Semiconductor technology is increasingly being implemented in a
variety of healthcare applications. At the recent imec
International Technology Forum Press Gathering in Leuven,
Belgium, imec CEO Luc Van den hove outlined uses in blood cell
sorting, mobile apps for personalized medicine (such as brain
monitoring of EEG activity), and advanced bio research. “The
cost of healthcare is exploding,” he said, noting that one in
three people will develop diabetes in their lifetime. It is
estimated that the cost of treating diabetes patients will
exceed $500 billion 20 years from now (for U.S. and Europe).
“This number is larger than the entire turnover of the entire
semiconductor industry today,” vVan den hove said. “The cost of
treating heart diseases will be even more than triple that.
These numbers are really frightening and the problem is
tremendous.” Presently, today’s healthcare system is relatively
inefficient. “We are treating illnesses with generic treatments
which are optimized for the average population of