A report on macro trends relating to health technology, produced in a one-day topic sprint by the members of KANT Berlin: Alper Çuğun, Chris Eidhof, Martin Spindler, Matt Patterson and Peter Bihr. (CC by)
To learn more about KANT Berlin and its members, please visit www.kantberlin.com
5 healthcare technology transformation trends to watch out for in 2017Rahul Gupta
Healthcare is all set to undergo a massive technology/ Digital transformation in 2017. The slides talk about the current challenges faced by the US Healthcare sector, the key technology transformation to watch out for and how they stack up on the hype cycle
Vator Splash Health, Wellness & Wearables 2017
A presentation on the Vator conference in San Francisco, CA. Perhaps one of my favorite conference series in health tech featuring many perspectives: tech, insurance, genomics, behavioral health, diagnostics, devices and more.
How Fitness And Wellness Apps Are Transforming The Healthcare Industry In Los...Moon Technolabs Pvt. Ltd.
Are you curious about fitness app solutions in USA? Perhaps you’re wondering whether they’re a difference at all or not. Well, this write-up will clarify your doubts.
Non Invasive Health Monitoring with mHealthBart Collet
mHealth Trends and examples of non invasive mobile health devices, organisations and services.
Made as preparation for MoMoAMS #14 about mHealth, Jan 25th 2010, Amsterdam
Technology is revolutionizing every industry, but
health care is especially seeing major
transformations that boost the quality of care,
provider efficiency, and patient convenience. The
impact of these four health care technology
advances is staggering.
5 healthcare technology transformation trends to watch out for in 2017Rahul Gupta
Healthcare is all set to undergo a massive technology/ Digital transformation in 2017. The slides talk about the current challenges faced by the US Healthcare sector, the key technology transformation to watch out for and how they stack up on the hype cycle
Vator Splash Health, Wellness & Wearables 2017
A presentation on the Vator conference in San Francisco, CA. Perhaps one of my favorite conference series in health tech featuring many perspectives: tech, insurance, genomics, behavioral health, diagnostics, devices and more.
How Fitness And Wellness Apps Are Transforming The Healthcare Industry In Los...Moon Technolabs Pvt. Ltd.
Are you curious about fitness app solutions in USA? Perhaps you’re wondering whether they’re a difference at all or not. Well, this write-up will clarify your doubts.
Non Invasive Health Monitoring with mHealthBart Collet
mHealth Trends and examples of non invasive mobile health devices, organisations and services.
Made as preparation for MoMoAMS #14 about mHealth, Jan 25th 2010, Amsterdam
Technology is revolutionizing every industry, but
health care is especially seeing major
transformations that boost the quality of care,
provider efficiency, and patient convenience. The
impact of these four health care technology
advances is staggering.
Advances in information and communication technologies have led to the emergence of Internet of Things
(IoT). In the modern health care environment, the usage of IoT technologies brings convenience to physicians and
patients since they are applied to various medical areas (such as real-time monitoring, patient information and healthcare
management). The body sensor network (BSN) technology is one of the core technologies of IoT developments in
healthcare system, where a patient can be monitored using a collection of tiny-powered and lightweight wireless sensor
nodes
Shared By The Many: Advances in technology are allowing for the provision of affordable, decentralized healthcare for the masses and are lowering the barriers to entry in less developed markets.
The analysis in PSFK’s Future of Health Report has yielded a number of insights, the most evident of which is mobile technology as a catalyst for change. The mobile phone and connected tablet computer are allowing for the distribution of a broad range of medical and support services. This is especially important in countries with little or no healthcare infrastructure and areas in which there are few trained healthcare professionals. These technologies also allow trained professionals to perform quality control remotely.
Amongst the many significant developments is a shift towards one-on-one, in- field diagnostics and monitoring. Services that were once only available at a doctor’s office or hospital are now available on-demand through low-tech, affordable solutions. Personal systems allow for ‘good enough’ diagnostics that would have been difficult, expensive and timely to attain previously.
Using a basic phone with adapted software, a health worker can test for myriad symptoms - even cancer. This information can be relayed to a central medical care center where doctors and trained professionals can react to the data, provide prompt diagnosis and suggest treatment options. The ability to capture this data and get quick responses remotely means better healthcare, fewer trips to the hospital (which, for many means days away from home and family), and less time away from work.
A change is also occurring that is seeing increased access to and sharing of health information. This is made possible by the proliferation of systems designed to overcome infrastructure insufficiencies. these systems are enabling the broadcast of information and receipt of subsequent feedback in virtually any setting. From ‘town crier’ systems to ‘internet by text’, the collective knowledge found on the web is being made available to populations around the world who previously lacked access. The connectivity that is enabling the sharing of health information is also powering the growth of social networks focused on health and medical care. These networks are allowing professionals, health workers and individuals to connect and share knowledge quickly.
PSFK’s Future of Health Report details 15 trends that will impact health and wellness around the world. Simple advances such as off-the-grid energy and the introduction of gaming into healthcare service offerings sit alongside more future-forward developments such as bio-medical printing. It is our hope that this report will inspire your thinking and lead to services, applications and technologies which will allow for more available, quality healthcare.
For a download of this report - visit: http://www.psfk.com/future-of-health
Based on 4 months of post pandemic conversations with health leaders and hospitals on the ground, these are my observations on how AI is shaping up to help hospitals across South East Asia.
10 Common Applications of Artificial Intelligence in HealthcareTechtic Solutions
List of 10 Common Applications of Artificial Intelligence that explain how artificial intelligence is used in healthcare and why it is necessary? To read briefly all common applications of artificial intelligence in healthcare then visit at https://www.techtic.com/blog/applications-of-ai-in-healthcare/
“Mobile Health(mHealth) is the use of mobile and wireless devices, the technology, to provide Health outcomes, Healthcare services and Health research.”
Wearables in Healthcare: 2016 Prospects and the Money-Saving PatientEspeo Software
2016 looks to be a disruptive year for healthcare-focused wearables, especially those focused on preventive care or the management of chronic illnesses. This also translates into serious savings for the consumer... and profit for a wearable tech business.
mHealth: The future of health is mobileguestd78180
Dr. Bernhardt's presentation at the mHealth Networking Summit on February 4, 2010 in Washington, DC. This talk explore the role of mobile technology for health promotion and features the work of the CDC in response to the H1N1 pandemic.
In real sense Smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced features and functionality beyond traditional functionalities like making phone calls and sending text messages. The Smartphone are equipped with the capabilities to display photos, play games, play videos, navigation, built-in camera, audio/video playback and recording, send/receive e-mail, built in apps for social web sites and surf the Web, wireless Internet and much more.The penetration of Mobiles is more than 100% in the developed markets and is rapidly gaining acceptance in the developing regions such as Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa. The rising exposure to smartphones with technologies such as 4G and 5G networks will further promote the adoption of mobile devices in most sectors,over half of mobile phone users globally will have smartphones in 2018
How Technology Encourages A Healthy Lifestylegrovedental
Technology has changed health care, putting the power to manage our health in our own hands to a degree never seen before. Here are some important facts about health and how technology encourages people to live healthier lifestyles.
10 Top Healthcare Application Development Trends You Need to Know in 2023.pdfTechinfofacts
The technology used in healthcare has advanced significantly over the past few years, healthcare application development trends and we can expect it to continue evolving well into the year 2023. Providing better healthcare services and improving patient outcomes is becoming increasingly imperative as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) take hold.
Over $50 billion is expected to be spent on healthcare apps by 2023. Healthcare will be impacted by mobile technology as it advances. Mobile apps will remain an important tool for improving healthcare delivery, providing more access to quality care for everyone.
