Wow. December already. That being that, the NYT has put out its 2006 Year in Ideas , and that being that, many are health or medical related. So heeeeere we go:

• The Tongue Sucker : Instead of an oropharyngeal airway which might be awkward for a bystander to insert, the tongue sucker just sucks onto the tip of the tongue to pull it out of the way (oh yeah: people can choke on their tongue). Why didn’t I think of that?
• Straw That Saves Lives : The LifeStraw has 7 filters to make potable drinking water. Only costs $3 to make. Filters 99.99% of bacteria and protozoans from the water, apparently. Not too shabby.
• Human-Chimp Hybrids : Some MIT and Harvard researchers (what do they know, anyway) have come up with a hypothesis about why our X chromosome seems to have branched off from our chimp ancestors later than the rest of our DNA: our human-ish ancestors were still having hot monkey sex with… chimps. The males (XY) would be infertile, but the XX females could go on reproducing. From the article: “the two populations interbred on repeated occasions over hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years, producing hybrids of protohumans and protochimps.” Redefining the word “natural.” Ugh.
• The E-Coli Wipe : A handi-wipe that changes colors when it detects E. coli in the environment, by having the wipe embedded with antibodies. Yes, EHEC is that really nasty E. Coli (O:157 H:7) that hospitalizes people and causes general badness, but unless the wipe is going to detect only pathogenic (disease-causing) E. coli, people are going to be in for a nasty surprise. Where’s the E. Coli from? Uh, well, poop. Most E. coli is acutally our friendly colon resident that helps us digest food and make vitamins we need. People will be seeing false-positives of E.coli everywhere, as there is poop everywhere, on every surface . Like those black lights for inspecting hotel bed sheets, you kind of know it’s there, but would prefer not to be reminded of the fact.
• Bike Helmets Put You At Risk : A cyclist puts a sensor on his bike, and then bikes with and without a helmet. With the helmet, cars come 3.4 inches closer to him than without the helmet. Maybe similar to the seat-belt dilemna: less fatal accidents, but more accidents overall . But seriously. Still wear a helmet. Especially your children. *Please*.
• The Beer Gut Flask : A rubber balloon that hugs your waist and holds all the alcohol you want. Welcome, The Beer Belly . No longer pay those ridiculous arena prices for the beer you crave. Side effects: you look like you have a gut. If you see someone you like at a game, he/she will see said gut. And if you try to point it out or take it off, he/she will just think you’re lame. Because you are.
• Tushology : There is now an equation for the perfect ass. You could do the math, or you could just use your eyes, and your brain does the math for you. I prefer the latter.
• The Visage Problem : Holy crap, possibly 2 out of every 100 people have some degree of face blindness; could this be the reason some of my colleagues are just so totally clueless? Also: it’s known that people are less able to distinguish people from other races–no idea if this was factored in.
• Walk-In Health Care : The instant doctor, now available at your local big-box retailer. Terrible idea? Policy-wise yes, but probably practical for those without health insurance or with shitty insurance. And much cheaper than the ER. It seems like we have primary care and emergency care, but not much in the way of urgent care, which these clinics are probably filling. Probably also caters to the American ideal of not wanting to wait. (I would love to see the rates of antibiotics prescribed for these clinics: if you’re forking over cash, I am incredibly, incredibly confident that docs are going to be more likely to prescribe antibiotics–especially if a patient knows a follow-up visit will cost them another 40 bucks to come ask for a prescription.) But hell, I’d take 99 bucks for a suture-job than what my ER will probably charge you. (Then again, if you’re uninsured and go to an ER, you can always just use a fake name and address and never pay the bill anyway.)
• The Wheelchair Car : Now some people in wheelchairs can enter their own car and pop into the driver’s seat. Wouldn’t require pedals, as it’s controlled by joystick. But mostly a commuter and get-the-groceries car: goes 25 mph. Sounds like at least a promising prototype design.

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