A. A history of health technology

• ¹ a more formal word for glasses
• ² the ability to see
• ³ something used to make you unconscious when you have an operation, so that you do not feel any pain
• ⁴ a type of radiation that makes possible photographs (also called ‘x-rays’) of hidden objects such as bones and organs in the body
• ⁵ a small piece of transparent plastic worn on the surface of your eye to improve your sight
• ⁶ made in large numbers, usually in a factory

B. The present day

Medical technology has made rapid¹ advances² in recent decades³.

Nowadays, a vast⁴ range of devices⁵ is available: people with hearing difficulties wear sophisticated⁶ hearing aids⁷; people with heart problems wear tiny pacemakers⁸. Artificial⁹ hips¹⁰ and knees are common, and are highly¹¹ efficient. People who have lost an arm or a leg can have a prosthetic¹² leg or a modern robotic¹³ arm and hand, which they can use to pick things up like a natural hand. Eyesight problems can be corrected by laser surgery¹⁴.

• ¹ very fast
• ² improvements or developments
• ³ a period of 10 years
• ⁴ very wide
• ⁵ object or machine made for a particular purpose
• ⁶ clever in a complicated way and able to do complicated tasks
• ⁷ a small device put inside someone’s ear to help them hear better
• ⁸ a small device put inside someone’s chest to help their heart beat correctly
• ⁹ not natural, a copy made by humans
• ¹⁰ the joint which connects the leg to the upper part of the body
• ¹¹ very (more formal)
• ¹² made to replace a missing arm or leg
• ¹³ able to be controlled and moved by the user
• ¹⁴ medical operations using powerful narrow beams of light

C. The future

A recent TV documentary predicted the following developments in medical technology.

• Scanners which can identify health problems at an early stage¹ will become more and more sophisticated.
• Diagnosing² illnesses from a distance. Patients will sit at their home computers, describe their symptoms and send information automatically to their doctor (for example, their blood pressure³ or body temperature) using instruments such as thermometers connected to their computer.
• Computers and huge databases will provide doctors with more and more information and the tools⁴ to treat diseases.
• Keyhole surgery⁵ will become more common. It will not be necessary to cut open a person’s body to operate on them.

• ¹ during the first period of development
• ² name the exact character of a disease or a problem, by examining it
• ³ measure of the strength at which the blood flows through the body
• ⁴ something that helps you do something
• ⁵ medical operations in which a very small hole is made in a person’s body to reach the organ or tissue inside