Although solutions like three-dimensional (3D) printing and the Internet of Things (IoT) have been around for years, they continue to advance. With every new year comes new features and apps, many of which can improve well-being or even save lives, including these eight technological innovations.
1. Image recognition
AI-based image recognition tools have become good at saving lives. Harvard Medical School students recently developed an artificial intelligence model that has a 94% accuracy rate in detecting cancers, substantially outperforming comparable programs. It was trained on 15 million unlabeled images and 60,000 full-slide tissue images.
2. Mobile applications
Mobile apps are no longer just about combating boredom: emergency services professionals can use them to save lives. Medical services software often provides a set of modules and applications that keep first responders on their toes. Recent statistics show that departments that integrated software solutions enjoyed improvements in their efficiency and performance.
Apps like these work on tablets, smart watches, and phones, ensuring firefighters stay connected whether they’re at the station, driving a fire truck, or actively fighting flames. With global positioning system tracking, secure communications, and real-time emergency alerts, they can save more lives without risking their own as often.
3. Artificial intelligence
Have you ever talked to a large language model? Despite having thousands or even millions of conversations simultaneously, it makes your experience unique. That’s the beauty of this technology.
Medical professionals recognized the untapped potential of AI when it first gained popularity. It is now being incorporated into hospitals around the world. Whether you diagnose diseases, recommend self-care activities, or act as a virtual assistant, you can use personalized data sets and past conversations to hyper-personalize medicine.
4. 3D printing
Did you know that a 3D printer can create prosthetics and tissues? Soon, the days of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on medical equipment or organ transplants will be a thing of the past. Since inexpensive machines cost as little as $100, you could even build a medical or assistive device yourself.
5. Gene therapy
Scientists can use gene therapy to replace, add, turn off, or modify genes to treat diseases or solve health problems. This technology may seem futuristic, but it already exists. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) are a genome editing tool used to selectively modify the DNA of living organisms.
So far, hundreds of people have been treated with experimental CRISPR therapies, including a teenager in the United Kingdom who was diagnosed with leukemia. His cancer affected his T cells, which are white blood cells that fight infection and disease.
Using CRISPR, doctors at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital modified a donor’s T cells to track and attack the patient’s cancerous T cells without being rejected by their immune system. The treatment worked: his cancer remains undetectable. Tools like this could help humanity defeat devastating diseases like cancer.
6. Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology operates at the nanometer scale. For reference, a nanometer is one billionth of a meter. Something so small has a surprisingly huge impact on fitness and well-being. In the healthcare sector, medical professionals use pills to deploy nanorobots that detect diseases; No risky surgery or invasive procedures required.
Thanks to nanotechnology, diseases that were previously untreatable can now be stopped with nanoscale drugs. This technology has even more applications outside of the healthcare field. For example, nanosensors can detect allergens or pathogenic contaminants in food manufacturing, preventing foodborne illnesses from claiming lives.
7. Wearable technology
The popularity of IoT devices is increasing exponentially. Experts expect 30 billion Internet-enabled devices to be online by 2030, up from an estimated 17 billion in 2024. This trend represents a dramatic increase in connected medical devices in the near future.
Wearable devices like fitness trackers, smart watches, and biological monitors can track vital signs such as heart rate, oxygen level, and blood pressure throughout the day. This allows for remote monitoring, helping doctors ensure high-risk patients remain stable. This way, people recovering from surgery or suffering from chronic illnesses gain more control over their lives.
8. Voice activation
How could voice activation technology save lives? Someone who falls and can’t get up can use a smart speaker or virtual assistant to call emergency services. Alexa Emergency Assist, Alexa’s suite of emergency assistance features, can alert emergency contacts if a call is made. An emergency response agent can request the dispatch of first responders as needed.
Thanks to interconnected smart home technologies, people can protect themselves even when they are away from home. Both Alexa Emergency Assist and Google Nest can notify the owner if the sound of breaking glass or an alarm is detected. This way, they can save their pets from carbon monoxide or avoid encountering a robbery in progress.
These technologies will save lives in 2025 and beyond
You shouldn’t take technology in your life for granted. While technological innovations like nanorobot swarms and CRISPR are cutting-edge, even relatively mundane solutions like smart speakers or fitness trackers can offer protection or help eradicate diseases. Who knows, maybe one day they will even save your life.
Oscar Collins is the editor-in-chief of Modded, where he writes about health and fitness. Follow him on Twitter @TModded to receive regular updates on their work, and subscribe to Modded Minute to learn more.