Wearable Technology Revolutionzing Health CareTahakhan109559
Wearable technology has made a remarkable impact on healthcare, ushering in an era where health monitoring and management are more accessible, efficient, and personalized than ever before. These innovative devices, ranging from fitness trackers to advanced health monitors, are transforming how we understand and approach health and wellness.
One of the most significant advantages of wearable technology is its ability to provide real-time health monitoring. Devices like smartwatches and fitness bands continuously track various health metrics, including heart rate, activity levels, sleep patterns, and even blood oxygen levels. This constant stream of data allows users to gain a comprehensive understanding of their health, enabling them to make informed decisions about their lifestyle and wellness routines. More importantly, these devices can detect early signs of potential health issues, prompting users to seek medical advice before problems escalate. For instance, a wearable can detect irregular heartbeats, alerting the user to possible conditions such as atrial fibrillation, which might otherwise go unnoticed until a more severe event occurs.
The personalization of healthcare is another profound benefit of wearable technology. By providing detailed insights into an individual’s health patterns, these devices empower users to take proactive steps towards improving their well-being. Personalized data can lead to better management of chronic conditions, such as hypertension and diabetes, by helping users understand how their daily activities and habits affect their health. For example, a diabetic patient can use a continuous glucose monitor to track blood sugar levels in real-time, allowing for more precise insulin management and dietary adjustments. This level of personalization fosters a more engaged and informed approach to health management, ultimately leading to better outcomes.
Wearable technology also plays a crucial role in enhancing remote patient monitoring and telehealth services. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of remote healthcare solutions, and wearables have proven to be invaluable in this context. These devices enable healthcare providers to monitor patients’ vital signs and other health metrics remotely, reducing the need for in-person visits and minimizing the risk of infection. This capability is particularly beneficial for managing chronic conditions, post-operative care, and elderly patients who may face difficulties traveling to healthcare facilities. By providing continuous updates on a patient’s condition, wearable technology allows for timely interventions and adjustments to treatment plans, ensuring that patients receive the care they need, no matter where they are.
Innovation in wearable technology continues to drive its impact on healthcare. Emerging devices and advancements are expanding the capabilities of wearables, making them more powerful and versatile. For instance, the integration of artificial
Unprecedented Technological Trends Push the Envelope in Life SciencesCognizant
The life sciences and pharmaceuticals industry is facing startling digitizational changes on many levels, with these five key technology trends setting the pace: bundling products and services, edge analytics, human augmentation, automation and AI, and patient data ownership.
Advances in information and communication technologies have led to the emergence of Internet of Things
(IoT). In the modern health care environment, the usage of IoT technologies brings convenience to physicians and
patients since they are applied to various medical areas (such as real-time monitoring, patient information and healthcare
management). The body sensor network (BSN) technology is one of the core technologies of IoT developments in
healthcare system, where a patient can be monitored using a collection of tiny-powered and lightweight wireless sensor
nodes
Shared By The Many: Advances in technology are allowing for the provision of affordable, decentralized healthcare for the masses and are lowering the barriers to entry in less developed markets.
The analysis in PSFK’s Future of Health Report has yielded a number of insights, the most evident of which is mobile technology as a catalyst for change. The mobile phone and connected tablet computer are allowing for the distribution of a broad range of medical and support services. This is especially important in countries with little or no healthcare infrastructure and areas in which there are few trained healthcare professionals. These technologies also allow trained professionals to perform quality control remotely.
Amongst the many significant developments is a shift towards one-on-one, in- field diagnostics and monitoring. Services that were once only available at a doctor’s office or hospital are now available on-demand through low-tech, affordable solutions. Personal systems allow for ‘good enough’ diagnostics that would have been difficult, expensive and timely to attain previously.
Using a basic phone with adapted software, a health worker can test for myriad symptoms - even cancer. This information can be relayed to a central medical care center where doctors and trained professionals can react to the data, provide prompt diagnosis and suggest treatment options. The ability to capture this data and get quick responses remotely means better healthcare, fewer trips to the hospital (which, for many means days away from home and family), and less time away from work.
A change is also occurring that is seeing increased access to and sharing of health information. This is made possible by the proliferation of systems designed to overcome infrastructure insufficiencies. these systems are enabling the broadcast of information and receipt of subsequent feedback in virtually any setting. From ‘town crier’ systems to ‘internet by text’, the collective knowledge found on the web is being made available to populations around the world who previously lacked access. The connectivity that is enabling the sharing of health information is also powering the growth of social networks focused on health and medical care. These networks are allowing professionals, health workers and individuals to connect and share knowledge quickly.
PSFK’s Future of Health Report details 15 trends that will impact health and wellness around the world. Simple advances such as off-the-grid energy and the introduction of gaming into healthcare service offerings sit alongside more future-forward developments such as bio-medical printing. It is our hope that this report will inspire your thinking and lead to services, applications and technologies which will allow for more available, quality healthcare.
For a download of this report - visit: http://www.psfk.com/future-of-health
Based on 4 months of post pandemic conversations with health leaders and hospitals on the ground, these are my observations on how AI is shaping up to help hospitals across South East Asia.
10 Common Applications of Artificial Intelligence in HealthcareTechtic Solutions
List of 10 Common Applications of Artificial Intelligence that explain how artificial intelligence is used in healthcare and why it is necessary? To read briefly all common applications of artificial intelligence in healthcare then visit at https://www.techtic.com/blog/applications-of-ai-in-healthcare/
“Mobile Health(mHealth) is the use of mobile and wireless devices, the technology, to provide Health outcomes, Healthcare services and Health research.”
Wearables in Healthcare: 2016 Prospects and the Money-Saving PatientEspeo Software
2016 looks to be a disruptive year for healthcare-focused wearables, especially those focused on preventive care or the management of chronic illnesses. This also translates into serious savings for the consumer... and profit for a wearable tech business.
mHealth: The future of health is mobileguestd78180
Dr. Bernhardt's presentation at the mHealth Networking Summit on February 4, 2010 in Washington, DC. This talk explore the role of mobile technology for health promotion and features the work of the CDC in response to the H1N1 pandemic.
In real sense Smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced features and functionality beyond traditional functionalities like making phone calls and sending text messages. The Smartphone are equipped with the capabilities to display photos, play games, play videos, navigation, built-in camera, audio/video playback and recording, send/receive e-mail, built in apps for social web sites and surf the Web, wireless Internet and much more.The penetration of Mobiles is more than 100% in the developed markets and is rapidly gaining acceptance in the developing regions such as Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa. The rising exposure to smartphones with technologies such as 4G and 5G networks will further promote the adoption of mobile devices in most sectors,over half of mobile phone users globally will have smartphones in 2018
How Technology Encourages A Healthy Lifestylegrovedental
Technology has changed health care, putting the power to manage our health in our own hands to a degree never seen before. Here are some important facts about health and how technology encourages people to live healthier lifestyles.
10 Top Healthcare Application Development Trends You Need to Know in 2023.pdfTechinfofacts
The technology used in healthcare has advanced significantly over the past few years, healthcare application development trends and we can expect it to continue evolving well into the year 2023. Providing better healthcare services and improving patient outcomes is becoming increasingly imperative as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) take hold.
Over $50 billion is expected to be spent on healthcare apps by 2023. Healthcare will be impacted by mobile technology as it advances. Mobile apps will remain an important tool for improving healthcare delivery, providing more access to quality care for everyone.
Wearable Technology Revolutionzing Health CareTahakhan109559
Wearable technology has made a remarkable impact on healthcare, ushering in an era where health monitoring and management are more accessible, efficient, and personalized than ever before. These innovative devices, ranging from fitness trackers to advanced health monitors, are transforming how we understand and approach health and wellness.
