When you think about the classic 1960’s show “Star Trek,” you probably call to mind images of Klingons, Tribbles and star William Shatner wearing what can politely be called a “toupee” and ignoring all conventional forms of grammar and punctuation at the exact same time. What you may not realize is that even though “Star Trek” aired during the 1960s, a lot of the technology used by the Enterprise has shifted from the realm of fantasy into reality. Take the medical tricorder used by Dr. McCoy on the show, for example – if Stanford scientists have their way, hospitals around the world will be using this wonderful device sooner rather than later.
Star Trek – Science Fact?
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of Dr. McCoy’s medical tricorder, it’s a device that actually resembles a common cell phone in many ways. It’s a device he used in just about every episode to identify certain problems that a person was having and to check blood samples without requiring them to go through the types of invasive procedures that would have been common at the time.
Now, a team of scientists from Stanford believe that they’ve developed what would essentially be the modern day equivalent of the tricorder – a device that can be used to spot a cancerous tumor in a person from as far as a foot away.
As with most incredible inventions, this one came about by accident. DARPA was searching for a way to remotely identify bombs that were buried in the soil to increase troop safety. Using microwave technology, researchers were able to create a detector that accomplished exactly that. Now, those Stanford scientists are using the same basic theory to identify tumors based on the number of additional blood vessels they create in the affected area of a person’s body. The project’s leader says that it will only take between 10 and 15 years to get this technology into the hands of medical providers everywhere.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMqR8Lw-AKE
UCapIt
UCapIt is just one example of a company that is helping to take the science fiction technology on classic shows like “Star Trek” and make it a reality today. UCapIt offers controlled access pharmaceutical dispensing solutions to customers all over the world on a daily basis. Not only do these pharmaceutical dispensers and hospital vending machines offer access to the important supplies that employees need when they need them the most, but they also help the medical organizations themselves prevent theft, abuse, tackle inventory and supply control problems and more.
Medical vending machine options like these are just one of the many examples of how technology has allowed us to take what was once considered pure fantasy and bring it into the world of reality in the most efficient way possible. If we’re already so close to having a medical tricorder in every hospital in the world, can the transporter or the holodeck from the Enterprise really be that far behind?
