这些医疗创新填补了关键的空白

《大众科学》（Popular Science）发布了第30期年度“百大创新发明”（The 100 Greatest Innovations）榜单——而名列前茅的都属于医疗创新。其中包括一些广受报道的突破，例如癌症免疫疗法中的定向杀手T细胞，以及基因编辑技术CRISPR，我之前曾撰文讨论过它们。不过，在这一长串显眼的创新之中，还有一些新颖而少有人知的发明——它们是一些设备，目的是解决从未有人尝试解决或至今无人能够解决的问题。

Aeroform组织扩张器就是其中之一。以下是《大众科学》的作者克莱尔·马尔达雷利和切尔西·哈维对它的描述：

“当一位女性经历乳房再造时，外科医生会在植入的囊体中注入生理盐水，让现有的组织伸展开来——这个过程非常痛苦，需要医生的关照、针管注射和止痛药。Aeroform可以让女性自己控制整个过程，整个节奏更能让人忍受。患者可以用无线装置控制二氧化碳容器，让它一点点地向硅脂植入体中释放气体。”

我愿意相信《大众科学》的描述，认为它会取得理论上的效果，不过这个想法本身就很棒：这种个性化的治疗方法取代了“适合所有人”的一刀切式解决方案，而且后者从来就无法适合所有人。

上榜的还包括可以帮助中风患者恢复手部活动和敏捷度的智能手套；让癫痫患者更容易监视夜晚发作情况的轻型可穿戴设备；还有一个无线母乳泵，榜单作者写道，它“足够安静，让女性可以在电话会议期间使用”。

所有这些发明的共同点是什么？就是以用户为核心。这些产品的设计都是为了简化消费者和患者的流程（中风康复、癫痫发作监控、吸母乳），而不是为了帮助医疗系统中的其他参与者（内科医生、医院、保险公司）。如果数字医疗革命可以继续向这个方向前进，那带来的益处对我们所有人来说都意义重大。

这里还要强调另一件事：《财富》在网上发布了一篇关于直觉外科公司（Intuitive Surgical）的有趣文章。正如我们所说，这家致力于机器人手术的先驱公司正在把“科幻小说中的医疗手段变成现实”。直觉外科公司是《财富》全新“未来公司50强”（Future 50）榜单中的创新公司之一。在这份榜单中，我们与咨询公司BCG合作，衡量了公司的DNA，也就是他们的文化、投资、专利、员工和其他内在指标，来寻找那些有望在未来几个月或几年里出现爆炸性增长的公司。

与榜单上的许多其他公司一样，直觉外科公司不断革新手术工具的秘诀，是一种不断自我革新的内在驱动力。而这个栏目的作者——头脑风暴健康日报的穆克吉——在捕捉这种本质上做得很棒。

这篇文章不可不看。 （财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

Popular Science is out with its 30th annual list of “The 100 Greatest Innovations” of the year—and the top dozen are in the category of health. The list includes some well-covered breakthroughs, such as targeted killer T cells in cancer immunotherapy and the gene-editing DIY’er CRISPR, which I’ve written about here and here. But among the litany of stand-out innovations are some novel and little-known inventions—devices, moreover, that set out to solve a problem that either no one had set out to solve before or that no one had been able to solve until now.

One of those is the Aeroform Tissue Expander System. Here’s how PopSci writers Claire Maldarelli and Chelsea Harvey describe it:

“When a woman undergoes breast reconstruction, surgeons stretch the existing tissue by injecting saline into implanted bladders—a painful process that demands doctor visits, needles, and analgesics. The Aeroform lets women control the process at their own, more-tolerable pace. Patients use a wireless controller to signal a CO2 cartridge to release air that stretches a silicone implant, bit by bit.”

I’ll take PopSci’s word for it that it works as promised, but the idea itself is brilliant: a personalized approach to healing designed to replace a “one-size-fits-all” solution that never was.

Also on the list is a smart glove that helps stroke victims recover hand movement and agility, a lightweight wearable that makes it easier for those with epilepsy to monitor night seizures, and a cordless breast-milk pump “that’s quiet enough for a woman to use while on a conference call,” the authors write.

The commonality to all of the above? User-centrism. These products are designed to help make a process (stroke rehab, seizure monitoring, breast milk pumping) easier for consumers and patients, not the myriad other players in the health system (physicians, hospitals, insurers). If the digital health revolution can keep moving the dial toward that notion, the dividends for all of us will be profound.

One more great story to highlight: Today, Fortune published online a fascinating read about Intuitive Surgical, a robotic surgery pioneer that, as we said, is turning “medical sci-fi into reality.” Intuitive Surgical is one of the innovative companies featured on Fortune’s brand new “Future 50” list, which we developed with consulting firm BCG and which analyzes companies’ DNA, so to speak—their cultures, investments, patents, workforces, and other internal metrics—to find those that are poised for explosive growth in the coming months and years.

As with so many other companies on the list, Intuitive Surgical’s secret sauce is an intrinsic drive to continually reinvent itself as it reinvents the tools of surgery. And the author of this feature—Brainstorm Health Daily’s very own Sy Mukherjee—did a terrific job of capturing that essence.

It’s a must-read.