One of the most significant advantages of wearable technology is its ability to provide real-time health monitoring. Devices like smartwatches and fitness bands continuously track various health metrics, including heart rate, activity levels, sleep patterns, and even blood oxygen levels. This constant stream of data allows users to gain a comprehensive understanding of their health, enabling them to make informed decisions about their lifestyle and wellness routines. More importantly, these devices can detect early signs of potential health issues, prompting users to seek medical advice before problems escalate. For instance, a wearable can detect irregular heartbeats, alerting the user to possible conditions such as atrial fibrillation, which might otherwise go unnoticed until a more severe event occurs.
The personalization of healthcare is another profound benefit of wearable technology. By providing detailed insights into an individual’s health patterns, these devices empower users to take proactive steps towards improving their well-being. Personalized data can lead to better management of chronic conditions, such as hypertension and diabetes, by helping users understand how their daily activities and habits affect their health. For example, a diabetic patient can use a continuous glucose monitor to track blood sugar levels in real-time, allowing for more precise insulin management and dietary adjustments. This level of personalization fosters a more engaged and informed approach to health management, ultimately leading to better outcomes.
Wearable technology also plays a crucial role in enhancing remote patient monitoring and telehealth services. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of remote healthcare solutions, and wearables have proven to be invaluable in this context. These devices enable healthcare providers to monitor patients’ vital signs and other health metrics remotely, reducing the need for in-person visits and minimizing the risk of infection. This capability is particularly beneficial for managing chronic conditions, post-operative care, and elderly patients who may face difficulties traveling to healthcare facilities. By providing continuous updates on a patient’s condition, wearable technology allows for timely interventions and adjustments to treatment plans, ensuring that patients receive the care they need, no matter where they are.
Innovation in wearable technology continues to drive its impact on healthcare. Emerging devices and advancements are expanding the capabilities of wearables, making them more powerful and versatile. For instance, the integration of artificial
Unprecedented Technological Trends Push the Envelope in Life SciencesCognizant
The life sciences and pharmaceuticals industry is facing startling digitizational changes on many levels, with these five key technology trends setting the pace: bundling products and services, edge analytics, human augmentation, automation and AI, and patient data ownership.
POST EACH DISCUSSION SEPARATELYThe way patient data is harvested.docxLacieKlineeb
POST EACH DISCUSSION SEPARATELY
The way patient data is harvested and used is rapidly changing. Patient data itself has become quite complex.
In the future
, patient data will be combined with financial data, product or drug data, socioeconomic factors, social patterns, and social determinants of health. Cognitive behavior and artificial intelligence will be applied to the data to help prevent and depict rather than cure disease.
Evaluate the future of Healthcare information technology.
Include the following aspects in the discussion:
Find two articles related to the future of information systems (IS) in healthcare
Include telehealth, wearable technology, patient portals, and data utilization
Analyze potential benefits from advances
Discuss, from your own perspective, the advantages and disadvantages of having a system where the patient manages their own data
REPLY TO MY CLASSMATE’S DISCUSSION TO THE ABOVE QUESTIONS AND EXPLAIN WHY YOU AGREE. MINIMUM OF 150 WORDS EACH
Classmate’s Discussion 1
The technological advancements that have occurred in the field of healthcare have greatly changed the way people view and interact with the healthcare system. They have also led to the reduction of costs and the increasing efficiency of the system. We expect that the future of healthcare will continue to be influenced by information technology.
Due to the technological advancements that have occurred in the field of healthcare, physicians are now able to spend less time with their patients. This has allowed them to provide more effective and efficient care to their patients. In the future, we can expect that the increasing number of specialists who can delegate their work to other doctors will have a significant impact on the healthcare system. The increasing efficiency of doctors is expected to have a significant impact on the shortage of specialist physicians in the future. This issue could be solved using technology. Hopefully, the use of information technology can help boost the number of specialist physicians (Patric, 2022).
Electronic health records have revolutionized the way healthcare is done. Despite the progress that has been made in terms of keeping and tracking these records, they are still not widely used yet. This means that the kind of growth that was expected from the adoption of these records has not materialized. Although the adoption of electronic health records has been made in various parts of the world, it’s still not widely used in all areas. This means that the ability to keep track of one’s medical history is still very important (Patric, 2022).
The increasing importance of information technology in healthcare has led to the prediction that the cost of healthcare will eventually come down. Various factors such as better accessibility and efficiency will help make healthcare more affordable and more effective.
It’s widely believed that keeping one's health is much cheaper and easier than treating a.
7 Best Points of The Future of Digital Technology in Healthcare | The Entrepr...TheEntrepreneurRevie
Here are 7 Best Points of The Future of Digital Technology in Healthcare; 1. Smartphones and wearable technology, 2. Virtual Machines (VMs), 3. Telecommunications medicine,
The Ultimate Guide to Healthcare App Development.pdfLucy Zeniffer
Planning to build a healthcare application? Here is your expert’s guide on steps to build a healthcare app, including types, features, and benefits of healthcare applications.
How Mobile App Development Ensures Patient’s Healthcare.Techugo
Technological advancement and interference have led to a significant transformation in the healthcare industry. We can see how mobile app development has contributed to healthcare transformation over the last few years. Covid-19 isn’t over, but mobile healthcare applications by the top healthcare app development company have helped create a path toward incredible growth in such a crisis. It has changed the perception of the industry and made it more accessible.
The Future Of Health 2014 www.psfk.com/future-of-health / #FutureOfHealth A Foreword PIERS FAWKES Founder & President, PSFK Labs labs.psfk.com Imagine a future where wearable technologies track key areas of your life to provide timely prompts about your health, and the data gathered can be uploaded securely to the cloud. Instead of going into the doctor’s office for a checkup, you would schedule a video consultation to discuss your recent readings. In instances when you need further care, your visits would be coordinated by medical records that flow seamlessly between key members of hospital staff and your care would be supported by relevant information that prepares you for what’s next. Your surgeon would be able to look at your results alongside the wider patient population or seek advice from specialists around the world to determine an optimal treatment plan; the effectiveness of which would determine their compensation. While the realities of the current model of healthcare tell a different story, we’re beginning to see exciting signs of change against daunting challenges. The World Economic Forum estimates that unless current trends reverse, five common ‘lifestyle’ diseases— cancer, diabetes, heart disease, lung disease and mental health problems—will cost the world $47 trillion in treatments and lost wages. Add that figure to a system that could see a shortage of 90,000 doctors in the US alone by the end of the decade, and the picture becomes bleak. Rather than view these as insurmountable obstacles, we choose to see a landscape full of opportunity. Despite a slow regulatory process a host of new mobile and social tools, sensor technologies and devices are being developed for an industry in need of change. These innovations are poised to improve health lifestyle choices and change the way care is delivered. We’re excited to share this patient-centered vision in our latest report.
Medical technologies and data protection issues - food for thoughtRenato Monteiro
Document prepared towards the modernization procedure of Council of Europe´s Convention 108 on the Protection of Personal Data. Available at: http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/standardsetting/dataprotection/TPD_documents/T-PD-BUR%282014%2904Rev%20-%20Medical%20Data%20%28By%20Renato%20Leite%29.pdf
Medical technologies and data protection issues - food for thoughtRenato Monteiro
Document prepared towards the modernization procedure of Council of Europe´s Convention 108 on the Protection of Personal Data. Available at: http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/standardsetting/dataprotection/TPD_documents/T-PD-BUR%282014%2904Rev%20-%20Medical%20Data%20%28By%20Renato%20Leite%29.pdf
Can Wearable Technology Transform The Healthcare Sector?Pixel Crayons
The last decade has seen a boom in wearable technology. Wearable technology is changing every industry & the healthcare sector is no exception.
Read the full blog here: https://rb.gy/0po42b
Connect with us through:
Contact us : https://rb.gy/nhczda
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/PixelCrayons
Twitter : https://twitter.com/pixelcrayons
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/pixe...
