Cafwell platform developed

New study about positive effects

Anatomage v.4 released

Webicina redesigned

Hummod cited in 40+ studies

Wyss Institute presents organ-on-a-chip

DIYBio organizes labs globally

Amazon Wearables
launched

Lenovo plans to develop tech

Tricorder Xprize:
10 finalists chosen

VitalConnect digital
tattoo launched
Dangerous Things
sells microchips

1+ million Pebbles sold

Hstar Technologies develops robots

PillCam launched
iKnife diagnoses cancerous tissues

Practice Fusion becomes

widely popular

Hololens announced
Oncompass personalizes therapies
Myo controls
devices with
muscle

Organovo creates
3D printed liver

Caterna covers app

4D heart by GE
FDA approves 3D printed
drug

New daVinci version

launched

Heal app becomes

Uber of care

Proteus Patch launched

Petman still under development

MRI-guided gene
therapy available

Karl Deisseroth
outlines obstacles

Usefulness proves limited

Neil Harbisson gains fame

Trial Reach connects

patients & trials

Symplur collects
1000s of #s

Google Cardboard spreads

Scallop microbots
swim in fluid

Cleveland Clinic Abu

Dhabi opens

IBM Watson Used in Oncology

PopSci coverage
Human Brain
Project begins

Fresh, reliable online news and

resources on Webicina.com
Webicina was redesigned to provide free, instant access to reliable online information for
patients and physicians. Healthline, WebMD and others also provide quality health
information. Doctors and patients increasingly blog and manage other social media
channels.

A 2015 study confirmed a well-designed course, improved by constant evaluation-based

feedback, can be suitable for preparing students for making the most of the Internet,
social media platforms, and digital technologies.

DIYBio is organizing local labs worldwide. New methods and technologies such as
Oxford Nanopore MinION or CRISPR let DIYbio fans perform more sophisticated
experiments.

Hummod has been developed for decades and is meant to represent the physiology of the
whole human body. It was mentioned in over 40 studies in the last 2 years. It now also
powers JustPhysiology.com.

Companies are creating platforms for companies to let their employees live healthier lives by
motivating them with rewards through a gamified system built on online coaching and
wearable sensors.

Omada Health gamifies staying healthy

A swarm of wearable devices has become available. Amazon launched the Wearable
Marketplace to bring wearables and home diagnostics devices to the general public.
Millions of units were sold in less than 2 years.

In Humans, home-owned robots

diagnose health issues with a simple
touch. One day, a combination of
technologies might enable
diagnosing most simple maladies at
home.

Researchers at the Wyss Institute have been working on a technology called organs-on-achip. These are microchips that can mimic the physiology of human organs. By connecting
them to each other, we might soon be doing clinical trials in silico.

Studying anatomy is a huge challenge as students need to understand every detail of a

complicated structure by looking at two dimensional images and texts. Anatomage released
the 4th version of its digital dissection table on which students can study without limitations.

Anatomage tables show life-like anatomy in 3D

Google Glass failed and is being redesigned and repurposed. Microsoft announced the
release of Hololens, a commercially available head-mounted device that projects digital data
onto real-life imagery. Magic Leap has raised over a billion dollars in investments.

Augmented reality is used from advertisements to

user interfaces in this classic sci-fi.

Microsofts technology can be used for better

medical education or pre-operational planning.

Futuristic doctors diagnosed patients by having

them swallow a tiny sensor.

Equipped with a camera, it transmits a live video

feed of the inside of a patients colon.

The Pillcam, a swallowable tiny camera that takes a lot of pictures while it goes through the
digestive system, was approved by the FDA in 2014.

Dangerous Things sells RFID chips and every equipment needed to implant them. A
company in Sweden required all its employees to implant chips to monitor how much time
they spend in the office. Ethical challenges are bigger now than potential advantages.

RFID chips implanted in Dangerous Things founder Amal Graafstra allow him to unlock his
smartphone, home, and even start his car.

