The future of Medicine is bioelectronic….

Roberto Saracco December 6, 2016 Blog 107 Views

Ever heard of "electroceuticals"? These are new devices that can be implanted in the body to interfere with the electrical activity to contain and even cure specific pathologies. It is bioelectronic medicine.
GlaxoSmithKline, GSK, is working in this area and is convinced that they will steer the future of medicine in the next decade.
So far medicine has been able to treat (several) chronic conditions using drugs. In most cases these drugs have some undesirable side effects, they have to be swallowed (or injected) and in the "voyage" from the entry point to the target organ they meet and interact with other tissues and organs.
By using electrical stimulation directly on the nerves doctors can influence the behaviour of that specific organ with no side effects.
GSK is currently working in partnership with Google with a joint investment of 700 million $ over the next 7 years on rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes.
GSK is also participating in the IEEE Brain Initiative where implantable devices are being studied.
At the same time the US National Institute of Health has launched the SPARC initiative: Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions, based on the same assumption that conditioning the electrical activity can condition and resolve some chronic pathologies.

About Roberto Saracco

Roberto Saracco fell in love with technology and its implications long time ago. His background is in math and computer science. Until April 2017 he led the EIT Digital Italian Node and then was head of the Industrial Doctoral School of EIT Digital up to September 2018. Previously, up to December 2011 he was the Director of the Telecom Italia Future Centre in Venice, looking at the interplay of technology evolution, economics and society. At the turn of the century he led a World Bank-Infodev project to stimulate entrepreneurship in Latin America. He is a senior member of IEEE where he leads the New Initiative Committee and co-chairs the Digital Reality Initiative. He is a member of the IEEE in 2050 Ad Hoc Committee. He teaches a Master course on Technology Forecasting and Market impact at the University of Trento. He has published over 100 papers in journals and magazines and 14 books.

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