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Pinterest : https://in.pinterest.com/pixelcrayons/
Gleecus Whitepaper : Applications of Artificial Intelligence in HealthcareSuprit Patra
In the field of medicine, Artificial Intelligence (AI) goes a long way in strengthening and improvising the communication between Doctors and Patient like never before. The Healthcare industry requires enormous amounts of digitized data to be periodically shared, stored and yet kept secure at the same time. Smart algorithms are powering artificial intelligence (AI) applications in the healthcare sector By enabling intelligent applications to not only speak and listen but also to make decisions in unrivaled ways to nullify human errors.
Read this research paper to know how AI is taking healthcare by storm.
This document includes three blog posts recently featured in PharmaVOICE.
The blogs focus on how enhanced access to in-depth health data is impacting an understanding of personhood, the environment around us, and the pharma operating model.
BLOG 1 (Pages 2-7)
Waves of Real Life Data Are Inundating Pharma...Can They Keep Up?
BLOG 2 (Pages 8-13)
Better understanding where and how we live will vastly improve remote patient
monitoring approaches
BLOG 3 (Pages 14-18)
5 Ways Pharma Can Be More Patient-Centered & Usher in Digital Transformation
Send me a note with your comments and feedback. Thanks for reading!
The Healthcare Revolution: Unlocking New Frontiers with HealthTech | The Life...The Lifesciences Magazine
The healthcare landscape is undergoing a dramatic transformation as technology plays an increasingly central role. From remote patient monitoring to AI-powered diagnostics, health tech is revolutionizing the way we deliver and experience healthcare.
HOW INNOVATIVE mHEALTH APPS ARE TRANSFORMING PATIENT CARE ? BY TORI COONS, OB...Relevantz
The latest mHealth apps are doing some truly remarkable things to help reduce or eliminate inconvenient and lengthy trips to the doctor, hospital, or lab as well as to improve personalized patient care. Through better and smarter mobile technology, patients will start to see entirely new methods of delivering patient care – through digital means. By Tori Coons, ObjectFrontier Software
Top 10 Mobile Healthcare App Development Trends 2022.pdfGroovy Web
With the support of technology and advancement, the healthcare industry is also growing rapidly just like other industries. The arrival of appearing app trends
Swiss Re - Center for Global Dialogue Report: Healthcare revolution: Big dat...Thomas Dijohn
dacadoo is proud to be referenced by Swiss Re - Center of Global Dialogue in report 'Healthcare revolution: Big data and smart analytics'.
dacadoo is referenced in the section "Sensor innovations driving the digital health revolution"
What type of (smart) city do we want to live in?Peter Bihr
Presentation about better metrics and design principles for smart cities.
NEXT Conference Hamburg, 19 September 2019.
Learn more at https://thewavingcat.com
Trustable Tech Mark / Magic Monday at Casa Jasmina TorinoPeter Bihr
Presenting the ThingsCon Trustable Tech Mark at Casa Jasmina's Magic Monday. Torino, 24 September 2018.
Learn more about the ThingsCon Trustable Tech mark at https://thingscon.com/iot-trustmark
A trustmark for the Internet of Things (IoT). An initiative by ThingsCon with support from the Mozilla Foundation.
Learn more at trustabletech.com and thingscon.com.
Presented at ThingsCon Salon Berlin, 17 July 2018.
Internet of Things: Bestandsaufnahme & Spannungsfelder (Uni Dresden, 18. Okt ...Peter Bihr
Präsentation am Masterstudiengang für angewandte Medienforschung über Spannungsfelder rund um Internet der Dinge, künstliche Intelligenz und algorithmische Entscheidungsfindung.
Netzpolitik13: Das Internet der Dinge: Rechte, Regulierung & SpannungsfelderPeter Bihr
Talk für die Konferenz "Das ist Netzpolitik!" (Berlin, 1. September 2017).
Beschreibung:
Vom Hobby-Basteln bis hin zur Smart City: Das Internet of Things (#IoT) hat zunehmend Berührungspunkte mit allen Bereichen unseres Lebens. Aber wer bestimmt was erlaubt ist, was mit unseren Daten passiert, und ob es OK ist, unter die Haube zu gucken? IoT sitzt an der Schnittstelle vieler Technologie-, Governance- und Regulierungsbereiche—und schafft dadurch gleich eine ganze Reihe von Spannungsfeldern.
Fit für die nächsten 20 Jahre - ForecastingPeter Bihr
Cleaned up German version of a client talk about future-proofing the organization, forecasting as a tool, and an eclectic collection of signals with a focus on humans and machines working together.
ThingsCon Amsterdam: A responsible Internet of ThingsPeter Bihr
Keynote for ThingsCon Amsterdam 2016. Learn more about ThingsCon Amsterdam at http://thingscon.nl and more about ThingsCon at http://thingscon.com
Please note: This upload was converted from Keynote to PPT, so there might be layout issues.
Couples presenting to the infertility clinic- Do they really have infertility...Sujoy Dasgupta
Dr Sujoy Dasgupta presented the study on "Couples presenting to the infertility clinic- Do they really have infertility? – The unexplored stories of non-consummation" in the 13th Congress of the Asia Pacific Initiative on Reproduction (ASPIRE 2024) at Manila on 24 May, 2024.
- Video recording of this lecture in English language: https://youtu.be/lK81BzxMqdo
- Video recording of this lecture in Arabic language: https://youtu.be/Ve4P0COk9OI
- Link to download the book free: https://nephrotube.blogspot.com/p/nephrotube-nephrology-books.html
- Link to NephroTube website: www.NephroTube.com
- Link to NephroTube social media accounts: https://nephrotube.blogspot.com/p/join-nephrotube-on-social-media.html
Anti ulcer drugs and their Advance pharmacology ||
Anti-ulcer drugs are medications used to prevent and treat ulcers in the stomach and upper part of the small intestine (duodenal ulcers). These ulcers are often caused by an imbalance between stomach acid and the mucosal lining, which protects the stomach lining.
||Scope: Overview of various classes of anti-ulcer drugs, their mechanisms of action, indications, side effects, and clinical considerations.
New Directions in Targeted Therapeutic Approaches for Older Adults With Mantl...i3 Health
i3 Health is pleased to make the speaker slides from this activity available for use as a non-accredited self-study or teaching resource.
This slide deck presented by Dr. Kami Maddocks, Professor-Clinical in the Division of Hematology and
Associate Division Director for Ambulatory Operations
The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, will provide insight into new directions in targeted therapeutic approaches for older adults with mantle cell lymphoma.
STATEMENT OF NEED
Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is a rare, aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) accounting for 5% to 7% of all lymphomas. Its prognosis ranges from indolent disease that does not require treatment for years to very aggressive disease, which is associated with poor survival (Silkenstedt et al, 2021). Typically, MCL is diagnosed at advanced stage and in older patients who cannot tolerate intensive therapy (NCCN, 2022). Although recent advances have slightly increased remission rates, recurrence and relapse remain very common, leading to a median overall survival between 3 and 6 years (LLS, 2021). Though there are several effective options, progress is still needed towards establishing an accepted frontline approach for MCL (Castellino et al, 2022). Treatment selection and management of MCL are complicated by the heterogeneity of prognosis, advanced age and comorbidities of patients, and lack of an established standard approach for treatment, making it vital that clinicians be familiar with the latest research and advances in this area. In this activity chaired by Michael Wang, MD, Professor in the Department of Lymphoma & Myeloma at MD Anderson Cancer Center, expert faculty will discuss prognostic factors informing treatment, the promising results of recent trials in new therapeutic approaches, and the implications of treatment resistance in therapeutic selection for MCL.
