Medical Advances

Andi McDougal · **Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:24 pm Medical Advances**

If anyone watched the show about how Star Trek changed the world, they'd remember that MRI's and CT Scanners were helped along by the Star Trek World. We've gone from an EKG machine taking up most of a room and only being able to look at one view of the heart at a time to me, as a Paramedic, being able to do a 12 Lead (look at 12 different views of the electrical system of the heart) EKG, see how much Oxygen and CO2 is being carried in your blood stream, take your blood pressure, and sent it all to the hospital via a phone like all on a 15 pound Heart Monitor that's probably only 2 feet wide, 1 foot high, and 1 foot deep. Any thoughts on where the future of Medicine will go with Trekkies on the research teams?

Lord Borg · **Thu Apr 26, 2007 9:06 pm**

I have no doubt that medical technogy will evolve due to trek, many things came from trek.

What we'll see, I do not know, perhaps ways to diganose and see inside the body (Like X-Rays) will become smaller?

Andi McDougal · **Thu Apr 26, 2007 10:36 pm**

They already do have a "Full Body Scanner." It can produce a scan of the torso that includes the heart, lungs, kidneys, spine, liver, pancreas, gall bladder, thoracic aorta, abominal aorta, adrenal glands, lymph nodes, spleen and a few pelvic organs. It's supposed to be able to be used for early detection of heart disease and various other diseases and cancers. So what's next?

TrekkieMage · **Fri Apr 27, 2007 12:50 am**

Hm. I think that they're probably going to start working on more acurate and potable devices similar to tricorders. Something like that would be invaluable to medics.

Andi McDougal · **Fri Apr 27, 2007 10:11 pm**

I 100% agree with that. It would take a lot of the...how to put this...guess work out of prehospital medicine. It's not that it's guess work, it's just that we don't have X-rays, we don't have CT scanners or MRI's...it's just us, a monitor, a stethoscope, our training and a few other tools of the trade to help make a differential diagnosis. It can definitely be tough sometimes and a medical tricorder could make my life a WHOLE lot easier!

calvin · **Wed Sep 10, 2008 3:39 pm**

i dunno how much these things will be directly due to Trek, but i definitely see a lot of stuff portrayed on Star Trek becoming a reality.

i think nanotechnology will become much more prominent in the medical field. maybe we'll have nanites that can be injected into patients to repair their cardiovascular system (damaged blood vessels, clogged arteries, etc.) or even more revolutionary procedures.

i also think that there will be lots of advances in neurology. for instance, there was an episode of DS9 called "The Wire," i believe, which reveals that Garak has a brain-implant given to him by the Obsidian Order that artificially boosts his endorphin levels so to counteract any torture he's subjected to during interrogations by the enemy.

similar technology is already seeing limited trials in human beings. for instance, people who have chronic pain usually have to depend on addictive/habit-forming narcotics. but new technology & surgery techniques allow electrodes to be implanted in the brain's pleasure center. so instead of using drugs to activate the neurotransmitter receptors--which causes down regulation of receptor sites after a while, producing tolerance/dependence--the implant simply stimulates the pleasure center of the brain with electric impulses. once the device is calibrated, it can counteract most cases of chronic pain, and could also be a potential cure for clinical depression and bipolarism.