Cleveland Clinic releases list of top 10 innovations

A bionic eye, a neurostimulator for epilepsy and fecal transplantation all appear on Cleveland Clinic’s top ten medical innovations for 2014.

For the eighth year, Cleveland Clinic named breakthrough devices and therapies it foresees most dramatically improving healthcare within the next year. The top 10 innovations are:

1. Retinal prosthesis system-early stage bionic eye—An FDA-approved, early-stage bionic eye for severe retinitis pigmentosa that combined a surgically implanted 60-electrode retinal prosthesis, video-camera-enabled glasses and a video processing unit.

1. Genome-guided solid tumor diagnostics—A variety of genomic-based cancer tests that, without surgery, can analyze the genes in a person’s cancer tumor and predict both the biology and aggressiveness of the cancer.

1. Responsive neurostimulator for intractable epilepsy— A neurological device surgically implanted under the scalp that can significantly reduce the frequency of epileptic seizures. It was backed by an FDA neurological device advisory panel in 2013.

1. Direct-acting antiviral oral hepatitis C drugs—Sofosbuvir, the first of a new generation of hepatitis C drugs called direct-acting antivirals, that can improve treatment response rates to 90 percent or higher. It’s moving through the final stages of FDA approval.

1. Perioperative decision support system—A new anesthesia management system that combines computer technology and microelectronics to meet the demands of modern surgery and improve the standard of care.

1. Fecal microbiota transplantation—Gastroenterologists employ fecal microbiota transplantation to battle C. diff in patients who do not respond to standard drug therapy.

1. Relaxin for acute heart failure—A synthetic version of the naturally occurring hormone, human relaxin-2, which is widely associated with pregnancy, can improve acute heart failure symptoms after being infused over a 48-hour period in the hospital following a heart failure episode or a heart attack.

1. Computer-assisted personalized sedation system—A new sedation system allows non-anesthesia professionals to administer the drug propofol during colonoscopy and esophagogastroduodenoscopy procedures.

1. TMAO: A novel biomarker for heart attack, stroke risk—A newly discovered biomarker for heart disease—called TMAO, or trimethylamine N-oxide—serves as an accurate screening tool for predicting future risks of heart attack, stroke, and death in persons not otherwise identified by traditional risk factors and blood tests.

1. B-cell receptor pathway to treat blood cancers—For treatment of low-grade B-cell lymphomas and leukemias, there is now B-cell receptor pathway inhibitors that interfere with cancer cell division by focusing on proteins involved in signaling pathways.