DIGITAL HEALTHCARE
I t is often said that life imitates art. And in the increasingly science fiction world of healthcare, the saying is on the brink of coming true.
For the far-fetched plot of 1960s movie Fantastic Voyage, where a submarine is shrunk to smaller than a blood cell and sent into a patient’ s bloodstream to repair a blood clot, is no longer outlandish. NHS England’ s National Clinical Director for Innovation Tony Young believes we will soon be able to send in nanorobots to provide faster diagnoses and better cancer treatment.
He says Fantastic Voyage was“ science fiction”, adding:“ It’ s never going to happen. But actually, could nanorobotics get into blood vessels?”
Tony says:“ Sometimes medicine can be a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut,” with treatments like chemotherapy and radiation aggressive and clunky – nuclear in scale and in side-effects.
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