There were news in 2013 about potential developments that would allow us to input
data into computers by using holographic keyboards projected onto any surface.
Lenovo is developing such technology, but its still not viable.

Tony Stark easily interacts

with maps and plans
advanced technology
using a gesture based,
holographic interface.

Development of tricorders, devices that analyze medical problems via non-invasive scanning
has been in the spotlight for years. The Tricorder XPrize challenge produced 10 finalist teams
that are supposed to launch their inventions by early 2016.

Dr. Spocks device can diagnose conditions nonintrusively, just by scanning the patient.

Analyzes heart rate, ECG, blood pressure, blood

oxygen levels and more, based on touch alone.

In time, we will receive treatment customized to our molecular makeup and genetic
background. This trend has already started impacting treatments in oncology. Oncompass
and Foundation Medicine provide personalized therapy suggestions to patients based on
genetic data.

The iKnife is a surgical device that can detect cancerous tissue while cutting it. It means
surgeons dont have to send the sample to the pathology lab but can identify it during the
operation. The idea is great but there have been no steps forward in this space for years.

Robot assistants could support the work of healthcare professionals with superhuman
physical strength and precision. Hstar Technologies developed such a robot nurse but it
hasnt attracted global attention yet.

A robot companion makes the life of an elderly

patient living alone better.

Lifts patients safely, which prevents a premier

health hazard among nurses - back injuries.

Medical records used to be on paper, then in digital format, but most of them are still purely
dumb, simple text. They should be semantic, smart and inter-operable so algorithms can
analyze and make use of them. Practice Fusion has become widely popular in this space.

Smartwatches could become the next big thing after wearable trackers. Their importance in
healthcare is still not clear, but the Apple Watch and the Pebble sold millions of units, while
Google is developing a health-tracking wristband tailored for the needs of clinical trials.

Wearable devices have flooded the market, but digital tattoos and smart clothes would make
monitoring health simpler and less obtrusive. While Levis and Google are working on
intelligent clothes, VitalConnect released a patch that can measure vital signs for days.
The next step is a real digital tattoo.

Smart clothes make it possible to

interact with devices and monitor
health - without additional gadgets.

A Scottish group led by Lee Cronin has been working on printing out drugs. The FDA finally
approved a 3D printed drug in epilepsy in 2015. It has also been demonstrated that viable
liver and kidney tissues can be printed out in 3D; as well as bone, cartilage and even blood
vessels.

A whole human body is printed out in 3D using

only a wounded arm.

Organovos printed tissues allow pharmaceutical

researchers to test drugs without involving
animals or actual humans.

Pills with tiny electronics that emit a signal when they make contact with digestive fluids. A
patch on the patients body detects this, notifying physicians that the medication was taken.

Proteus Digital Health made a patch available that helps physicians improve the patients
compliance. Proteus Discover analytical services and reports include daily health habits and
medication-taking patterns that can help physicians to quickly identify the challenges
associated with drug regimens. Smartphone apps help stick to the therapy, but no microchip
filled drug pills became available which would provide clear data about adherence which was
the first intention of Proteus.

The joint efforts of companies printing out biomaterials and laboratories focusing on creating
artificial organs (e.g. Prof. Anthony Atala) might lead to having at least transplantable tissues
soon.

Bioprinted bladder at Wake Forest University, shortly before being transplanted into live
patients to replace failing organs.

The main character has an exoskeleton attached

to his body giving him augmented strength.

The first cyborg competition will take place in

Switzerland in 2016.

Exoskeletons let paralyzed people walk again. Bionic eyes restored partial sight treating
disorders. The first cyborg sport event called Cybathlon will take place in Switzerland in
2016. Neil Harbisson is the first person with an antenna implanted in his skull that uses
audible vibrations to report information to him. This way he can hear colors.

A smartphone application called pApp aimed at letting physicians create customized

applications for their patients. It hasnt turned out to be a viable solution.

There is at least one good example when a smartphone app is covered by a health insurer.
The insurer is Caterna in Germany. It turns out there is evidence that certain apps improve
patient safety and compliance.

