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The Issues Challenges Facing Modern Medical Environments

Paper Type: Free Essay Subject: Sciences
Wordcount: 2548 words Published: 1st Jan 2015

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Modern medicine has been impacted by advances in science and technology. These advances have extended the doctor’s professional capabilities. Technology advances have also made modern medicalscience intellectually challenging. Medicine has now become more complex and demanding. Some examples include cloning, stem cells and identification of new viruses such as HIV. However this is only one side. There are many challenges that modern medical science still has to face.

Firstly, as medicine has improved more people have a chance of surviving till very old age as well as increasing population which allows discoveries of new diseases which was unknown before. These diseases are just being discovered and have no ultimate cure. There are also rising costs for late life care. Such as there are new DNA defects which continuously damage DNA seen in a young women with UV radiation and toxic substances in the atmosphere. Many diseases are similar but have different signs and symptoms that make them different. There is no benefit for the patient herself however this can be useful for parents and children who are suspicious of having this disease. This shows just how much medicine needs to advance to be able to treat these new diseases being discovered today.

Cancer has been recorded throughout history even ancient Egypt’s fossil signs of bone tumours have been found. However despite all technology advances there is still no proper cure for cancer that will make people immune from cancer. Breast cancer is the most common in the UK. In 2008 47,700 women were diagnosed in the UK with breast cancer that is around 130 women per day. Treatments for cancer include radiotherapy, chemotherapy, bone marrow and stem cell transplant yet none of these can properly cure cancer without giving risk.

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Moreover, there are huge increases in deadly diseases in the developing world with HIV/AIDS at the top with an infection rate of 394 million. This creates another challenge for the world of medicine.Modern medicine should decrease the rate at which people are dying with these infectious diseases. Medicine and proper treatment are not being able to reach many places in the world where there is need for treatment and health risks are high.

There have been amazing recent discoveries such as nanotechnology used in many everyday situations such as sunscreen which contains nanoparticles of zinc oxide or titanium oxide giving them a clear look. There are also examples such as self-clearing glass, clothing and antimicrobial bandages. The use of nanotechnology in medicine offers some exciting possibilities. Some techniques are only imagined, while others are at various stages of testing, or actually being used today. The use of nanotechnology can revolutionise the way damage is detected and treated in the human body. At the moment nanotechnology is used to deliver drugs, light and other substances to specific cells in the body for example cancer cells. These techniques decrease damage to other healthy cells that are similar to the cancer cell such as hair ones. This is the side effect of other treatments for cancer such as chemotherapy where hair loss occurs. Nanotechnology can also be used in diagnostics and imaging techniques. This is no doubt the most known fundamental research going on in medicine as it can open doors to new types of treatments and maybe help in the cure for cancer. The latest research going into the future of medicine is Nano factories. Imagine not having to go to the doctors and not taking any pills. Instead a tiny-cell like machine in your body would manufacture medicine and deliver it exactly where it is needed. Nano factories are pseudo-cells that are swallowed or taken in from the skin and travel to specific part of the body where needed. They would be unique as they could potentially use materials already in the body to manufacture medicine at the first sign of an infection or disease.

Stem cell research has been going on for quite a while and has had many breakthrough and more yet to be discovered. Primarily stem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms that are totipotent which means that the cell is unspecialised and therefore has the ability specialise into any type of cell in the human body. Medical researchers believe that the stem cell therapy has the potential to dramatically change the treatment of human disease. There are numerous stem cell surgeries that already exist such as bone marrow transplants which are used to treat leukemia. The future challenge for modern medical science is to use stem cell research to treat numerous types of illnesses such as cancer, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an muscle damage. The challenge is to overcome social and scientific uncertainty surrounding stem cell research, public debate and ethical issues of surrounding this research. British and Canadian scientists have a found a way of reprogramming skin cells taken from adults, effectively winding the clock back on the cells until they were in an embryonic form.

Cloning is another hugely known discovery in medicine and can also help solve many problems the world is facing now. Cloning is producing a genetically identical organism using DNA fragments of original organism. Scientists hope that one day cloning can be used to generate tissues and organs for transplants. Many challenges must be overcome before cloned organ transplants become reality for example more effective technologies for creating human embryos, harvesting stem cells and producing organs from stem cells would developed. However there is a lot of risk involved. Reproductive cloning is expensive and highly inefficient. Research on cloning has also conflicted with ethical issues such as cloning mice and keeping many of them in laboratories. Some people argue that this is playing with nature and that cloning may cause damage to the human population that is unexpected yet. Cloning humans will open a scope of new adventures. However several cloned animals have died prematurely from infections and other complications. Scientists also do not know how human cloning can impact mental development. At this time the attempt to clone humans at this time is considered potentially dangerous and ethically irresponsible.

In conclusion, there are several challenges that facing modern medical science. Medicine is now in competition with developments of technology and has to use new technology in various ways to help the new challenges face by the human population. As the population is increasing and people are living longer lives more diseases are being discovered and treated however no cure for them exist. Latest technology has opened doors to new opportunities and medical science should make full use of this. Deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS are highest in the world are being treated in people but have yet been cured. New researches are yet to be developed and used to treat many of these diseases such as nanotechnology, stem cell research which can be used to repair organs and even make new organs available. Cloning and stem cell research are also well known new discoveries that are yet to be explored and used to human advantage but with so many complications and ethical concerns it is difficult to predict whether this will be possible in the

Modern medicine has been impacted by advances in science and technology. These advances have extended the doctor’s professional capabilities. Technology advances have also made modern medicalscience intellectually challenging. Medicine has now become more complex and demanding. Some examples include cloning, stem cells and identification of new viruses such as HIV. However this is only one side. There are many challenges that modern medical science still has to face.

