Along with the promises of new diagnostics and cures, the field of nanomedicine also brings with it a great deal of ethical questions. Why do you think nanomedicine is often considered controversial

Even though nanomedicine has promises a great deal in diagnostics and cures in it's field, however termed controversial due to the current problems that nanomedicine involves understanding the issues associated to toxicity and environmental impact of nanoscale materials (materials whose structure is on the scale of nanometers, i.e. billionths of a meter).

Explanation: By way of definition,

Nanomedicine is the medical application of nanotechnology.[1] Nanomedicine ranges from the medical applications of nanomaterials and biological devices, to nanoelectronic biosensors, and even possible future applications of molecular nanotechnology such as biological machines.

However, there are alot of Functionalities that can be added to nanomaterials by interfacing them with biological molecules or structures. The size of nanomaterials is similar to that of most biological molecules and structures.

Therefore, nanomaterials can be useful for both in vivo and in vitro biomedical research and applications. So far, the integration of nanomaterials with biology has led to the development of diagnostic devices, contrast agents, analytical tools, physical therapy applications, and drug delivery vehicles.

Therefore, nanomedicine seeks to deliver a valuable set of research tools and clinically useful devices in the near future.

Nanotechnology has also provided the possibility of delivering drugs to specific cells using nanoparticles. This shows that the overall drug consumption and side-effects may be lowered significantly by depositing the active agent in the morbid region only and in no higher dose than needed. However, targeted drug delivery is intended to lower the side effects of drugs with concomitant decreases in consumption and treatment expenses. Drug delivery focuses on maximizing bioavailability both at specific places in the body and over a period of time. This can potentially be achieved by molecular targeting by nanoengineered devices.

A major benefit of using nanoscale for medical technologies is that smaller devices are less invasive and can possibly be implanted inside the body, plus biochemical reaction times are much shorter. These devices are faster and more sensitive than typical drug delivery.

Therefore, the efficacy of drug delivery through nanomedicine is largely based upon:

i. Efficient encapsulation of the drugs.

ii. Successful delivery of drug to the targeted region of the body.

iii. Successful release of the drug.