Technology enabled care

Tech-enabled care is a major emerging theme in the 2010s and beyond. Personal health records, monitoring via wearables, medical diagnostic devices that connect to smartphones or are integrated directly into them, as well as decision support / analytics support systems that enable caregivers, as well as the patients themselves, to have an even more detailed understanding of the physiological state — are being advanced and introduced more frequently. Certainly a cross-functional, cross-domain theme that folk with a broader set of experiences will be able to contribute to.

An example of a service that goes beyond what’s available today to patients, through the use of technology - available below:

https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/comprehensive-tech-enabled-checkup-service-q-bio-scores-40m

Two significant and exciting leaps in healthtech in 2020

In the face of the seemingly ever-growing set of challenges facing the global community, there are positive and encouraging news out of science & tech that give hope for a brighter future for all.

Two really exciting advances in healthcare technology, that I think are signs of monumental advances for medical care, are these following two stories that came out this January 2020:

https://www.healthimaging.com/topics/healthcare-economics/fda-clear-worlds-first-portable-mri

https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/20/machine-learning-finds-novel-antibiotic-able-to-kill-superbugs/

Augmented Intelligence

Great write-up that takes a more rational stance on the potential wins from broader adoption of AI / machine learning. I’ve been borrowing the term “augmented intelligence” when describing the (hyped up in recent years) acronym of “AI”. The algorithms that sift through large amounts of historical data, and then try to make suggestions on data that’s input to the model by the end-user — are most effective at suggesting the next step / action for the human — rather than replacing people’s decisions entirely. This will be especially evident in healthcare, where doctor / clinician decisions will never be replaced, but rather only augmented by output from systems.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/does-ai-have-a-place-in-medicine/

Crowdsourcing in health tech

Highly recommended read on the application of deep learning to the dermatology arena, that a research team at Google has pursued. This is what I believe to be the promise next generation of health tech start-ups and emerging companies - where curation can be sourced globally.

https://ai.googleblog.com/2019/09/using-deep-learning-to-inform.html

The interesting bit is that a new Netflix original series, “Diagnosis” has come out about the same time (this month, Sept 2019) and covers specific stories where crowdsourcing has led to positive next steps for patients and their families.

https://www.netflix.com/title/80201543

An area worth exploring further.

Healthcare benefiting from ML

Really exciting to see progress in application of machine learning (ML) techniques to the world of healthcare, in ways that are immediately applicable to improving the ways care is provided. In this case, it should be possible to better know the timing when a strong medical intervention is necessary, and how early.

https://www.csail.mit.edu/news/using-ai-predict-breast-cancer-and-personalize-care

https://www.statnews.com/2019/07/17/an-experimental-ai-system-can-predict-when-pancreatic-cysts-will-become-cancerous/

The machine becomes an advisor that we and our clinicians can start to lean on more, for more peace of mind and a better life.

Looking back

Looking back at some posts I’ve saved from over the years, this one stood out today:

Today, the tech hobbies with momentum include: math-based currencies like Bitcoin, new software development tools like NoSQL databases, the internet of things, 3D printing, touch-free human/computer interfaces, and “artisanal” hardware like the kind you find on Kickstarter…

It’s a good bet these present-day hobbies will seed future industries.

Chris Dixon, 2013

It’s especially fulfilling to see mass adoption of wearables today, as well as the ever expanding set of companies offering options to collect, correlate, and offer alerts/intervention/action, based on body signal sensor readings, like EKG, blood pressure, etc.

Makes me happy to have explored the space years ago with the euMetrica project in 2012-2013.

More on the topic and 2 take away lessons for self - in my recent LinkedIn post.

(it’s funny - even TripNotify, as a single day hackathon concept from back in 2012, was in some ways a preview of all of the fall detection apps available today in 2019)

….

Gotta keep going - what’s next?