It’s no surprise that the health industry is developing so rapidly today. The recent technological advancements in healthcare have created a whole new world, one where technology can be used to improve patient experience, but also has its own shortcomings. Some people see technology as an opportunity for improvement. But others see it as a threat. Here are some examples of how the new technologies are changing the way we treat and diagnose health issues.
Artificial Intelligence
AI is improving our day by day to make lives easier than they are today. There are already many companies using AI algorithms in various forms. From Siri on iPhones to Google Assistant on many computers. What does this mean for the future? Well for starters the digital assistants like these will eventually replace the human-based ones of their past. And they will become more accurate and intelligent with time.
Here is an example from Apple: When you want your coffee, say you ask “Hey, what would happen if I asked someone else for my Starbucks order” Now there’s not only one person who knows where you bought your coffee from, but there’ll be 10 or 20 other people doing the same when you ask. This means that the people who know where your order came from will now even have an advantage to buy it if asked, which will open up competition. And yes, those people do exist. So how could this change the dynamic of the business environment?
The applications include personalized suggestions, faster decision making about treatments options and even personalized treatment options that follow specific lifestyle factors. They also act as a sort of mediator between the doctor and the patient. You can go to any medical clinic and get their recommendation on how best you should use your medicine depending on where you live. For instance, a doctor might suggest you put on a particular mask based on where you live. Or someone might ask doctors where a particular drug should be used to treat their condition. We can all benefit greatly from being able to find information about medicines and treatments based on where we live in order to find the one that works well for us. So how could this change the relationship of the patient-doctor relationship? How can this impact how our health care system is structured in the near future?
Virtual reality
Just like artificial intelligence, virtual reality overlays a 3D screen onto your wall to allow you to visualize the real world. An example from Microsoft was HoloLens 2. Using holographic displays allows the user to explore any place, be it their home, or a restaurant they visited. As long as there’s a camera on the device, the virtual environment is easily accessed. Imagine if you could see yourself looking into a video game. Imagine seeing your favorite characters, the ones that you played growing up. Would you enjoy playing them again? Of course would you. Yes, it’s really fun. But imagine a scenario like that instead of wearing glasses and lenses in order to play games that you’re better at than your peers. Not only would you enjoy playing the game, but you also love the feeling of success if you can’t finish the last level.
All this can come true in a matter of seconds because you’ve got to have a headset and a monitor. A big difference. So how would VR affect the way we interact with doctors? Is it going to completely transform the doctor-patient relationship? Will patients feel that they are in control and give their full consent? These kinds of questions are just asking to get a general idea of how VR can affect patients’ health. One of the biggest differences between the doctor-patient communication from ten years ago and ten years ago is the fact that patients have more power because they now have this kind of tool to communicate with each other. Maybe there’s something that makes these apps such as the PlayStation that lets patients go back in time and have conversations with their older selves. Or maybe technology is helping to connect with the past but not the present and bring patients together again through VR? Either way, it seems as though VR is here to stay.
Blockchain
Blockchain is a platform that stores blocks of information that cannot be changed without a trace. Think of this piece of paper as “the ledger”. If you had a wallet and you wanted to enter bitcoin or whatever cryptocurrencies that they have, you needed to have Bitcoin as a starting point. That’s why blockchain is very useful for money transactions and currency exchanges. The next step is to put these coins into different wallets or accounts. Each account is connected to the previous one and creates a chain. Once enough of a block is written, it’s irreversible if not deleted. Then, when a transaction happens, everyone gets the right amount of crypto, regardless of where they were. Let me explain this further: When a developer buys an application in Ethereum, he/she needs some ETH that he/she can spend but doesn’t already have access to. She searches the market and finds out that there are multiple good choices, she asks her friend and finds another option, and so forth until she finally arrives at the exact amount. No transaction takes place until everything from one wallet has been processed. Everything that happened before it, will happen again after. So in essence, blockchain is a permanent database of facts because information is recorded in it. It is immutable because once it’s entered, it’s over.
3D Printers
3D printers are similar to the industrial machines of the past as they create objects from a variety of materials. However now when you print something, it’s made up of lots of layers. So what does that mean for humanity? Well imagine a house that was built with wood. Your grandma made you some furniture, like a chair, so you need these two pieces to build a home. Just like the wood, you can take out what you want and stick another one in. That can be done using 3d printers but that takes a bit longer. Because the printer has to layer each layer, it’s almost impossible to know how many layers are needed in total. And the second most important factor is the amount of memory the printer has, so once a layer is printed, even the one next to it is probably done.
What if you could print yourself anything you needed on demand. What kind of technology would enable you to grow your own house then print? Why haven’t we seen the possibility to do that already yet? But let’s be honest here, we don’t see people print houses nowadays. But if you had a three dimensional printer, and you could print every piece you want that you need, it will be an amazing technological advancement for mankind.
The Internet of Medical Things
The internet is basically a giant network connecting billions, people and devices such as sensors, cameras, etc. The internet is expanding everyday across the globe leading to a massive increase in the number of sensors that are getting to be connected. So what does this mean for health? At first, it means a revolution in how we store, process, analyse, track and manage our health and that of our loved ones. To better explain this, imagine a hospital where you can upload into their data base all the medical images that you see and how they look. In a couple of months, you might get to see the scans and medical charts of all the patients in the wards. What is the outcome of all this? Probably nothing really. But what if you could upload those medical images into a centralised database and have a large group of specialists analyse the information that goes inside every single image? This means that they only have to deal with one set of images. One server, one processing unit. Who knows there could be hundreds, maybe tens of thousands of images being analyzed per hour.
This could be revolutionary for research, especially in regards to diseases. It would help to cure illnesses faster and save millions of lives. More importantly doctors wouldn’t need to analyze individual cases and choose based on the ones they need or not. Instead, they would take pictures and have a picture analyser with massive storage capable of storing millions and storing all these data. Isn’t this amazing? The possibilities are endless. The question is, can you put all this into one device? Perhaps the answer is no, but maybe more complex. But could it be done soon? Right now, we only have the smartphones to have the capacity to collect this huge amount of data that would never be used in its entirety. So in the sense of science and the internet, if doctors wanted to see more data on individuals, they would have to download their own scanners and analyse it, right
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