Already in use in some hospitals in Japan—including a model shaped like a teddy bear—robotic nurses give directions and can even pick patients up. The robots could hit the U.S. in the coming decade, a development which some say could cut costs and reduce the burden on overworked nurses.
David Guttenfelder / AP Photo
Dutch pharmaceutical company Organon is one of many companies attempting to be the first to put a "male pill" on the market. The regimen would include a daily pill, which stops production of testosterone and sperm, and a monthly shot, which restores some testosterone. Other researchers and companies are exploring the possibility of a monthly testosterone shot, which would help shut down testicular production of sperm, or a testosterone gel that could be applied to the skin. Long talked-about, some form of hormonal male birth control may make its way to our medicine cabinets by 2020—but will men be enthusiastic about the concept?
SSPL / Getty Images
Though herbal products like Avlimil already claim to help women with low sex drives, there may soon be pharmaceutical options. A failed antidepressant called Flibanserin is being hailed as a possible "female Viagra," a pill women could take to increase their sex drive. Flibanserin is not the only drug intended for a separate ailment that ended up being used to treat sexual dysfunction: Viagra was originally synthesized as heart medication, until researchers discovered its astounding "side effect."
Gregory Bull / AP Photo
While in certain ways we already have vaccines against cervical and liver cancer—in the form of vaccines against the diseases that cause those diseases (HPV and Hepatitis B, respectively)—some researchers believe we'll soon see a vaccine that helps cancer patients' immune systems actually kill cancer cells. One such drug, Stimuvax, a therapeutic vaccine currently undergoing trials, helps the immune system identify cancer cells expressing an antigen called MUC1, and could treat breast, prostate, and lung cancer, among others.
Here, Sara Kubankin of Salem, Ohio, receives one of her six daily vaccinations to treat pancreatic cancer. Kubankin is participating in a trial of immune-system enhancing cancer drugs.
Despite the enormous strides made in the last decade on drugs for HIV-positive patients, doctors, researchers, and health-care activists are still desperate for a vaccine, which would ideally halt the epidemic, as vaccinations once did for polio and smallpox. But because HIV is a difficult-to-understand disease with a zero rate of recovery, it poses serious problems to immunologists hoping to vaccinate against it. With some researchers crowing about the first successful HIV vaccine trial, which took place in Thailand last month, many are hoping that we might see an FDA-approved vaccine within the next 10 years.
Rodger Bosch, AFP / Getty Images
Many pharmaceutical companies are eagerly searching for a pill that could help obese people lose weight. The over-the-counter weight-loss drug Orlistat—marketed as Alli—has proven moderately effective, but thanks to side effects such as loose stools and incontinence, it hasn't been widely adopted. Researchers are now looking into the efficacy of certain seratonin-regulating drugs, such as antidepressants, in helping prevent weight gain and curb overeating.
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Even as the race for the HIV vaccine goes on, many researchers are hoping to find new avenues of prevention—particularly ones that empower women in cultures where condom use remains stigmatized. Vaginally applied microbicide gels, currently undergoing trials, may be the next great weapon in the fight against the disease. Though the most recent trials show microbicide gel's effectiveness to be moderate at best, an improved gel product could be an important new weapon in the struggle to control the spread of HIV.
Denis Farrell / AP Photo
Accompanying robotic nurses, major advances have been made in the science-fiction field of robotic surgery over the last decade. The next step for something like the da Vinci Surgical System, a complex robotic tool used by surgeons for procedures like gastric bypasses and valve repairs, is miniaturization, according to UNeMed President Michael J. Dixon. Scientists at the University of Nebraska are working on remote-controlled robots that could work from inside a person’s body. “It’s in the early stages, but it could be like
Fantastic Voyage,” Dixon says.
Here, surgeons use the da Vinci robot to aid a hernia operation at the University Hospital Geneva.
The next revolution in the way we give and receive health care may not have a directly medical component at all. By centralizing and digitizing health records, Google hopes to streamline health-care delivery, which can be stymied when people switch doctors frequently, leaving incomplete records scattered across multiple regions, practices, and hospitals. Though currently in the beta stages, providers, patients and insurance companies looking to save money, improve care, and avoid costly and unnecessary procedures may increasingly turn to Google Health—and other services like it—to add efficiency to a system that badly needs it. A downside? Privacy concerns about storing highly sensitive personal information online.