Target Audience
Hematology/oncology fellows, attending faculty, and other health care professionals involved in the treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).
Learning Objectives
1.) Identify clinical and biological prognostic factors that can guide treatment decision making for older adults with MCL
2.) Evaluate emerging data on targeted therapeutic approaches for treatment-naive and relapsed/refractory MCL and their applicability to older adults
3.) Assess mechanisms of resistance to targeted therapies for MCL and their implications for treatment selection
micro teaching on communication m.sc nursing.pdfAnurag Sharma
Microteaching is a unique model of practice teaching. It is a viable instrument for the. desired change in the teaching behavior or the behavior potential which, in specified types of real. classroom situations, tends to facilitate the achievement of specified types of objectives.
Pulmonary Thromboembolism - etilogy, types, medical- Surgical and nursing man...VarunMahajani
Disruption of blood supply to lung alveoli due to blockage of one or more pulmonary blood vessels is called as Pulmonary thromboembolism. In this presentation we will discuss its causes, types and its management in depth.
These lecture slides, by Dr Sidra Arshad, offer a quick overview of physiological basis of a normal electrocardiogram.
Learning objectives:
1. Define an electrocardiogram (ECG) and electrocardiography
2. Describe how dipoles generated by the heart produce the waveforms of the ECG
3. Describe the components of a normal electrocardiogram of a typical bipolar leads (limb II)
4. Differentiate between intervals and segments
5. Enlist some common indications for obtaining an ECG
Study Resources:
1. Chapter 11, Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology, 14th edition
2. Chapter 9, Human Physiology - From Cells to Systems, Lauralee Sherwood, 9th edition
3. Chapter 29, Ganong’s Review of Medical Physiology, 26th edition
4. Electrocardiogram, StatPearls - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK549803/
5. ECG in Medical Practice by ABM Abdullah, 4th edition
6. ECG Basics, http://www.nataliescasebook.com/tag/e-c-g-basics
Ethanol (CH3CH2OH), or beverage alcohol, is a two-carbon alcohol
that is rapidly distributed in the body and brain. Ethanol alters many
neurochemical systems and has rewarding and addictive properties. It
is the oldest recreational drug and likely contributes to more morbidity,
mortality, and public health costs than all illicit drugs combined. The
5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(DSM-5) integrates alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence into a single
disorder called alcohol use disorder (AUD), with mild, moderate,
and severe subclassifications (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
In the DSM-5, all types of substance abuse and dependence have been
combined into a single substance use disorder (SUD) on a continuum
from mild to severe. A diagnosis of AUD requires that at least two of
the 11 DSM-5 behaviors be present within a 12-month period (mild
AUD: 2–3 criteria; moderate AUD: 4–5 criteria; severe AUD: 6–11 criteria).
The four main behavioral effects of AUD are impaired control over
drinking, negative social consequences, risky use, and altered physiological
effects (tolerance, withdrawal). This chapter presents an overview
of the prevalence and harmful consequences of AUD in the U.S.,
the systemic nature of the disease, neurocircuitry and stages of AUD,
comorbidities, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, genetic risk factors, and
pharmacotherapies for AUD.
2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
How to read this report
2. Trends
Key developments
Software and mobile applications.
Hardware and self tracking gadgets.
Data sharing
Telemedicine
Augmentation
3. The changing environment of health care
Tracking Personal Data
Self-managing your illness
Managing medical service providers
4. The Patient Experience
Changing behavior through motivation
Dealing with sensitive data
5. Software
Apps
Fitness
Tracking & The Quantified Self
Health management
Symptom analysis & background information
Big Data changes how medical software works
Software for medical service providers
Electronic Health Records
Open-source Electronic Health Records
Patient-controlled EHR's
Developing software in a regulated environment
6. Hardware
Personal Tracking
Shaping Outcomes
Easing the Burden
7. Key Challenges and Benefits
Challenges
Privacy and Confidentiality
Security
Benefits
A more complete picture
Efficiency & autonomy
Better Research Data
8. Outlook / What to expect
9. KANT
10. About the Authors
Alper Cugun
Chris Eidhof
Martin Spindler
Matt Patterson
Peter Bihr
3. INTRODUCTION
This report aims to cover (primarily technology-related) macro trends in the
larger health space. As "health" is a vast space or industry, our mental model –
and the terminology we used – when approaching the field is this:
Health: The traditional health industry as dominated by insurance and
government-based health system; the heavily regulated end of the spectrum.
Fitness/lifestyle/sports: The largely unregulated, more consumer-driven part of
the industry that includes a wide range from the dietary to the brand-related
(Nike+, etc.) to personal analytics and the Quantified Self. This is the much more
vague and permeable area, and we approached it as such.
The health market is huge. In Germany alone, the health industry spending
(including health, prevention and treatment) contributes close to 300 billion
Euros to the German GDP. This does not include the fitness & lifestyle markets.
What we see is that the lines between health and fitness/lifestyle markets are
increasingly blurred. This is particularly true where technology empowers
individuals by giving them access to information about themselves – their body
and behavioral data – and the tools to analyze that data. This is information that
used to belong firmly in the hands of healthcare professionals.
The umbrella terms Quantified Self and personal analytics, driven by increasingly
cheap and ubiquitous sensors, are just one set of examples of where individuals
take more responsibility and get more active in their health management. This
goes from tracking heart rates and the speed of a run all the way to personal
genome analysis. When these well-informed, active users seek out a doctor, they
expect that encounter to be on eye-level. As patients, their expectations of their
doctors differ wildly from former generations.
The relationship between patient, medical professionals and the healthcare
system is changing dramatically. This means doctors needs to reassess their
positions and find ways of incorporating empowered patients into the treatment
process. It also means that new business models emerge and are evaluated in a
marketplace of ideas. New key players entering this market range from sports
brands (Nike+) to technology startups (FitBit, Withings) to small teams of
software developers who produce smartphone or mobile apps (Massive Health,
etc.). And even established vendors of medical equipment are re-evaluating their
strategies.
The landscape is changing. With this report, we attempt to provide a map to
navigate this rapidly changing space.
4. HOW TO READ THIS REPORT
This report is the result of a so-called topic sprint, based vaguely on the book
sprint methodology: Five authors writing for one full day in a highly collaborative
fashion.
We wrote it as an introduction and overview into the macrotrends shaping the
health and fitness (as well as related) industries. If you work in these industries –
be it on the insurance side, at a technology company, at a publisher within the
sector or at a brand in the field – this is for you.
We aimed at giving you an easy-to-read, quick introduction to what we see
happening in the space from our specific perspectives. To learn more about
these perspectives, see the author profiles at the end of this book or our website
KANTBerlin.com.
5. TRENDS
Two of the macro trends we see driving these developments are:
(1) Data - the massive amount of data available through ubiquitous sensors (in
smartphones or dedicated devices) and other connected devices (Internet of
Things), made actionable by apps and web services
and
(2) Empowered users (rather than the more passive notion of “patients”) that are
in a position to actively manage their health based on better information
available from external sources (professional and academic research, experts,
peers) as well as through tracking their own vital signs and behavior.
These drivers both influenced and are influenced by more granular trends and
influences on a technological level (both through advances in research and
through adaption of emerging technologies), as well as through a changing self-
perception of users and healthcare professionals.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
Let’s highlight some of these trends and implementations.
SOFTWARE AND MOBILE APPLICATIONS.
According to a Gartner study from August 2013, global sales for smart phones
exceeded sales of feature phones for the first time ever. This makes the
smartphones of today the predominant computing platforms and we can expect
that vendors for medical software will adapt to this trend. We also see a growing
interest in web-based consumer-focussed health platforms and fully expect this
trend to continue. (See the Software chapter for more detail.)
HARDWARE AND SELF TRACKING GADGETS.
