by Medical Tricorders
Health indicators are fictional multi-purpose portable medical scanner devices seen in Star Trek that can diagnose injuries and illnesses at the wave of a hand. Though Star Trek portrayed them as something of the 24th century, researchers have long worked to develop real versions. Medical staff in the field and at home could benefit greatly from a lightweight, inexpensive diagnostic tool that can provide quick insights without needing extensive lab tests.
Latest Developments in Medical Tricorders Technology
In recent years we have seen significant advances that bring the Medical Tricorder concept closer to reality. Researchers from different universities and companies are working on various aspects like miniaturizing medical scanner components, collecting large medical datasets for artificial intelligence diagnosis and developing user-friendly interfaces. Some key ongoing projects are:
The Tricorder X Prize competition, which concluded in 2018, spurred development of prototype devices able to diagnose 12 medical conditions through vital signs, images and limited lab tests. Though not as comprehensive as sci-fi versions, they demonstrated the potential.
Researchers at the University of Washington developed a device called DxtER that uses augmented reality to display medical scan images in the real world. They are expanding it to sense vital signs and diagnose basic conditions to serve as an early prototype medical disorder.
Anthropic, an AI safety startup, is working on a project called Constitutional AI to ensure any AI medical diagnosis system developed is helpful, harmless and honest using their self-supervised learning technique. This could help address safety and trust issues around AI healthcare tools.
Vital and similar wearable sensor companies are miniaturizing components for continuous monitoring of key vital signs. Integrating such sensors into a universal diagnostic device brings us closer to a true medical disorder.
Companies like Butterfly Network are making ultrasound imaging more portable and less expensive using micro-ultrasound and chip-scale semiconductor transducers, key technologies for a future tricorder.
Challenges Remaining for Full Medical Tricorder Capability
While great strides are being made, there are still significant challenges remaining before devices can provide the broad capabilities of health indicators portrayed in science fiction:
Complexity of the Human Body: The human body is incredibly complex with interlinked biological systems. Developing comprehensive models of human physiology required for broader diagnosis remains a major challenge. Sensors also need to be minimally invasive yet able to accurately gauge different bodily processes.
Reliability of AI Diagnosis: For AI to be confidently used for diagnostic purposes, it needs large curated datasets for training and extensive testing to demonstrate it can surpass human reliability. This level of dataset and validation is still some ways off for many conditions. Bias and safety issues also require addressing.
Regulatory & Ethical Approval: For devices performing medical diagnosis, meeting stringent regulatory standards around safety, accuracy and privacy will be crucial. Ethical approval processes will also need adapting for new kinds of AI medical devices and apps. This presents major hurdles before public use.
Cost and Accessibility: While components are getting cheaper, manufacturing truly low-cost, universal health indicators able to rival modern healthcare resources remains difficult. Ensuring access, especially in lower resource areas, is an important long-term challenge.
Future Outlook: When Will Health indicators Become A Reality?
While full-fledged health indicators providing comprehensive diagnosis may still be decades away, focused capability devices are emerging sooner. Projects like Tricorder X Prize winners and DxtER indicate prototypes for basic vital monitoring and limited diagnosis could be available commercially in the relatively near future, say 5-10 years.
As AI and sensing technologies further improve while becoming cheaper and more widespread, we will likely see successive generations of enhanced health indicators within 10–20 years able to progressively diagnose a wider range of conditions just through scans and measurements.
Addressing remaining regulatory, data and cost challenges will determine how soon such devices can become mainstream tools for healthcare delivery worldwide. Ongoing research collaboration between academia and industry focused on tangible goals as well as public funding support will be key in realizing the long-held dream of universal health indicators. Though we may not achieve the tricorders of Star Trek in our lifetimes, advancing technologies are making their real-world versions an achievable long-term prospect.
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*Note:
1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it
Ravina Pandya, Content Writer, has a strong foothold in the market research industry. She specializes in writing well-researched articles from different industries, including food and beverages, information and technology, healthcare, chemical and materials, etc. With an MBA in E-commerce, she has an expertise in SEO-optimized content that resonates with industry professionals.
