The Future Of Nanotechnology In Medicine

Summary

October 15, 2019: Article discusses the cutting edge of medical technology, especially nanotechnology as medicine. The article also briefly discusses regulation, and public perceptions of nanotechnology. It's a very interesting read, and also a quick and easy read as it is mostly bullet points and visual aids.

Technology highlighted includes:

• Artificial Eye, brain-to-camera interfaces, and eye repair technology to replace or fix lost or damaged eyes.
• Nanobots that cut through blockages, carve out samples without surgery, or seek-and-destroy tumors.
• Patches that deliver drugs or vaccines without drawing blood.
• Smartbandages that never need changing, and can detect infection or bleeding and release clotting factors and antibiotics only as needed.
• Smartphone apps that test water quality.
• Smartpills such as edible cameras or sensors for diagnosis, and dose-tracking pills.

Source

Bibliography

1. Original Article at Visual Capitalist

Game and Story Use

• Many of these devices have tracking device elements, raising privacy and big brother concerns. A dystopian government conspiracy could employ pills that constantly report on dosage and medication levels to keep a community chemically docile and also track their movements at the same time.
  • Mind control by nanobots assaulting the synapses, or at least mind reading via brain monitoring nanobots also seem to be among the more dreadful authoritarian possibilities.
• Loopholes in testing or regulation (especially of tech in the grey area between device and drug) could lead to a body horror or after the end scenario. Grey goo from the inside out.
• In a more upbeat/optimistic speculative fiction/space opera setting, the nanites would just serve the same role as a healing potion. Or hundreds of slightly different healing potions, each custom-tuned to a different specific type of injury or disease. "Nanotech" is a traditional handwave for sci-fi healing factors.
• Presumably advanced enough nanobots (the sort often referred to as "blood doctors") could be tasked to chop up incoming poisons, venoms and biological pathogens, leaving the target immune to anything that isn't doing contact damage (and maybe some things that are, as soon as they break through into the blood system).