Smartphones serve as personal computing hubs that connect sensors and
fitness devices with users, each other, and the internet. The smartphone has
become the backbone of the Quantified Self. (With their array of built-in sensors,
smartphones also are one of the primary tools of capturing data.) It is likely that
we will see the role of the smartphone increase from the fitness & lifestyle area
into a tool that helps manage the patient-doctor relationship as well. On the
other hand, there is a growing array of dedicated health devices, many of them
connected (via smartphone or directly to the internet). (See the Hardware
chapter for more detail.)
6. DATA SHARING
Among users of data-intensive services awareness is growing that ownership of
data is an issue worth paying attention to. Who can access data, who can share
it, with whom and under which circumstances? Can the service provider share
user data with third parties for commercial and marketing purposes? Can users
download their data in useful formats? Are services built with data exchange and
compatibility with other services in mind and offer an API?
TELEMEDICINE
Remote, tech-supported diagnostics ranging from “remote visits to the doctor” to
sending vital signs data to the clinic for analysis. A prominent and promising
example is Molly, an experimental avatar-based research project by the San
Mateo Medical Center that aims to replace visits to the physical therapist for
patients living remotely or unable to visit the doctor. Molly is able to watch
patients’ movements through Kinect, a 3D-capable movement sensor originally
developed for a game console.
AUGMENTATION
Augmentation of physical capabilities is certainly the yet least developed area,
but also one with tremendous potential. With massive developments in the
dexterity of artificial limbs and the fidelity of cochlear implant hearing aids to
more subtle augmentations like insulin sensors embedded in the body, we can
expect a big wave of innovation here.
7. THE CHANGING ENVIRONMENT OF
HEALTH CARE
The relationship between the health care provider and the patient is changing.
Patients are taking matters into their own hands, and are better informed than
ever before. They track personal data, have access to the vast resources on the
internet, and self-manage their illnesses. While dealing with empowered patients
might take some getting used to for traditional medical professionals, there are
good reasons for doctors to embrace their users’ favorite health apps.
TRACKING PERSONAL DATA
With the advances in technology, personal data tracking is nearing ubiquity.
Many individuals already track heart rate, sleep patterns, blood pressure, food
intake and many more variables. They know how their bodies react to changes,
and have this data ready before going to a health care professional.
SELF-MANAGING YOUR ILLNESS
With the vast information available online, many patients already started to take
matters into their own hands. People with chronic illnesses use their own
tracking devices to manage their illnesses. With smartphones, there's an app for
tracking almost any variable, and patients use that to gain insight into their
condition. For example, diabetes patients track their food intake and correlate
that with their blood sugar levels to find out what causes spikes.
MANAGING MEDICAL SERVICE PROVIDERS
When individuals become chronically ill, it is also common that they manage
their own team of service providers, such as doctors, insurance companies and
other advisors. In case of serious illness, it is also common that the family gets
involved in managing the teams. Individuals and their families use the internet
to search for possible treatments and other healthcare professionals.
8. THE PATIENT EXPERIENCE
The patient experience is a key part of the health ecosystem, and experiences
from the traditional field of user experience are increasingly being translated
into the health space. When designing services in this area, it is essential to
design towards concrete goals and behaviors to sustainably influence behavior
in positive ways.
CHANGING BEHAVIOR THROUGH
MOTIVATION
Changing behaviour is often desired either by a person themselves or third
parties. In both cases it is rather hard to achieve due to all manner of
psychological factors. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a psychological
framework which puts the needs and desires of the user at its centre and pro-
vides a good framework to ask the right questions to have a chance of creating
behaviour change.
The basic needs for intrinsic motivation according to SDT are:
Autonomy, allowing people to control their own directions
Competence, helping people become better in things and giving them feed-
back on it
Relatedness, situating people’s actions in a social context
Autonomy is essential because people will tend to resist doing anything based
purely on external pressure. Being able to choose goals to work towards creates
the necessary intrinsic motivation that is required to create behaviour change.
Competence shows people how far they are into creating the change they want.
Because change is hard to achieve people will have to start with small steps to
reach the goal. Feedback on the progress towards the ultimate goal helps break
down the task into manageable steps.
Relatedness finally is a way to help people relate their actions to others and to
figure out how they are doing individually or as a group. Social software in
particular has a lot to add to this part of SDT. Surfacing their own and their peer
groups activity and performance can work wonders. Social pressure and
competition are powerful motivators.
DEALING WITH SENSITIVE DATA
Digital healthcare means the collection of large amounts of data. Data yields
great benefits but it also carries with it a lot of issues that commissioning parties
would rather ignore. The idea of having a turn-key solutions that work without
hesitation is too seductive.
Some issues to consider when dealing with collection and management of data:
9. Data applications in their current state often do not yield any more insight than
we already have. Many applications of data yield patterns that we already knew.
This is caused by a limitation in the explanatory power of data applications.
Often data is processed and presented in the wrong way to be able to draw
novel conclusions from it. New presentations or visualisations of data are
created in a supervised fashion and the creator applies their interpretation to
reach a certain goal. This interpretation guides the data collection and
presentation towards a known entity and is the reason why we often get things
we already knew. Data needs to be interpreted and translated into actionable
options.
Even though it may appear that adding more knowledge and modeling to the
data processing will give us better results this is not necessarily true. Adding
more factors to a model improves the results only to a certain point. After this
point added information actually reduces the explanatory power because of
over-modeling. Throwing more data after something therefore is not a solution
to all the problems. The key is to find the right balance between quantity and
quality.
Reliability and incentives: Anytime the data or the results from the data are
output to people who have a certain interest in the outcome or who are the
subject to a power relation, they might have an incentive to massage the data in
such a way that it will provide them with an advantageous outcome. This is a
phenomenon that is known as ‘juking the stats’ and it has destroyed many well-
intentioned projects from bearing fruit. To prevent this, service designers should
be very careful – if not outright reluctant – to automate consequences from data
inference and to use data in way that support power relations. Again, balancing
incentives and data capturing/analysis is essential.
Data often flows through complex, winding systems, in and out of institutions
based on organically grown processes translated from a paper-based into the
digital world. In many cases, any one institution does not have an in-depth
understanding of the extent or scope of the whole system. (They might count
their blessings if the system just works.) Sometimes parts of the system even
change in ways that aren’t necessarily transparent to some other parties – most
often the patients – who might not have consented. There are plenty scenarios
in which a patient’s data could be used in ways that were previously unexpected
or even undesirable for a patient.
As it is nigh impossible to fully understand these systems, all the related terms
of services involved and the potential implications of how their data might be
used in the future, trust is essential. Trust between patient and medical
institutions as well as private service providers needs to be earned and fostered.
Patients should never be forced to adopt a defensive stance.
The most promising way to create a favorable outcome is to legally guarantee
basic rights. The data should be ultimately owned by the person it’s about. The
consensus between patient and health provider should be for patients to allow
use of their data in exchange for being able to take the data out and to other
services whenever they choose to, in standardized formats.
10. SOFTWARE
The software field in health is extremely varied. At one end we have the personal
fitness and healthcare apps for the home and for personal devices: software
apps with a hardware component like the Withings connected scale and even Wii
Fit and software-only apps like Massive Health’s Eatery. At the other end are the
patient record management systems used by primary care providers like family
doctors, the similar but vastly different in scale systems used by health
insurance companies, like Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect, or the NHS in the
UK, and clinical software for providing information to assist diagnosis or drug
prescription.
To try and make sense of this, we’ll cover the two ends of the spectrum
differently. At the personal end we'll talk about the specifics of developing apps
for personal fitness and health at the non-clinical end of the spectrum: the kinds
of apps that are not subject to regulatory approval or constraint, which is to say
the kind of apps that you can use but your doctor can't. At the large-scale clinical
end we'll talk about the general challenges and look at some of the successes
and failures in that space.
