Future of Medical Electronics
                     Future of Medical Electronics
Gary Martin
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Over the last few decades, medical electronics strengthened 
health care infrastructure in different ways from medical test 
digitizing to therapeutic procedures with the help of tele-medicine 
and health IT. This fast growing domain needs experts from 
technology providing industries, key decision makers, stake 
holders, etc.
Medical electronics experienced double digit growth in recent 
years and this growth trajectory is expected to continue due to rise 
in chronic diseases, increased urbanization and population.
The U.S. National Academy of Engineering held a meeting in 2009 
and took inputs from people all over the world to determine 
technological challenges of the 21st century to encourage 
engineers to bring with solutions.
•The major challenges are: 1) to reduce labor in diagnosis 2) to 
advance health informatics and 3) to engineer better medicines. The 
future developments can be expected in fields where the use of 
robotic technology, telemedicine, body area networks, drug delivery 
mechanisms and electronic pills is large.
•1. Reducing labor in diagnosis
•The first challenge is reducing labor in diagnosis. With the 
advancement in the medical electronic devices, medical care 
expenses are increasing day by day. If this continuous to be the 
same in the next coming years it can’t sustain. This is exactly true in 
case of United states where health care costs are extreme. If the goal 
is to reduce the costs of health care one should look at the points 
where the costs are high. Costs are similar to medical and other 
services, which include raw materials, labor and capital. 
Advancements in the information technology and automation & 
robotics dictates the changes that are expected in health care.
To take the advantage of cost savings offered and time zone differences, 
many medical institutions outsource tasks reading of radio graphs and 
study of pathology slides. Use of robotic technology can reduce the cost 
and brings a positive impact on use of labor. Robots can be employed in 
child care and surgery can be performed by robots that are directed by 
doctor. This all leads to reduction in the cost in medical electronics 
industry.
2. Advancement in health informatics
Advancement in health informatics helps establish digital or electronic 
health records. This helps provide information with respect to the patients 
whenever necessary. The major challenge here is to give timely 
information to professionals at any part of the world. The present health 
information system that currently exists has some problem in interacting 
with one another in computer language. If a system is used to interact 
with spoken language rather than computer language then this challenges 
can be over come.
3. Engineering better medicines
To engineer better medicines is important as we have entered the 
period of personalized medicine. It is necessary to understand the 
patient’s condition and then give the medication. In the coming 
days, drugs and other treatments will be engineered depending of 
the individual needs while reducing the side effects otherwise 
drugs will be given to the clients based on their own specifications. 
Some other systems of future medical electronics are Body area 
networks, drug delivery mechanisms and electronic pills.
Body Area Networks (BANs)
These are compact wireless sensors connected to the body. To 
minimize the maintenance BANs have a long battery life. BANs 
monitor signs of pulse, blood pressure and blood glucose levels. 
The sensors on the body send the information to gateways such 
as PCs or mobile phones and finally to remote physicians. Three 
main areas where BANs are used are brain monitoring, cardiac 
monitoring and emotion monitoring.
Drug delivery mechanisms
Advancement in therapeutic methods will happen in the years to 
come. When compared to the bolus approach, today new 
methods of drug delivery that are natural are being developed. 
Improved methods of tissue engineering and regenerative 
medicine may help eliminate the need for certain drugs or 
hormonal replacement therapy.
Electronic pills
It does the functions like stimulate damaged tissue, targeted drug 
delivery for certain types of cancer, measure bio markers or 
monitor gastric problems. However, for charging those pills a non-
toxic power source is necessary. The pill battery is created by 
taking in the form of pill, which can produce current same as the 
normal or regular battery. The battery of the pill is made of 
biodegradable material found in the human body. As the work is in 
progress, it is expected that this will meet within a short term.
Drug delivery mechanisms
Advancement in therapeutic methods will happen in the years to come. 
When compared to the bolus approach, today new methods of drug 
delivery that are natural are being developed. Improved methods of tissue 
engineering and regenerative medicine may help eliminate the need for 
certain drugs or hormonal replacement therapy.
Electronic pills
It does the functions like stimulate damaged tissue, targeted drug delivery 
for certain types of cancer, measure bio markers or monitor gastric 
problems. However, for charging those pills a non-toxic power source is 
necessary. The pill battery is created by taking in the form of pill, which 
can produce current same as the normal or regular battery. The battery of 
the pill is made of biodegradable material found in the human body. As 
the work is in progress, it is expected that this will meet within a short 
term.
These are major challenge the future advancements in the medical 
electronics has to meet in the coming days.
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