"While American companies operate in radically different ways than they did 40 years ago, the sheltered, government-dominated sectors of the economy — especially education, health care and the welfare state — operate in astonishingly similar ways," David Brooks writes in The New York Times.
That is the most worrisome thing about Obamacare. In corporate America, command-and-control is dead, having given way to "edge of network," hierarchies are flattening, and knowledge is being sucked in from everywhere, including outside of the company. Companies post technical problems on special websites and researchers around the world bid to solve them.
Against this, we have Washington doing its best to consolidate power and decision-making in its bureaucratic hallways. Paradoxically, this is an era of miracles and wonders -- every day brings some new astounding breakthrough in medicine. These usually mean some more effective and more efficient way to cure something -- which means cheaper.
For example:
Researchers have long tried to get the optic nerve to regenerate when injured, with some success, but no one has been able to demonstrate recovery of vision. A team at Boston Children’s Hospital reports a three-pronged intervention that not only got optic nerve fibers to grow the full length of the visual pathway (from retina to the visual areas of the brain), but also restored some basic elements of vision in live mice.
Tiny, wearable gadgets that monitor and record the data of the body’s weight, heart rate, activity levels and other vital signs can change the game in health care. Sonny Vu, co-founder of the medical-device company AgaMatrix, has already developed the first FDA-approved mobile attachment for Apple’s iPhone that acts as a sensor in detecting glucose levels. Vu believes this is one of the many devices that our bodies will harness to keep us up-to-date on what is going on with our health. Mobile devices are popular and will continue to gain popularity, so it makes sense to integrate it with the healthcare system. People can text, check Facebook and ensure that they have normal blood pressure because everything is readily available like the shirt on their back.
An ultrasensitive biosensor that could allow for early detection of cancer and for personalized medicine tailored to the specific biochemistry of individual patients has been developed by Purdue University researchers. The biosensor combines a mechanical sensor, which identifies a biomolecule based on its mass or size, with an electrical sensor that identifies molecules based on their electrical charge. The sensor makes it possible to detect small quantities of DNA fragments and proteins deformed by cancer long before the disease is visible through imaging or other methods.
A woman who lost the use of her limbs after a devastating stroke nearly 15 years ago has taken a sip of coffee by guiding a robotic arm with her thoughts. The 58-year-old used a brain implant to control the robot and bring a flask of the coffee to her lips, the first time she had picked up anything since she was paralysed and left unable to speak by a catastrophic brain stem stroke. Doctors hailed the feat as the first demonstration of an implant that directly controls a reaching and gripping robotic arm by sensing and decoding the patient's brain signals. Watch it here:
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