In the in-between space, developers build software for use in applications like
clinical research trials, and primary care doctors buy in software for their own
practices. We'll look at what it means to develop software under a complex
regulatory framework, and what some of the particular needs of those users are.
APPS
Apps, short for applications, is a catch-all phrase software running on mobile
devices. All leading mobile vendors allow for third-party applications to be
installed on their platforms. Most current mobile phones are equipped with a
vast array of sensors, for tracking location, motion, voice and cameras on the
front and the back, and these sensors are available to software developers.
Currently, there are about 25,000 apps on the Apple App Store in the category
"Health & Fitness". Most of these apps are targeted at prevention and staying
healthy, by tracking certain of the users' variables. A quick glance at the top lists
show that the apps can be divided into the following categories:
FITNESS
There’s a multitude of apps that aim to assist in fitness programs, either by
capturing data during the workout and analyzing it afterwards, or by giving
instructions during training sessions. Differences also exist in how workouts are
tracked, that is, whether the user is supposed to enter training sessions
manually, or whether the smartphone app will monitor activity in the
background, as it is usual in most bike or running apps.
One recent development is apps that track what users do on a permanent basis.
11. A prime example of these apps is Moves, which analyzes the type of movement
(biking, running, walking, or other forms of transportation) and gives their users
feedback about their day and shows the extent of their baseline activity.
The other big theme in fitness-related apps are instructional apps that show how
to perform specific workouts. The advantage of having these instructions in an
app (compared to traditional forms such as DVDs or books) is the accessibility of
the instructions.
TRACKING & THE QUANTIFIED SELF
Also referred to as personal analytics, Quantified Self or tracking are terms
described to capture the increasing ability to track body and behavioral data
(pulse, heart pressure, steps taken, food intake, etc.) through sensors embedded
in smart phones or dedicated devices (Jawbone Up, FitBit, etc.) or through
manual data entry (for nutrition tracking apps like The Eatery). By tracking data
over time, individuals get insight into their personal history with minimal effort.
To learn more about the Quantified Self, we recommend the site
quantifiedself.com
One app that helps people track their food intake is Foodzy with which people
can easily keep a food journal on their phones while other efforts have focused
on people taking pictures of their meals for either others to validate or for the
system to determine automatically based on image processing and statistical
inference.
There are tools and websites to track more or less anything imaginable, from
mood and exercises to stool and sex – there is hardly a bodily function that is
not subject to digital tracking.
HEALTH MANAGEMENT
For diabetics, tracking their body functions is nothing new, but getting automatic
measurements of their insulin levels sent to their phone or even automatic
injections can make their lives a little bit easier. For individuals that use regular
medication, apps and devices like the GlowCap help users manage their taking of
medicine by setting up reminders and alarms. Women can track their periods via
apps and connected thermometers and can use that software in helping them
determine their fertility.
SYMPTOM ANALYSIS & BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Apps can also enable patients to self-diagnose, or to support them in their
evaluation of potential health issues as well as to better inform themselves.
Ranging from apps helping with diagnosing sources of pain or identifying skin
diseases all the way to guiding young parents-to-be through all stages of
12. pregnancy, there exists a plethora of applications on any particular health issue.
The methods used are manifold. Some require the user to answer questions,
others automate the process further by, for instance, analyzing photos of the
skin to determine chances of skin cancer or other less critical diseases.
BIG DATA CHANGES HOW MEDICAL
SOFTWARE WORKS
For finding trends on a larger scale, social networks and big data analysis allow
for unprecedented prediction of trends. This includes analyzing flu outbreaks
based on twitter data or Google searches, or analyzing drugs experiences based
on crawling websites. Cloud services like Amazon Web Services make it possible
to rent a lot of computing power for any desired amount of time, thus allowing
analysis of large datasets without having to build and maintain expensive
hardware infrastructure. Startups like 23andme offer genome sequencing to
individuals and thereby increase the analytic base for genetic research and thus
make it much easier to identify potentially harmful variations in the human
genome.
SOFTWARE FOR MEDICAL SERVICE
PROVIDERS
The legal, regulatory, and structural differences between different countries,
even within the EU, mean that there are a lot of smaller, local providers of
Electronic Health Records (EHR) and similar software for primary care providers
like family doctors, and even small hospital groups. There are too many players
to cover here, but for more information you may well find that local news media
which cover healthcare will have a decent overview, for example The Guardian's
UK healthcare coverage.
What's important to note is that many of these companies share similar origins:
spun off from software built in-house by healthcare professionals for a specific
practice. They also seem, as a general rule, to be modelled after traditional
enterprise-y software: powerful, but complex and hard to understand and use.
ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS
The core part of these systems are concerned with capturing, storing, and
presenting patient data. The aggregated data for a patient is generally called an
Electronic Health Record (EHR). EHR’s consist of everything from notes taken by
doctors, data logged by heart rate monitors, to X-Ray images.
Many governments are aggressively lobbying for the adoption of EHRs. The US
government has offered incentives to early adopters working for Medicare, but
will penalise providers after 2015 if they are not using EHR's.
The UK's NHS tried to implement a central, national, EHR system which failed
13. after several years at a cost of £12bn. One of the key reasons as stated by the
UK Department of Health: “... we need to move on from a top down approach
and instead provide information systems driven by local decision-making.”
We see a trend for open-source systems to be adopted by large organisations or
governments: The US Veterans Health Administration system, VistA_EHR, is
open-source, and has been adopted by the Jordanian government. Parts of the
UK's NHS are now considering adopting it, after the failure of the national
system.
OPEN-SOURCE ELECTRONIC HEALTH
RECORDS
We see are a lot of standards around EHR at ISO (ISO 18308 and many other
standards under ISO/TC 215), CEN (EN 13606), and ANSI (many HL7 related
standards). Some are concerned with how to capture and store data, some with
what to capture, and others with how to transmit that data between
organisations.
There are, unsurprisingly, many interoperability problems: While many standards
specify data formats and structures, the way different systems use those
formats can vary widely and often mean that two systems which use the same
format to store or exchange records can't meaningfully do it. One organisation's
records are gibberish to another's systems.
Open-source initiatives like the openEHR Foundation are attempting to solve
these problems by providing specifications and implementations, intended to
provide the building blocks of distributed and interoperable systems.
This is still an organisation-centric view of the data though: Healthcare providers
hold patient records for their own use. Patients themselves may well be unable
to access most, or any, of the data held about them.
PATIENT-CONTROLLED EHR'S
The Australian government recently launched a system called The Personally
Controlled eHealth Record System, a centrally-provided system that allows
patients who opt-in to the system to control who can access, or even know
about, their personal data.
Currently it's only summary data, and full records are held by individual
institutions still, but it's indicative of what we think the future will hold:
Encryption used to secure personal data and to manage access to it
Cryptographic signing used to ensure that people's data hasn't been
tampered with, either by themselves, by institutions or by third parties
Governments providing cloud-like storage and APIs for these records
The UK's NHS central IT provisioning department N3 already provides an NHS-
specific cloud compute platform, ideally placing them to offer a central API-
oriented service.
14. Personally-controlled EHR's which allowed for patients to input data too opens
the door to formalising and integration many of the Quantified Self practices
we're seeing emerging elsewhere, as well as offering the possibility of better care
delivered in part through better data: both richer and more frequently sampled.
DEVELOPING SOFTWARE IN A REGULATED
ENVIRONMENT
There are several distinct areas of regulation that might affect software, and of
course these will vary by jurisdiction. In the US, for example, software for
keeping records related to clinical research trials of new drugs are subject to the
FDA's Title 21 CFR Part 11, while software to run on a 'Medical device' must meet
IEC 62304. EHR systems must comply with a host of standards under Title 45 CFR
Part 170.
