The Bright Future of Medicine: Microchips
By Rishi Ganesh
As humans move into the age of technology, our lives have improved hundredfold. Whether it was the introduction of the commercial airplane, the Internet, or other life-changing innovations, to tiny conveniences like Roombas and Spotify, tech has given everyone more freedom and raised the standard of living across the world. However, one of the most underrated facets of the tech boom has been in the medical field. The devices and aids that doctors and healthcare providers have been given have allowed us to increase birth survival and life span while decreasing disease and mortality. And these innovations reach a new level with each passing day, giving us more cutting-edge means of helping others.
The newest in the long line of medical innovations is also one of the smallest innovations yet: microchips. Microchips, tiny computers framed on a board, can be implanted in humans in order to administer medication, quickly provide biological profiles, and greatly speed up the diagnostic process. While some may find the idea of a computer chip in one’s body uncomfortably close to a man-machine melding, it is without a doubt the future of medicine as we know it.
At the University of Houston, a team of scientists has taken biotechnology one step further into the field of medicine, developing a potential method to treat brain cancer. The microchip, implanted into the brain, is able to deliver precise, pinpointed doses of medications into extremely specific parts of the brain, rendering it a much more effective treatment than the current solutions of either chemotherapy or spinal tap injection. These methods often prove to be extremely unwieldy and carry numerous side effects, especially those infamously that come with chemotherapy.
The ability of microchips is something that can change the lives of the families surrounding the patient as well, as it allows the patient to have more freedoms with regards to their everyday lives. Spinal taps and chemotherapy often render the patient unable to move or very weak, not allowing family members to experience their loved one in a clear state. I know this from firsthand experience, as my grandfather was bedridden due to brain cancer, and the resulting spinal tap injection treatment, going up from the lumbar region of the spine, resulted in an inability to move around, constantly having to be surrounded by equipment in order to administer treatments. It made the weeks and months leading up to his passing difficult for my family to interact with him to even a fraction of the degree they were able to normally, and that emotional impact was significant.
Microchips in medicine present a daunting, yet brilliant prospect for the field. If scientists can learn to master the ability of microchips to have an impact in surgery, treatment, diagnosis, or somewhere else along the healthcare chain, patients and their families may be able to experience the most important goal of medicine to a fuller degree: Life.
