Technology is an important part of our future and here are three ways it is changing the game:
1 Communication
10 years ago, it would not have been possible to live track Covid-19 outbreaks, but through collaborative companies coming together and using their different technologies it was made possible to run a command centre where live data can help decision-makers react faster to crises. ChatBot has been made available to millions of people who have self-isolated a chance to interact in their own native language with a Robot Doctor which assesses the patients’ mental and physical well-being. The millions of responses are automated and then populated into valuable data. This technology protects nurses and doctors and allows for scalability and diagnoses by doctors from a safe distance.
2 AI
Artificial intelligence is going to play an important role in identifying problems in patients early on and providing the right antidotes. Right now, you put a lot of faith in your doctor’s hands – your life in fact – and how many times have you heard a story that the doctor sent the patient home, only to find out that patient died through underlying complications down the line? Doctors go on what they see and if they don’t have the tools and technology to see underlying conditions, you can’t blame the doctor for not having the tools. IBM estimates that 80% of health data is invisible to current systems because it remains unstructured.
The problem facing AI right now is that we need mass data which can be plugged into machines’ learning algorithms. In the future, a trip to the doctor won’t boil down to just your doctor’s opinion but rather a combination of technologically advanced screening, and your doctor’s intervention strategy, based on more precise information available to him.
3 IOT
“Internet of things” and health management. See IOT as the tools that enable the data
collection to make certain predictions. Right now, your doctor’s old school blood pressure cuff reads 126mm HG over 85mm HG. Seems normal right? But what if new age IOT devices measure you and then pull your reading over your history of readings and identifies that your blood pressure is different from your unique norm? In fact, you have had a lower reading all your life. Something has changed in you to elevate your blood pressure and what might seem normal to the masses, is quite un-normal to you. You could shrug it off or you could investigate to find out why and what has caused your spike. This gentle spike might be the starting point of your bad health to come so by identifying this early, you can do preventative treatment rather than awaiting your high blood pressure and then be put on medication for life. Another under-rated reading is your oxygen levels. Why is this so important
to doctors in hospitals yet it is not important to the general masses? If you have come out of an operation, it is an important reading that your muscles and brain are getting enough oxygen. Imagine you were wearing a wearable like a watch that is IOT friendly and measured your oxygen level. It would notify you that your levels are low, and you needed to stop and regulate your breathing to consume more oxygen which could help the elderly from fainting and passing out.
Technology goes through ebbs and flows and a situation like Covid-19 has pushed it right to the top of the list of necessity, which means innovation in the space it’s in. In the next five to 10 years, it’s going to get wild. This is exciting because you and your loved ones will live longer with proper diagnosis. Those human scanning medical machines aboard Star Trek Enterprise aren’t so far-fetched now, are they?