Microtechnologies in medicine: An overview

Microsystems technology (MST) has become a significant enabler of novel medical devices and implants over the last years. Typical examples are MST units in cardiac rhythm management devices or in hearing implants. A classification of medical MST applications can be made according to their relationship with the anatomy that is based on the kind and duration of interaction with the human body: Class 1: Extra-corporeal devices such as telemetric health monitoring systems or point of care testing systems. Class 2: Intra-corporeal devices such as intelligent surgical instruments. Class 3: Temporarily incorporated or ingested devices, such as telemetric endoscopes. Class 4: Long-term implantable devices such as telemetric implants. Medical applications of MST are growing at double-digit compounded growth rates, leading to a forecasted global market volume of over USD 1 billion in 2006 or 2007, making MST devices a relevant segment of the medical technology market. The clinical foundation for promoting the use of MST in medicine is mainly based on the significant potential of MST to enable products that improve early disease detection and the monitoring of chronic illnesses. This refers to a number of the most important health problems such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes and cancer, to name just a few. More recently microrobotics has become a relevant research area for enabling the atraumatic transport of MST-enhanced diagnostic and therapeutic devices inside the human body.