Cleveland Clinic Unveils 'Top 10' Medical Innovation...( Ten Emerging Technologies Will Sh...),Health

Ten Emerging Technologies Will Shape Healthcare Next Year, Hospital

Predicts

CLEVELAND, Oct. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Cleveland Clinic today announced its Top 10 Medical Innovations list, highlighting technologies which will likely have a big impact on healthcare in 2008.

The list of breakthrough devices and therapies was selected by a panel of Cleveland Clinic physicians and scientists and was unveiled during Cleveland Clinic's 2007 Medical Innovation Summit, which is currently underway. They include therapies for valvular heart disease, unusually high cholesterol, and severe neurologic disorders.

"These innovations represent exciting technologies which may have a major impact in clinical practice in the near future," said Tomislav Mihaljevic, M.D., who chaired the Top 10 Medical Innovations List. "We believe this list represents the best, innovative approaches in health care today affecting some of the most prevalent diseases affecting millions of patients world-wide."

The Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2008 are:

10. Dual energy source computed tomography (CT) imaging: The dual source CT features two X-ray sources and two radiation detectors which allow for imaging of patients more quickly and with less radiation. The speed at which the dual-source scanner operates allows physicians image patients with high or irregular heart rates, which used to be significant limitation of this technology.

9. Engineered cartilage products for joint repair: The use of biologic and engineering principles to design natural biomaterials that are used to replace joint cartilage tissue that is damaged from injury or arthritis. The materials are surgically implanted into the joint with the intent to restore the damaged cartilage and avoid artificial joint replacement.

8. Implanted device allowing neural control of objects by the severely disabled: Novel communication interfaces are being developed to provide
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