10 medical breakthroughs that sound like science fiction

The Bionic Eye

The Argus II takes a video signal from a camera built into sunglasses and
wirelessly transmits that image to implants in the retinas of people who have lost
their vision. Though its been available in Europe since 2011, the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) only approved the eye earlier this year. This really is like
Star Trek technology, Roizen says.

The system isn't perfect. It lets a blind person regain basic functions like walking on a
sidewalk without stepping off a curb, and distinguishing black from white socks, but
only lets you read one giant-sized word at a time on a Kindle. Plus, as the retina
itself heals over the implant, the quality of vision decreases. The Argus II is currently
only approved for people who have lost their sight from retinal pigmentosiswhich
affects 1 in 4,000 Americans. But the technology could The Seizure Stopper

For the 840,000 epileptics suffering from sudden, uncontrollable seizures, the
NeuroPace is like a defibrillator for your brain, Roizen says. The system includes
sensors implanted in the brain that can spot the first tremors of an oncoming seizure.
Then it sends electrical pulses that counteract the brain's own haywire signals,
stopping the seizure in its tracks. Even more impressive: The NeuroPace can be
fine-tuned by doctors based on its performance. In the first year it was available,
seizure episodes were reduced by an average of 40 percentbut 2 years later, they
dropped by 53 percent. (Know what symptoms warrant a trip to your doctor: Learn
the 7 Pains You Shouldnt Ignore. )

The Hepatitis Cure

Until recently, treatment for hepatitis C fell into the good-but-not-great category, with
only around 70 percent of patients being cured. And that was after as much as 48
weeks of a strict anti-viral drug regimen, including injections of interferonwhich
causes a number of debilitating side effects. But the new drug Sofosbuvir is a much
more potent killer of hep C, with success in as many as 95 percent of patients. Even
more, the medication only has to be administered for 12 weeks, sans interferon
injections.

The Anesthesiologist's iPad

Surgeons may get more glory, but anesthesiologists probably play the most vital role
in keeping you alive during surgery. They're the last face you see before you're put
into a medicated sleep so deep you don't even notice that your body is being peeled
open. Between keeping track of your heart rate, breathing, and brain functions, an
anesthesiologist also needs to be familiar with the ins and outs of the procedure so
they can adjust sedatives and painkillerswithout causing complications.

The new perioperative information management systems include software on

touchscreen-enabled computers that can warn doctors if things are going south,
keep track of the surgeon's workflows, and document every step of the procedure. All
are essential when surgeries last up to 16 hours and docs need to pass the reins to
a fresh pair of eyes.

The Fecal Transplant

The idea of taking someone else's poop and giving it a new home in your own colon
may sound repulsive, but the treatment has proven remarkably effective in curing
infections of C. difficilea nasty bacteria that kills 15,000 people each year. Take
heart: The digested food waste in feces isn't itself the cure. You're simply gaining
some of the helpful bacteria living in the donor's gutlike a farmer choosing the
hardiest crops to seed next year's fields.

The bacteria produce proteins that are involved in a lot more diseases than we
realized, says Roizen. Still grossed out? Researchers in Canada have developed a
method to deliver just the bacteriano fecesvia an oral pill, skipping the need for a
poo enema.

The Heart-Saving Hormone

Around one in four people who are hospitalized for heart failure don't last much
longer than a year. But a new drug called Serelaxin has upped the odds of survival
by as much as 37 percent, according to a University of California, San Francisco
study. It's a synthetic version of the hormone relaxin, which is produced by pregnant
women to help with the increased stress carrying a fetus places on the heart. It not
only opens up your blood vessels to supply your organs oxygen, but it has anti-
inflammatory properties, Roizen says. Serelaxin's life-saving potential is profound
enough that in June, the FDA dubbed it a breakthrough therapy, putting it on a
faster track for approval in hospitals.

The Robot Doctor

If you're undergoing a colonoscopy, you'll want something to take the edge off (for
obvious reasons). But even a light sedative to help you snooze while doctors spelunk
your butt requires the presence of an anesthesiologistwhich translates to $1 billion
in additional medical expenses, according to a study in the Journal of the American
Medical Association.

Enter the Sedasys: a computer with an attachment on the IV that meters out the
correct amount of sedative and monitors vitals. It even includes an earpiece to wake
patients up if necessary. That allows docs to administer light to moderate sedation
on their own, with a single anesthesiologist supervising multiple patients. If Michael
Jackson's doctor had this and knew how to use it, then Michael Jackson would still
be alive today, says Roizen.

The Better Heart-Attack Risk Test

Today you get a cholesterol test to assess your risk of heart attack, but soon you'll be
more worried about your trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) levels. Why? People with
the highest levels of TMAO in their blood have 2.5 times the risk of a heart attack
compared to those with the lowest levels, according to a recent study in the New
England Journal of Medicine. TMAO is a compound produced by intestine bacteria
yep, the same ones involved in fecal transplantsafter you eat choline, which is
found in eggs, red meat, and dairy.

Once in your bloodstream, TMAO accelerates the process of cholesterol forming into
plaques in your arteries. We're learning why red meat is hazardous, and what could
be done to avoid that hazard, Roizen says. Beyond simply avoiding red meat,
preventive steps could include probiotics or medications that pinch off TMAO-
producing pathways. (Cholesterol is so 2012. Meet today's artery enemy with The
New Heart Threat. )

The Precision-Guided Cancer Treatment

The difficult goal in any cancer treatment is to kill the tumor while leaving healthy
cells alone. Recently, a better understanding of what makes cancer cells tick has
allowed scientists to develop a class of drugs that pinpoint a weakness in cancer's
uncontrolled growth. For example, in lymphomas and leukemias, scientists have
determined that the growth is controlled by a protein called Bruton's tyrosine kinase
(BTK). After years of experimentation, doctors developed a new drug called Ibrutinib
that blocks BTK.

A pair of studies in the New England Journal of Medicine this summer found that the
oral pill helped 71 percent of chronic leukemia patients and 68 percent of patients
with a type of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Most importantly, Ibrutinib killed off the
lymphoma while leaving the rest of the immune system alone. Hopefully this will
lead to a whole new class of drugs that will be cancer cell-specific, says Roizen.
(When you get the worst news of

soon help the more than 1.75 million people who suffer from macular degeneration.
(The eyes are the window to themind? Find out what insights your eyes have on
the brain