What if you have Parkinson’s,
And you like your food tons.

Can’t eat with a shaky hand,
One thing you can’t stand.

Once in a blue moon,
Comes a magic spoon.

That makes you eat without spill,
It’s possible! You can and you will!

Millions of people around the world on old age suffer from Parkinson’s disease or some other tremor related ailment. In such illnesses, since the nervous system becomes less efficient, it causes rhythmic shaking of hands and other body parts. The biggest challenge for such patients is to be able to eat their food without spilling. Many patients become so conscious of their shortcoming that they even stop socialising. Well, not anymore.

There is a magic spoon that will help them eat without spilling? Magic? Really? No. It’s technology. And where there is technology there is Google

Google has introduced Liftware spoon in the market that keeps the food-laden spoon steady even if the hands holding it are shaky. It is one of those rare times when technology was not originally developed by Google. A health technology company Lift Labs, developed the technology, which Google bought.

The spoon carries an electronic device that has hundreds of computer program’s coded in it, to figure out how a hand is shaking. The tiny motors in the handle then move the spoon opposite to the direction in which the hand is Shaking to keep the spoon steady.

Does it sound simple? Yes, it does now. But simple ideas are most difficult to come. Can you believe that before the Google spoon arrived, the focus was always on devising products that held the hand of the patient to stop the tremors? Such products drew more attention to people already conscious of their condition. Therefore, they never became very popular.

Do you know of any other instance where technology has completely changed the way medical treatment worked?

Let us know.