A humanoid robot aided by artificial intelligence

helps human astronauts in their mission.

Boston Dynamics developed a humanoid robot

that can walk and lift heavy objects.

Google acquired Boston Dynamics, the developer of Petman, the humanoid robot, as well
as robot animals. The company has been releasing videos about these inventions but no
real product has been made available.

Sophisticated therapies need to include experts and methods from different specialties. An
MRI-guided gene therapy that became available in 2014 stands as a good example.

The use of social media in medical communication and healthcare purposes has become
common. Physicians and patients write blogs, leave comments on medical papers and
organize discussions on Twitter. Symplur tracks thousands of relevant healthcare hashtags
to facilitate this.

A radiology device tells patients what % of their

cells are cancerous and cures them immediately.

GE Healthcare has unveiled a device that can

show organs in unprecedented details.

GE developed a software, called cSound, that can collect a practically infinite amount of data
to create an image of the human body. GE presented the 4D heart imaging solution in 2015.
Finally, we could see organs rendered as they actually are.

Ray Kurzweil and others have been talking about nanometer sized robots swimming in our
blood. Scallop microbots that can swim in bodily fluid were described and demonstrated in
2015. They cannot measure vital signs yet, but that is the next step forward.

Scallop-like bots can swim, using actuators to generate an electric field which propels them.

This is a biological technique involving the use of light to control cells in living tissue, typically
neurons, that have been genetically modified to express light-sensitive proteins. Karl
Deisseroth described the major obstacles that need be overcome to make it a viable
technique.

Certain devices change the way we communicate with technology. The Myo armband
measures muscle movements to control devices from a distance.

Gesture based interaction

with software.

Digitized muscle movements

used for data input.

AI controlled pod performs any surgery without

human control.

Enables more precise incisions & less scarring,

making previously unfeasible operations possible

The most famous and sophisticated surgical robot system, daVincis new and improved
version has become available since 2013.

Due to the lack of doctor shortages, care cannot be delivered to everyone. Telemedicine
solutions and smartphone applications such as Heal or go2nurse can become the Ubers of
healthcare, bringing the attention and expertise of doctors to the masses.

Patients should have the chance of getting into clinical trials when those are relevant and
open. Trial Reach connects patients to such trials. The long term goal is performing trials in
silico using supercomputers.

IBM Watson has been used at oncology centers in the US. It checks the patients medical
records, studies and textbooks. Then it suggests therapies and predicts their potential
success rates. The Medical Sieve project aims to help radiologists in identifying lesions.

It features an AI-controlled humanoid robot that

can trick people into doing something for them.

It is used in oncology clinics in gathering

information from studies about a patients case to
find the best treatment.

There are more and more people who implant or attach various technological devices to their
bodies to improve certain human capabilities. Popular Sciences recent, dedicated issue to
the topic shows the trends rising importance.

Hospitals as they operate today are fast becoming obsolete. Home diagnostic devices,
wearables, digital tattoos, telemedicine, genomics and other technologies are changing the
way we deliver healthcare. Hospital care should catch up with these trends. A new hospital
in Abu Dhabi that opened in 2015 with the help of experts from Cleveland Clinic might be a
good example, as it is entirely digital therefore paperless.

NXT Health reimagined the patient room in the hospitals.

Gesture based
interaction with software

Digitized muscle movements

used for data input

Brain-computer interfaces make it possible to interact with devices with our thoughts.
It has been shown that a robotic arm or prosthetic device can be controlled this way.
But such devices are still not widely available, and their functionality is limited, as we
dont understand the brains inner workings well enough. The Human Brain
Project was started to discover how the brain works.

Humans operate hybrid

bodies from pods via
direct mind-to-mind
connection.

Virtual reality has finally started going mainstream. When a Google Cardboard was given out
in a New York Times edition, millions of people could experience what virtual reality is like.

People can live virtual lives while getting obese

sitting in a chair for many hours a day.

The head-mounted device allows people to get

an immersive feeling of virtual reality.