Produced For: Discovery Health Format: Color, NTSC Genre: Medicine, Technology

21st Century Medicine (2003)
Produced By: Advanced Medical Prod.
Directed By: Bill Hayes
Written By: Kirk Streb

SMART TOOLS: From robots assisting in hip and knee replacement surgeries to a microrobot no bigger than a comma, the quest for better medical tools is never ending. What once seemed science fiction is now becoming fact. In this episode of 21st Century Medicine, Betty Kelepecz tells us how a total body scan detected her kidney cancer in time to save her life. Now, her brother, who is concerned about chest pains will have a scan. At the Hershey Medical Center, we watch a surgeon train his young resident for a surgery via a computer simulator which allows a sense of touch. And at Johns Hopkins we meet engineers and doctors working together to build robots for surgery.

ATHLETES: BACK IN THE GAME: In sports performance labs and clinics across the country, as well as the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado, we explore the latest technology in treating and preventing sports injuries. We find out why females are more prone to ACL injuries. We watch a promising professional baseball player have his shoulder "shrink-wrapped" in an attempt to heal his tendons without surgery. We investigate the use of a "virtual knee" which allows doctors to plan their surgery before making the first cut and we hear the story of Adam Taliaferro's miraculous recovery from a near paralyzing football injury.

EMERGENCY MEDICINE: In a dramatic emergency simulation, we watch as emergency medical technicians, search and rescue teams and doctors train together in preparation for the next natural disaster. With the aid of a $250,000 anatomically correct dummy that breathes, speaks, responds to medication and even panics, we explore the latest field technology used in emergency situations. We also hear from two heart attack survivors whose lives were saved by the quick action of bystanders who had access to AED's, automated external defibrillators. No bigger than a laptop computer, the AED is designed for use by laypeople (even children) when confronted with a cardiac emergency.

HUMAN HARDWARE: The human body is a machine and like all machines, its moving parts can wear out. In this episode of 21st Century Medicine, we view a finger joint replacement for a hand crippled by arthritis. We also profile two patients undergoing back surgery. One will receive an experimental artificial disc that is in clinical trials, while the other will undergo the traditional fusion. We follow a 58 year old man through a total knee replacement surgery. And Julie Marshall, a young woman thrown from her horse, must decide between a total hip replacement and an experimental procedure to "resurface" her injured hip, a surgery which could prevent her from someday needing a wheelchair.

HEAVY WEIGHT SOLUTIONS: David Smith weighs 600 pounds and knows he will die if he doesn't lose weight. Cindy Levy has tried every diet available, but still weighs 300 pounds. We'll see David and Cindy undergo two of the latest controversial surgeries for weight loss. We'll also travel to Texas and visit a weight control program for children and to France to juxtapose the European lifestyle with the American lifestyle. This program explores the complex social, psychological and biological factors that contribute to our global fat epidemic.

GENETIC PROMISES: The stakes in the race to find new gene therapies are high. Patients with diseases as common as hemophilia and as rare as SCIDS (the bubble boy disease) have been offered hope of a genetic cure. Through the poignant stories of young hemophiliacs to the joyful story of a full recovery of a toddler born with virtually no immune system, we explore the advances of genetic therapy available today.