New York University (NYU) surgeons have performed the world’s first transplant of an entire human eye, an extraordinary addition to a face transplant, although it’s far too soon to know if the man will ever see through his new left eye.

An accident had destroyed most of Aaron James’ face and one eye. His right eye still works. But the surgeons hoped replacing the missing one would produce better cosmetic (整容的) results for his new face. The NYU team is doing just that. James is recovering well from the dual (双重的) transplant last May and the donated eye looks remarkably healthy.

Today, transplants of the cornea (眼角膜) are common to treat certain types of vision loss. But transplanting the whole eye—the eyeball, its blood supply, and the critical optic nerve (视神经) that must connect it to the brain—is considered a moonshot in the search to cure blindness.

Whatever will happen next, James’ surgery offers scientists a window into how the human eye tries to heal. “We’re not claiming that we are going to restore sight,” said Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, who led the transplant. “But there’s no doubt that we are one step closer.”

Some specialists had feared the eye would quickly become dry and wrinkled. However, when Rodriguez opened James’ left eyelid, the donated eye was fat and full of liquid. Doctors see good blood flow and no sign of rejection.

Now researchers have begun analyzing scans of James’ brain that detected some puzzling signals from that all-important but injured optic nerve. Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg, who has long studied how to make eye transplants a reality, called the surgery exciting. “It’s an amazing confirmation of animal experiments that have kept transplanted eyes alive,” he said. “The difficulty now is how to regrow the optic nerve, although animal studies are making progress.” He praised the NYU team’s “boldness” in even aiming for optic nerve repair and hopes the transplant will promote more research.

No matter how advanced technology gets, it can never be a substitute for good doctors and medical workers. During this year alone, healthcare professionals from all over the world have been putting themselves in a harmful way to treat COVID-19 patients. In times like this it is more important than ever that everyone has access to a doctor. But, according to statistics from the WHO, China has 19.79 medical doctors per 10,000 people (2017), the US has 26.12, and the UK has 27.86.

However, the rise of telemedicine allows doctors to make better use of their time and provides better healthcare access, especially for those in rural areas. Telemedicine is the remote delivery of healthcare services, including online consultations and diagnoses, and remote patient monitoring.

According to the World Economic Forum, “Nearly every other industry adopted widespread use of conference calls, and more recently, used video chats in order to cooperate remotely, while healthcare providers and patients both hesitated to adopt these tools to deliver healthcare.” However, COVID-19 could push them to adopt the new approach. Having one of the best healthcare systems in the world, Switzerland already offers virtual video appointments for private patients, and with cloud computing, this care can go even further.

With patient data being stored in the cloud, medical records can be easily shared and updated by all healthcare providers when required. With the addition of powerful cloud networks, wearable technology, such as bracelets, can monitor a patient’s key signs from their homes, removing the need for hospital care.

Seema, administrator of Medicare and Medicaid Center, told the Wall Street Journal, “The arrival of telehealth has been just completely speeded, and it’s taken this crisis to push us to a new frontier.” Indeed, telemedicine will have a huge effect on medical care, allowing for more personalized treatment of patients after COVID-19 has relieved.

When delivering medications to patients, one of the most effective methods is direct injection into the bloodstream using a needle. Now, researchers from China and Switzerland have designed a needle-free alternative: a tiny, drug-filled cup that sticks to the inside of the cheek like an octopus sucker (章鱼吸盘). The device is easily accessible, can be removed at any time and prevents saliva (唾液) from dissolving the drug, which gets absorbed through the lining of the inner cheek.

“Oral delivery is really kind of a holy grail,” says Arturo Vegas, a chemist at Boston University. “It’s still the preferred form of administration for patients… which means higher compliance, better outcomes for the patient, less adverse effects overall.”

Usually, delivering drugs through the dense, inner cheek tissue is not very effective. But the suction cup stretches the cheek, creating a larger surface area for the drug to pass through.

To test the design, the team 3D printed their rubber, 1.1-by 0.6-centimeter suckers. They loaded each with the diabetes drug desmopressin and stuck them inside the cheeks of three beagles (小猎兔犬), which have similar inner cheeks to humans. For comparison, they also delivered the drug to beagles via a pill and via injection. After three hours, the team found that drug plasma concentrations in dogs with the patch were more than 150 times higher than in the dogs that took a tablet.

“We were really impressed by the level of absorption that we would get with such a simple system,” said Jean-Christophe Leroux, a co-author of the study. However, the oral patches were less effective than drugs delivered via injection.

The team further tested the patches by filling them with the drug semaglutide, which has molecules (分子) four times larger than desmopressin does. After 30 minutes, they found that beagles with the patch had a similar amount of semaglutide absorbed by the bloodstream as those that took a tablet.

Though the patches need further testing to determine how repeated use affects patients, the researchers conclude that their technique is “non-invasive, simple and readily self-applicable by patients”.