Future Health - 8/14/23
Delivering care in the new virtual world…
Will COVID Virus Detectors Become The Norm? Researchers at Washington University at St. Louis have developed an innovative and cutting-edge technology that – I predict – will become the norm over the coming years. It is an “air monitor” that can detect the presence of the COVID virus in as little as 5 minutes with a very high degree of accuracy. The new technology is the outgrowth of a collaboration between the medical and engineering schools. The devices use an approach called a “wet cyclone” that samples the equivalent of 176 cubic feet of air in just 5 minutes. The simplicity is amazing. It simply goes from green to red if the virus is present in the air of the room! Even more exciting is the fact that the researchers are exploring how the device can be used for influenza, respiratory syncytial virus and other bugs. I predict that if these initial evaluations prove the value of the devices, we will see them on airplanes, in large auditoriums and other assorted gatherings where viruses are shared unbeknownst to the recipients. The proof of concept product is also small at only 1 foot wide and 10 inches tall. Imagine what a couple of years will do to the size of these devices. Is installing them on our mobile devices far down the road? Who knows? Technology marches on…
More Technology Innovation Contributed By AI/ML – The researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and McMaster University have collaborated to create a new antibiotic derived from artificial intelligence against a lethal drug-resistant bacterium, Acinetobacter baumannii which is most often associated with hospital acquired infections. I’m obviously a bit out-of-date since I had not heard of the bacterium. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) describes it as a “priority pathogen” because it can survive on surfaces for extended periods of time and acquire bacterial resistance from the acquired genes of other bacterial species. This is the good side of AI/ML at play and, it will no doubt become the norm in drug development among the pharmaceuticals in the coming months and years. We should expect more like this one in the not-too-distant future.
