Health care

Writing for Fast Company, Lecturer Guadalupe Hayes-Mota '08, SM '16, MBA '16 shares three strategies that are reshaping access to healthcare and medicine, especially in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). “Integrating local production enhancement, strategic partnership and pooled purchasing power represents a new dawn in global health care,” writes Hayes-Mota. “These innovative approaches are pivotal in making quality medicine and healthcare accessible to all, particularly LMICs.”

Forbes contributor William Haseltine spotlights how MIT researchers developed a biosensor ingestible capsule that can gather and transmit information on a patient’s condition to a physician. Haseltine notes that “aside from respiratory and heart rate monitoring, future applications for the pill could come from alterations in its design, leading to other avenues of health monitoring. These may include digestive health, blood sugar monitoring and cancer cell detection.” 

Lecturer Guadalupe Hayes-Mota '08, SM '16, MBA '16 writes for the National Academy of Engineering to discuss the importance of a “well-functioning healthcare supply chain.” “A connected supply chain represents a paradigm shift, offering the potential to revolutionize how drugs are developed, produced, and delivered to patients,” writes Hayes-Mota. “Embracing this approach can enhance drug delivery efficiency, ensure patient satisfaction, and ultimately contribute to a healthier and more prosperous global community.”

Forbes contributor William Haseltine spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a flexible ultrasound patch that can be used to help estimate bladder volume. “The applications for long-term therapeutic and regenerative medicine for the ultrasound patch are innumerable, only to be limited by the imagination of those implementing their use,” writes Haseltine. “Among the most forthcoming are situations where someone may be unable to visit their physician for a medically-administered ultrasound.”

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere are developing an electronic pill that can “measure heart rate, breathing rate and core temperature – from inside a human stomach,” reports Celia Ford for Wired. “We have a solution that’s relatively simple and enables access broadly,” says Prof. Giovanni. “I think that can be really transformative.”

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have developed a swallowable “technopill” that can monitor vital signs from inside the body, reports Dennis Thompson for HealthDay. “The ability to facilitate diagnosis and monitor many conditions without having to go into a hospital can provide patients with easier access to healthcare and support treatment,” says Prof. Giovanni Traverso.

A team including researchers from MIT have developed a new ingestible ‘smart capsule’ that uses a patient’s vital signs to detect sleep disorders or opioid overdoses. “The findings suggest that the ingestible was able to measure health metrics on par with medical-grade diagnostic equipment at the sleep center,” writes Malak Saleh for Engadget. 

Prof. Gio Traverso speaks with Lizzy Lawler at STAT about a new ingestible sensor that monitors a person’s heart and breathing rates to detect sleep disorders. “The vision for sleep evaluation is the ability to detect these events wherever you are in the nation, and not having to go to a sleep lab and an inpatient setting,” says Traverso.

New Scientist reporter Alice Klein writes that MIT researchers have developed an ingestible electronic device that “can measure your breathing and heart rate from inside your gut [and] could potentially diagnose sleep apnea and even detect opioid overdoses.” The device could one day allow “people to be assessed for sleep apnea wirelessly and cheaply while at home.”

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a new type of cancer treatment – a gel that can be used to deliver cancer drugs for solid tumors, reports WHDH. “It’s really transformative to try and help patients whose tumors are very resistant to therapy,” says Prof. Giovanni Traverso.

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a swallowable electronic capsule that can be used to help diagnose sleep apnea and other sleep disorders, reports Ian Randall for Newsweek. “Conventional laboratory and home sleep studies require the patient to be attached to many different sensors,” says Prof. Giovanni Traverso. “As you can imagine, trying to sleep with all of this machinery can be challenging. [The] ingestible capsule just requires that the patient swallow the vitamin-sized pill. It's easy and unobtrusive and can accurately measure both respiratory rate and heart rate while the patient sleeps."

Ashley Smart, associate director of the Knight Science Journalism Program, writes for Undark about the impact of commercialized genetic tests on research involving new genetic links. “Even among some researchers who are optimistic about using polygenic scores to screen for physical health conditions, there is one emerging application of polygenic scores that makes them uneasy: the prediction of risks for depression and other psychiatric conditions,” writes Smart.

President Biden has awarded Prof. Emeritus Subra Suresh ScD '81, the former dean of the MIT School of Engineering, the National Medal of Science for his “pioneering research across engineering, physical sciences, and life sciences,” reports Alexa Gagosz for The Boston Globe. Prof. James Fujimoto '79, SM '81, PhD '84, research affiliate Eric Swanson SM '84, and David Huang '85, SM '89, PhD '93 were awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, “the nation’s highest award for technical achievement.”

Graduate student Sarah Gurev and her colleagues have developed a new AI system named EVEscape that can, “predict alterations likely to occur to viruses as they evolve,” reports Erin Prater for Fortune. Gurev says that with the amount of data the system has amassed, it “can make surprisingly accurate predications.”

Forbes reporter Howard Gleckman spotlights Prof. Amy Finkelstein’s new book, “We’ve Got You Covered: Rebooting American Health Care.” Finkelstein and her co-author propose a, “highly provocative, radical alternative to our current mess,” by combining, “a global health budget with universal, free, basic care for everybody,” Gleckma explains.