Top 10 medical innovations for 2015

What innovations are ‘game changers’ in your field? That is what medical professionals at the Ohio-based Cleveland Clinic and their peers asked themselves last year. Their annual list of top 10 Medical Innovations, announced during the clinic’s 2014 Medical Innovation Summit, details the most promising and upcoming inventions and technologies that clinical leaders believe will have a major impact on healthcare in 2015.

Out of about 700 nominations for the 2015 list, 40 physicians in a variety of health fields voted and narrowed it down to the 10 below:

1) Mobile stroke units: These mobile stroke units are high-tech ambulances staffed with a paramedic, a critical care nurse and a CAT scan technologist. Telemedicine allows specialists to consult via broadband video.

2) Dengue fever vaccine: A vaccine for this mosquito-borne virus, affecting more than 50 million people in more than 100 countries every year, has been developed and tested by vaccine manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur. It is expected to be on the market by the end of 2015.

3) Quick, painless and cost-effective blood testing: This new device can draw a single drop of blood from the tip of a finger, and good news – it is almost painless. It is expected to lower the cost of blood draws.

4) PCSK9 inhibitors for cholesterol reduction: Statins, a class of drugs, are used to reduce cholesterol; however, some patients may be statin-intolerant. Companies such as Sanofi, Regeneron and Amgen are developing PCSK9 inhibitors, alternative cholesterol-lowering drugs expected to be approved by the FDA in 2015.

5) Antibody-drug conjugates: A new approach to treating advanced cancer involves the use of cytotoxic agents to selectively kill tumour cells without damaging healthy tissue – as is the risk with traditional chemotherapy.

6) Immune checkpoint inhibitors: Newly developed drugs that work together with chemotherapy and/or radiation to help to boost the immune system and offer long-term remissions from metastatic melanoma.

7) Improved, leadless cardiac pacemaker: To eliminate the risk of infection from artificial pacemakers with faulty or damaged wires, much smaller pacemakers about the size of a pill capsule have been developed, which can be inserted directly into the heart.

8) New drugs for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF): This lethal condition impairs lung function through scarring of the air sacs. Pending approval are two new drugs, pirfenidone and nintedanib, the first-ever treatments for IPF.

9) Single-dose intra-operative radiation therapy (IORT) for breast cancer: Radiation is delivered in one dose during surgical removal of lumps, eliminating the need for weeks of radiation therapy.

10) New drug for heart failure: Angiotensin-receptor neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI) has been proven to increase the survival rate of heart failure patients, as compared to standard medications such as enalapril.

Further links:
Forbes.com
Summit.clevelandclinic.org
Cleveland.com
Sanofipasteur.com