The face mask that stops you mumbling – and the loo that gives you a health MOT

... just two of the outlandish new gadgets unveiled at the world’s biggest tech show. How HAVE we survived without them!

IT SEEMS like a lifetime ago. Just days after the 2019 General Election, health secretary Matt Hancock appeared on national TV setting out his vision for a ‘digital NHS’. He promised the newly elected Government would ‘double down on the tech agenda and bring the NHS into the 21st Century’.

His plan, which included greater funding for cutting-edge technology, was ambitious.

But no one could have predicted quite how prescient it was, too.

A little over a month after that announcement, the first Covid case reached our shores – and our healthcare system underwent a radical overhaul, almost overnight. And it will, most agree, never be the same again.

While front-line doctors learned to tackle the deadly disease, with the country in lockdown GPs had to work out how to treat patients without being in the same room.

Prior to the pandemic, the vast majority of appointments were face-to-face – now, most are carried out via video consultation or by phone.

This new strategy hasn’t won over all patients but a survey carried out by the British Medical Association in June found that 88 per cent of GPs wanted to continue using remote consultations after the Covid-19 crisis is solved.

In 2020 the UK saw £1.3 billion invested into its digital health tech. So it’s not surprising that at this year’s CES technology trade show, health tech was a key component.

The event, which took place online, unveiled a number of major gadgets designed to help us protect, monitor and manage our own health, without needing a doctor at all. From the spaceage face masks that amplify the voice, to viruskilling robots, Covid was, of course, a major theme. Others are simply bizarre – for instance, a ‘smart’ toilet that can carry out urine and stool analysis. But as healthcare at home gets ever more high tech, could such innovations could become commonplace in the near future?

The Mail on Sunday compiled the most exciting gadgets from this year’s show… so you can decide for yourself.