating cohesive zone models can be implemented in the material characterization of dental implants and bone substitutes.
7. Use Of Robots
Telepresence physicians make use of robots to aid them with the investigation and treating patients in common or distant zones, providing them with a ‘telepresence’ in the room. At the same time, the inaccessible controlled robots are known as cautious assistants and also can assist surgeons in performing exercises, specifically insignificant nosy procedures. Again, a reclamation robot has a huge part in the recovery of people with insufficiencies.
These robots can be transformed to conform to the condition of each understanding as they recover from strokes, horrendous psyche, spinal string wounds, and neurobehavioral or neuromuscular contaminations like sclerosis. Increased reality composed of rebuilding robots can moreover enhance walking, harmony, and other motor limits.
Furthermore, clinical transportation robots are used to supply meals, solutions, and other important elements to patients and staff. Again, with the addition of antibodies poison safe minuscule life forms, and flare-ups of hazardous illnesses like Ebola, more clinical consideration workplaces are making use of robots to clean surfaces. The most remarkable advantages of all these robots are speed and precision, two features that are indispensable to pharmacies.
Summing Up,
The healthcare system around the world is often doubted and brought under question. The main reason is the lack of highly experienced and skilled medical professionals and overwhelms of traditional medical conduct. Presently, there are only about few surgeons who are adept and proficient in robotic-assisted surgeries.
Economists have pointed out the need to speed up the mechanical innovation process and its adoption by the healthcare systems around the world write this for me. Increased adoption of mechanical innovations engineering and remarkable training of the workforce to operate different devices can heighten the status of the healthcare system, thus giving rise to more equity in healthcare opportunity dissemination assignment help.
Author Bio
Anne Gill is a mechanical engineer who is currently pursuing MS in Biomedical Engineering at a reputed university in the UK. An avid blogger, she has also been working as one of the best assignment experts at MyAssignmentHelp.co.uk for 10+ years now.
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