Looking back on the top 5 medical advancements in 2023

The end of the year provides the opportunity to take stock of what has happened in the last 12 months. In this month’s edition of Life Science Leaders, we round up some of the biggest medical innovations and advancements we have seen in 2023 and look at how they will impact the industry moving forward.

Top 5 medical advances in 2023:

1. Artificial Intelligence

AI has been one of the most exciting technologies changing the healthcare market in 2023, and it is likely that it will continue to play a big, if not the biggest, role in the development of game-changing drugs and medical technologies.

2023 saw generative AI play a bigger role in our everyday lives with the rollout of AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google Bard. Generative AI is altering the life sciences landscape and is being used in a number of ways from helping to design novel compounds, to optimising clinical trials and advancing diagnostic accuracy and efficiency through medical imaging.  According to a survey by the Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions, which looked at the outlook for Life Sciences and Health Care Generative AI in 2024, 75% of leading healthcare companies claimed they were already experimenting with generative AI or planning to scale generative AI across their company. Whilst the buzz surrounding machine learning and artificial intelligence is palpable amongst life science leaders, as it becomes more sophisticated it is important to address the challenges it poses such as data privacy issues, and regulatory considerations. By handling these ethical considerations with care, generative AI has the ability to continue to completely transform healthcare and life sciences by improving efficiency, accuracy, and patient care outcomes.

Read our blog on the Top 20 ways Artificial Intelligence is advancing life sciences

2. CRISPR

CRISPR, short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats-CRISPR-associated protein 9, is a gene-editing tool that allows scientists to make precise changes to DNA. It has the potential to cure diseases by allowing us to intervene and treat diseases at the genetic level.

In November 2023, the life sciences industry celebrated as the UK approved the first ever CRISPR treatment for diseases.  The approval marked another high point for the biotechnology industry and has been lauded as revolutionary for those living with genetic diseases. The therapy, called Casgevy and developed by Vertex, is used to treat the blood condition sickle-cell disease and β-thalassaemia. This milestone in drug discovery opens the door for further applications of CRISPR therapies in the future and for the potential cure for diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis, HIV and cancer.

3. mRNA

mRNA technology has been put under the spotlight in the last few years, after the first mRNA-based vaccines were rolled out across the world during the Covid-19 pandemic. With their high effectiveness, capacity for rapid development, and potential for low production costs, mRNA vaccines offer an alternative to the traditional vaccine approach.

In 2023, not only did Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman receive a Nobel Prize for their discoveries that enabled the development of the first effective mRNA vaccines, a number of companies continued to look for new ways in which the technology could be used for treating conditions such as seasonal flu, advanced melanoma and the Herpes virus. Recent positive clinical trials have shown mRNA has huge potential outside of treating Covid-19. One of the most promising examples of this is Moderna’s flu shot which is currently undergoing phase 3 clinical trials and could significantly reduce the global burden of influenza.

4. Neurotechnology

Neurotechnology holds boundless potential to improve many aspects of life from healthcare to education, and workplace management to national security.

In healthcare, neurotechnology is currently being used in brain imaging, by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical activity within the brain, neurostimulation, stimulating the brain and nervous system to influence brain activity; and in neurodevices, an emerging technology that monitors or regulates brain activity using an implant.

Neurodevices still mostly remain in the research phase, but they hold major potential for treating brain disorders. Neuralink has become one of the most talked about neurodevice companies in recent years. Founded by Elon Musk, Neuralink is developing a device that would be embedded into the human brain, where it would record brain activity and transmit this data wirelessly to a computer. Researchers would then be able to analyse these findings and use them to electrically stimulate brain activity. If successful, it could possibly be used to cure brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. In 2023, Neuralink was approved for human trials in the United States. Those with paralysis due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis may qualify for the study, which will take about six years to complete.

Neurotechnology, while therapeutically very exciting, remains very controversial. It raises questions around rights to data and privacy, but with the continued rise and identification of neurological disorders and conditions, neurotechnology is expected to experience considerable growth in the worldwide healthcare market in the coming years.

5. Augmented and virtual reality technology

While there has been a lot of attention on AI in 2023, AR and VR have quietly been making inroads. VR and AR have greatly improved the training processes for medical professionals, as it allows you to be transported into the human body. It also helps when doctors are diagnosing, as the patient is able to virtually step into a panoramic view of their body, giving them a better understanding of their disease or condition.

In 2023, Meta rolled out its Oculus III, a more accessible and budget-friendly version of its revolutionary AR/VR headset, and Apple introduced the Apple Vision Pro. With popularity and existing infrastructure, they have the potential to improve not just medical training but also clinical and surgical care. While still in the early stages, and coming up against similar privacy and safety concerns surrounding AI adoption, AR/VR technology could be one of the biggest trends in life sciences in 2024.

Want to learn more about medical advancements in life sciences? Head to our medical advances page