On the health tech beat, you often meet, broadly, two types of people. First, there are lots of very smart people who think we have the know-how to achieve a kind of big-data, perpetual-monitoring, digital-health paradise or at least something better than we have now. <\/p>\n
Then there are some other, equally smart folks whothink that particular vision is fueled bytoo muchSilicon Valley dreamin andtoo little attention tothe basics of health care access and smart policy. <\/p>\n
Dr. Daniel Kraft is closer to the former category. Dr. Kraft put in an appearance on KQEDs Forum radio program recently to discuss cutting edge health tech. Kraft is the chair of medicine at Singularity University, a technology think tank,startup accelerator and educational organization that looks to leverage rapidly accelerating technologies to find solutions on a global scale. <\/p>\n
Kraft and Forum host Michael Krasnytalked about the effects ofnew and prospective technologies,from virtual realitys impacton medical education to the Uberization of health care.Below are excerpts of Krafts answers, edited for length and clarity. <\/p>\n
The Uberization of Health Care <\/p>\n
Everyone is familiar with Uberas disruptive. But they couldnt have existed 10-plus years ago, without smartphones, GPS, online paymentsthey connected the dots. <\/p>\n
We all want that ease and transparency of use that were used to with Uber. And were seeing that kind of mindset come not just to millennials but to older folks who want access to their clinical data and doctor. There are several companies that have launched apps where you press a button and a doctor will come to you within three hours. Uber itself did a pilot in New Yorkwhere you press a button and a nurse will come and give you a flu shot. This ease-of-access mindset is coming across in many parts of health care, including delivering your drugs, whether its by Uber, Lyft or drone. <\/p>\n
The Potential of Digital Health Data <\/p>\n
Were in this age of exponential data, but how do you make it useful to you as a consumer, patientand physician? A lot of digital devices get left in a drawer after a month or so; the trick is to make themengaging. <\/p>\n
We practice sick care today, spending most of our time and money on folks who already have disease. But we can really move to more proactive, continuoushealth care using some of these tools. <\/p>\n
In the future well have individualized check engine lights. Your information will be synthesized so that a warning light can say, Hey, time to come in for a checkup before you blow a gasket. <\/p>\n
Digital Mental Health Tools <\/p>\n
With some wearables and other technologieswe can now get a pulse on our behaviors. Right now Im wearing a couple of devices that track my sleep. I have a ring that can do this; I have a sensor on my mattress. Just getting insight into how you sleep can have a huge impact on health and wellness over the long term. <\/p>\n
Its the same thing for depression and anxiety. Were seeing companies that can be a platform for mental health progression. For example, for bipolar patients, if youre depressed and not moving much and staying in the house, some of these new platforms allow you to access your care team and your family, so you can get a digital hug when you might need one. <\/p>\n
Virtual and Augmented Reality <\/p>\n
Physicians today spend twice as much time typing in their medical records than they do with patients. So one of the best applications is using Google Glass or a similar product sophysicians can see their patients and viewdata but have someone else act as a virtual scribe. <\/p>\n
Were seeing now how Oculus Rift can help medical students learn anatomy, allowing them to fly through the heart or the brain. Were seeing ways to use VR to treat burn patients who have undergonepainful surgeries; theyre put into a cold environment where they get to throw snowballs, and it diminishestheir pain and their need for opiates. And kids with autism can now put on Google Glass and learn to recognize facial emotions. <\/p>\n
Health Screening Tools <\/p>\n
Part of the future will beto use new screening tools: app-based eye-tracking devices, blood-based diagnostics, brain scans that might pick up dementia 10 or 15 years early. There are drugs in development that might stop or reverse plaques when youre at stage 0, before you have symptoms. <\/p>\n
Even with your 23andme data, primary care doctors could gain some insightswhen to screen you or what statin drugs may workbest for you, based on your pharmacogenomics. The challenge is a lot of this information doesnt flow to your physicians; theyre not incentivized to use it, and in some cases theyre dis-incentivized. <\/p>\n
Health Care vs. Technology Care <\/p>\n
Folks talk about robot physicians or the app taking over your medical care. I think its going to be more of a blend, not just AI but IA, intelligence augmentation. So in fields like radiology or dermatology or pathology, where clinicians are trained to see patterns, now machine learning can arguablydo that faster and better, and that can augment a primary care doctor in screening you for melanoma, for example. <\/p>\n
Were seeing the ability to do triage with chatbots, whichyou might access from your phone and help you do the first steps. Ive got a few medical tricorders, inspired by Star Trek,with me. So at home or in yourpocket you can literally pull down advanced vital signs that synch up with your phone and connect to your clinicians, and AI agents can help you understand where you are in your baseline and the way things are moving. <\/p>\n
We dont need to replace doctors, but maybe every visit doesnt need to require you to take off half a day of work, sit in the waiting room and fill out the same form. You might use your smartphone for a follow-up appointment to look at a wound from surgery, or to check on a suspicious skin lesion. As cost pressures go, well be seeing more and more payment for some of these telehealth platforms. <\/p>\n
Pediatrics and Technology <\/p>\n
Theres a lot of new tech coming for pregnant women and children. A connected otoscope can enable you to track kids with ear infections athome, so you dont have to drag them back to the doctor. Were seeing sensored cribs or infant ankle bracelets, sort of a Fitbit for babies, which can help reassure worried parents or enable a physician to send a child home earlier when theyre at risk of SIDS or asthma. <\/p>\n
More onSingularity University and what it calls exponential medicine here. <\/p>\n
Jon Brooks is the host and editor of KQEDs health and technology blog, Future of You. He is the former editor of KQEDs daily news blog, News Fix. A veteran blogger, he previously worked for Yahoo! in various news writing and editing roles. He was also the editor of EconomyBeat.org, which documented user-generated content about the financial crisis and recession. Jon is also a playwright whose work has been produced in San Francisco, New York, Italy, and around the U.S. He has written about film for his own blog and studied film at Boston University. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
See the rest here:<\/p>\n
What Will Next-Stage Digital Medicine Look Like? - KQED<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On the health tech beat, you often meet, broadly, two types of people. First, there are lots of very smart people who think we have the know-how to achieve a kind of big-data, perpetual-monitoring, digital-health paradise or at least something better than we have now. Then there are some other, equally smart folks whothink that particular vision is fueled bytoo muchSilicon Valley dreamin andtoo little attention tothe basics of health care access and smart policy. Continue reading