New Trends Poised to Change the Medical Landscape

Historically, diseases have been treated pharmacologically, via intensive surgery, or often a combination of both. Surgical procedures frequently involve significant bodily trauma, long recovery times, not to mention burdensome healthcare costs. However, with today's technology, patients can many times have the same or better outcomes through a minimally invasive approach. Using devices such as catheters dramatically reduces the risk, recovery time and costs associated with more complex operations.

Take, for example, stroke treatment, a prime example of the benefits of this approach in action. “Time is brain,” as they say, is a fundamental aspect of stroke treatment; in each minute of a stroke, 1.9 million neurons, 14 billion synapses, and 12 km (7.5 miles) of myelinated fibers are destroyed¹. Whereas strokes have traditionally been addressed through pharmaceutical treatments which aim to dissolve the clot over time, landmark procedures that leverage new technologies allow physicians to use a device-first approach to physically remove the clot – a direct, rapid treatment with better patient outcomes.

Advanced sensor technologies are transforming medical devices into smart devices, enabling physicians to monitor temperature, pressure and position, and giving them access to a vast quantity of previously inaccessible data. This new wealth of information allows doctors to reach new areas of the anatomy and conduct real-time patient monitoring. To borrow an example from the automotive market, it’s like moving from conventional vehicles to fully autonomous cars guided by highly intelligent systems that can ingest and process huge amounts of data and make adjustments in micro-seconds.

As a leading provider of sensor solutions across many industries, we are excited about the potential for advanced sensor technology in the medical field. Our IntraSense Micro-Invasive Pressure Sensor is smaller than the tip of a pencil, making it small enough to mount on a variety of tools, including catheters, guidewires, endoscopes and needles. In addition, this technology is an improvement on external sensors, delivering more accurate information in real-time.

Today, there is a heightened awareness of the need to ensure safe and clean medical facilities. Since early 2020, the focus has been on reducing the transmission of COVID-19. But for many years, the concern has been around healthcare-associated infections, which the CDC estimates sicken almost two million people each year in American hospitals alone.  These "Superbug"²  outbreaks are often linked to contaminated surfaces and medical tools, such as endoscopes, which have largely been developed as reusable technologies and are very difficult to clean. Thus, the use of single-use medical scopes has become imperative.

In partnership with our customers, TE Connectivity is currently developing advanced, cost-efficient, single-use endoscope technology that provides medical professionals with high-grade tools while minimizing infection risk through reuse, ultimately reducing disease transmission among both patients and hospital workers.

While continuously evolving compared to some of the existing technologies in the industry, automated technologies —including robotics — are an intriguing area for the next wave of advanced medical technology.

Robo-assisted surgery allows doctors to perform complex procedures³ with more precision, flexibility and control than is possible with conventional techniques. With TE Connectivity's existing engineering expertise, along with our footprint in the medical industry, we are primed to design advanced solutions for a robo-assisted medical future.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that we are in a critically short supply of rapid detection and diagnostic capabilities, including solutions that can be self-administered at home. Now, we have the power to radically change the practice, speed and accessibility of complex molecular testing for a variety of diseases. In vitro diagnostics will play a crucial role in enabling earlier detection of disease, and in turn, allowing for earlier preventative action.