(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Most newsreaders – especially those in the medical community – have gotten used to so-called “medical breakthroughs” making headlines every other day. These seemingly game-changing treatments and therapies grab our attention for a moment then typically vanish without a trace. Indeed, real medical breakthroughs are far and few between.

With that said, there are a handful of oft-cited forward leaps in the world of medicine that, despite sounding like optimistic science fiction, have a real chance of becoming a significant part of mainstream healthcare. The following are five examples of believable medical breakthroughs on the horizon:

Rapid bloodwork

Considered by many to be the holy grail of diagnostic medicine, rapid bloodwork could rewrite the way we approach everything, from fighting cancer to treating heart disease. The development of point of care testing diagnostics would mean getting results back in hours or even minutes instead of days or weeks. That faster turnaround time has the potential to save lives. For example, if someone’s bloodwork shows signs of cancer, they’d be able to begin chemotherapy a week or two faster than usual.

Lab-grown organs

Organ donation has been a life-saving medical breakthrough, to be sure, but it also has its limitations. The primary roadblock is that our immune systems attack foreign tissue, making it almost impossible to receive a donated organ without taking a daily regimen of prescription drugs to override your body’s defenses. The ideal solution on the horizon is to use the patient’s stem cells to generate genetically-identical body parts in a lab. That way, the body won’t reject the replacement. Many experts expect lab-grown organs to become part of mainstream medicine within the next 20 years.

Nanosurgery

No matter how skilled surgeons are at their jobs, the size of their hands makes it difficult to perform a variety of microscopic procedures. While highly computerized surgical tools are making it easier for surgeons to maneuver with precision, there’s still the matter of physically cutting someone open to access the necessary parts of the body. All of this can theoretically go away with the development of surgical nanotechnology. In essence, very tiny robots enter the body and perform microsurgery on organs and other tissues. Under the supervision of a human surgeon, these nanobots can reach places and conduct procedures currently off-limits.

Genetic-based medicine

Over the last 20 years, medical studies and ongoing research suggest treatments and therapies work best when they’re tailored to a person’s genetic profile. Even though we share 99.9% of our DNA, that remaining .01% can play a fateful role in deciding how to treat various diseases and disorders. As a result, many anticipate genetic-based medicine to take off over the course of the coming decade. In time, we may even have a directory cross-referencing genetic profiles with diseases and recommended treatment options.

Artificial retina

Helping the blind to see has been an ongoing dream of medical research for centuries. While we still have a ways to go, the development of the artificial retina currently underway at Stanford is a promising lead in the pursuit of giving sight to the visually impaired. Using neuroscience as its foundation, the Stanford Artificial Retina Project hopes to attach a high-resolution electrode array to the retinal ganglion cells, which act as the “output” for visual signals sent to the brain.

There never seems to be a shortage of so-called medical breakthroughs. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these developments fail to pan out in the long-run. With that said, a select few are more than just clickbait and false hope. We look forward to watching these true medical breakthroughs unfold in the coming years.