Firstly, as medicine has improved more people have a chance of surviving till very old age as well as increasing population which allows discoveries of new diseases which was unknown before. These diseases are just being discovered and have no ultimate cure. There are also rising costs for late life care. Such as there are new DNA defects which continuously damage DNA seen in a young women with UV radiation and toxic substances in the atmosphere. Many diseases are similar but have different signs and symptoms that make them different. There is no benefit for the patient herself however this can be useful for parents and children who are suspicious of having this disease. This shows just how much medicine needs to advance to be able to treat these new diseases being discovered today.

Cancer has been recorded throughout history even ancient Egypt’s fossil signs of bone tumours have been found. However despite all technology advances there is still no proper cure for cancer that will make people immune from cancer. Breast cancer is the most common in the UK. In 2008 47,700 women were diagnosed in the UK with breast cancer that is around 130 women per day. Treatments for cancer include radiotherapy, chemotherapy, bone marrow and stem cell transplant yet none of these can properly cure cancer without giving risk.

Moreover, there are huge increases in deadly diseases in the developing world with HIV/AIDS at the top with an infection rate of 394 million. This creates another challenge for the world of medicine.Modern medicine should decrease the rate at which people are dying with these infectious diseases. Medicine and proper treatment are not being able to reach many places in the world where there is need for treatment and health risks are high.

There have been amazing recent discoveries such as nanotechnology used in many everyday situations such as sunscreen which contains nanoparticles of zinc oxide or titanium oxide giving them a clear look. There are also examples such as self-clearing glass, clothing and antimicrobial bandages. The use of nanotechnology in medicine offers some exciting possibilities. Some techniques are only imagined, while others are at various stages of testing, or actually being used today. The use of nanotechnology can revolutionise the way damage is detected and treated in the human body. At the moment nanotechnology is used to deliver drugs, light and other substances to specific cells in the body for example cancer cells. These techniques decrease damage to other healthy cells that are similar to the cancer cell such as hair ones. This is the side effect of other treatments for cancer such as chemotherapy where hair loss occurs. Nanotechnology can also be used in diagnostics and imaging techniques. This is no doubt the most known fundamental research going on in medicine as it can open doors to new types of treatments and maybe help in the cure for cancer. The latest research going into the future of medicine is Nano factories. Imagine not having to go to the doctors and not taking any pills. Instead a tiny-cell like machine in your body would manufacture medicine and deliver it exactly where it is needed. Nano factories are pseudo-cells that are swallowed or taken in from the skin and travel to specific part of the body where needed. They would be unique as they could potentially use materials already in the body to manufacture medicine at the first sign of an infection or disease.

Stem cell research has been going on for quite a while and has had many breakthrough and more yet to be discovered. Primarily stem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms that are totipotent which means that the cell is unspecialised and therefore has the ability specialise into any type of cell in the human body. Medical researchers believe that the stem cell therapy has the potential to dramatically change the treatment of human disease. There are numerous stem cell surgeries that already exist such as bone marrow transplants which are used to treat leukemia. The future challenge for modern medical science is to use stem cell research to treat numerous types of illnesses such as cancer, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an muscle damage. The challenge is to overcome social and scientific uncertainty surrounding stem cell research, public debate and ethical issues of surrounding this research. British and Canadian scientists have a found a way of reprogramming skin cells taken from adults, effectively winding the clock back on the cells until they were in an embryonic form.

Cloning is another hugely known discovery in medicine and can also help solve many problems the world is facing now. Cloning is producing a genetically identical organism using DNA fragments of original organism. Scientists hope that one day cloning can be used to generate tissues and organs for transplants. Many challenges must be overcome before cloned organ transplants become reality for example more effective technologies for creating human embryos, harvesting stem cells and producing organs from stem cells would developed. However there is a lot of risk involved. Reproductive cloning is expensive and highly inefficient. Research on cloning has also conflicted with ethical issues such as cloning mice and keeping many of them in laboratories. Some people argue that this is playing with nature and that cloning may cause damage to the human population that is unexpected yet. Cloning humans will open a scope of new adventures. However several cloned animals have died prematurely from infections and other complications. Scientists also do not know how human cloning can impact mental development. At this time the attempt to clone humans at this time is considered potentially dangerous and ethically irresponsible.

In conclusion, there are several challenges that facing modern medical science. Medicine is now in competition with developments of technology and has to use new technology in various ways to help the new challenges face by the human population. As the population is increasing and people are living longer lives more diseases are being discovered and treated however no cure for them exist. Latest technology has opened doors to new opportunities and medical science should make full use of this. Deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS are highest in the world are being treated in people but have yet been cured. New researches are yet to be developed and used to treat many of these diseases such as nanotechnology, stem cell research which can be used to repair organs and even make new organs available. Cloning and stem cell research are also well known new discoveries that are yet to be explored and used to human advantage but with so many complications and ethical concerns it is difficult to predict whether its future or not.

 

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