Misc. medical devices and technologies

Abstract Medical devices and technologies play a vital role in improving outcomes of treatment, disease prevention and quality of healthcare. These technologies have applications in improving healthcare delivery as well as patient outcomes and are utilized for many disease states including diagnosis, clinical monitoring, treatment and prevention. Major goals are to improve functioning of organs and tissues, drug design and development, expanding viability and efficacy of drugs, and development of pro-active treatment regimens. This in turn, reduces costs of healthcare and considerably enhances quality of life. This chapter reviews the recent advances in development of medical devices and technologies that have therapeutic applications. Since this review is introduced for the first time in SEDA series, it has also taken into account limitations of new devices and technologies, adverse effects encountered during their application or use in addition to overall assessment of their impact on healthcare.