These standards typically mandate that their various criteria must be
demonstrably met. This usually means that you have to be able to document
what you say the code will do and trace through from that to the relevant part of
the code, along with proof that it does do what you say.
While the standards don't generally explicitly mandate a particular way of
working, most were written while traditional 'Waterfall' style software
development methodologies were the norm, and often appear to endorse that.
However, the basic requirements of feature, or point of compliance, tied to the
code and proof of its function can also be thought of as akin to the 'outside-in'
approach of Behaviour Driven Development, combined with a rigorous approach
to documentation. One of this report's authors consulted on a project and
developed documentation using this approach, and the initial results were very
promising.
Given the documentation and QA burden traditionally associated with regulatory
compliance, an approach based on generating compliance documentation as a
by-product of product design and development, rather than with a post-hoc
scramble, has the potential to yield significant competitive advantage.
15. HARDWARE
With the onset of cheaper microprocessors and increasingly pervasive
connectivity, the health environment is seeing massive changes in terms of the
capabilities of medical equipment. Following the trend line of consumer devices
and utilizing advances in mobile computing and information display and capture,
healthcare has so far only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to
technological adoption. There are, however, promising steps to bring labour-
intensive tasks in medical care up to date and adopt more automation.
A lot of data can already be captured passively by connected devices, and
increasingly, that data is relevant for the well-being of individuals, be it in
preventative care or under clinical conditions. More data, captured passively, can
also mean a better understanding for a patients baseline data and well-being, as
well as freeing up capacities that would otherwise be devoted to manually
capturing vital signs from patients.
PERSONAL TRACKING
When talking about connected devices in the healthcare environment, the same
distinctions as touched upon earlier apply: there are big differences in speed of
execution and exploration of potentially interesting avenues depending on
whether companies or vendors target individual users in the unregulated fitness
market, or whether they target medical professionals which operate under
conditions of regulation, peer-review and cost-pressures by the health system.
Participants in this segment of the market is much less likely to lend themselves
to experimentation. Any company trying to enter this market needs to make a
conscious decision as to which part of this spectrum which does not have a
clearly defined boundary they want to fall on.
Recent years have seen an onslaught of personal fitness devices which have
developed to measure far more than just fitness performance. What started, in
the consumer market, with specialised products for runners, such as the Polar
Heartbeat monitor or the Nike+iPod has matured into an industry that far
extends sports, but still notionally focuses on fitness and the well-being of
individuals. Companies likes Withings have started manufacturing a whole range
of devices that ease the consistent collection of vital signs, be it with their debut
product, the Withings Smart Scale, which makes it easier to track the
development of an individual’s weight, or more recently with a connected Blood
Pressure monitor, that automatically uploads its measurements and makes it
thus possible to easily have longitudinal data on a crucial health indicator.
In conjunction with the rise of the “Quantified Self Movement”, a lot of pervasive
activity trackers have come to market as well. What started with the FitBit as a
means to regularly remind info workers to take breaks and exercise, and to
make data about their actual exercise available to them, has blossomed into a
varied product range, that capture all kinds of vital signs, with the most
comprehensive probably being the Basis watch which sports sensors for heart
rate, skin temperature, perspiration and a 3-axis accelerometer and thus claims
to give insight into general activity, stress levels and quality of sleep.
16. SHAPING OUTCOMES
Connected devices aren’t necessarily restricted to measuring and collecting data,
however, but can drive behaviour by the actions that get triggered by them, and
thus change outcomes. One of the best illustrations in this regard is the Vitality
GlowCap – basically a connected cap for pill bottles and a companion base
station. The GlowCap monitors whether medication is taken in adherence with
the schedule, and will start to blink and make sounds if the patient has forgotten
to take their medication. If, after two hours, the patient still hasn’t taken their
pills, it will start a social feedback mechanism of first having a call made to the
individual by Vitality’s service center and then alerting previously specified
relatives. It also gives healthcare professionals much better insight into the
compliance of their patients.
The GlowCap is a good example which sits right at the intersection of privately
managed, unregulated “gadgets” and regulated “medical equipment”.
In the regulated health care industry, similar approaches will be fruitful.
Automatically having a pulse or blood pressure reading committed to a patient’s
medical history file without human intervention would free up time with medical
staff and reduce the chance of mistakes in transcribing the measurements. In a
scenario of hospitalized patients, this could go even so far as the patient, by
means of a Bluetooth Low Energy-equipped bracelet, identifying himself to the
measurement device and thus reducing the probability of mistakes even further.
EASING THE BURDEN
Making the life of diabetes patients easier and safer is another avenue which is
being explored. The AgaMatrix Glucose Meter, for instance, is an iPhone
peripheral with a companion app. The measurement of your blood glucose
levels works just as usual with this device. It’s ability to utilize the capabilities of
its host mobile computing platform, however, allows it to combine the
measurement with all kinds of other data, and automatically log it for you. It’s
not especially hard to imagine an insulin injection kit which automatically adjusts
the dose to be administered on the last reading and the historical trendlines. It
could also be possible to use additional information, such as workout data, or
logged meals consumed. A more granular, and more accurate, view into
longitudinal blood glucose data would also allow healthcare professionals to
make much better determinations about the current status and future prognosis
of an individual patient.
17. KEY CHALLENGES AND BENEFITS
CHALLENGES
More integrated systems of data capture and storage require different
approaches to data management, disclosure and security. It is not sufficient
anymore to just assume security as it could be in times of locked-away paper
records. Platforms that actuate on specific parameters, like pacemakers or
insulin pumps, need to be sufficiently secure as to avoid security exploits that
could cause bodily harm.
PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY
One of the main concerns regarding Electronic Health Records is who gets
access to these records. After all, information about a person’s health condition
tends to be one of the most private and guarded sets of information, often
protected by special patient-doctor privilege which prohibits medical
practitioners to disclose even the faintest bits of information about the status of
particular patients without court warrants.
However, there are multiple third parties which have vested interests in getting
access to data about patients, be that on individuals or in anonymized
aggregates. Special care needs to be given to latitudinal data that tries to
combine a breadth of data across large parts of the populace to look into
potential early warning signs for the onset of specific diseases to not accidentally
de-anonymize and make individuals identifiable. (As studies have shown,
relatively few data points can be sufficient to identify individuals.)
These considerations need to be accounted for even when developing
applications that fall not strictly within the realm of regulated health care. As
responsibilities and management of healthcare fall more and more inside the
purview of individuals, the concerns that traditionally only applied to medical
professionals do, too.
SECURITY
As with any technological development that relies on computerized equipment,
safety and security concerns need to be taken serious. Even more so as a lot of
medical equipment has the capability to cause actual bodily harm or death if
malfunctioning or compromised. Examples exist of poorly secured pacemakers
or insulin pumps that were almost trivial to exploit. Luckily, those exploits have
not been visible in the wild. However, the question of security is one of the most
salient in the discussion around a changing healthcare environment. It is
important to note that the security of any particular technical device does not
rely on the security features of that device alone. Accuracy of data must be
18. assured, if that data is relevant to the operation of a device, and it might be
necessary to establish data provenance.
Security is also important in terms of measuring devices. Professionals need to
be able to rely on data collected by devices, and thus these devices themselves
need to be secure and tamper-proof. The same is true for data transmission and
storage.
BENEFITS
A MORE COMPLETE PICTURE
As we gather more data, a more complete picture of our health emerges. This
goes both for the individual and the societal level: Aggregate, longitudinal data
paints a much clearer picture of the state of our health over time. This kind of
data is priceless for research.
To enable individuals to make most of this data, app developers and service
providers need to make sure they capture, analyze and present the data back to
the user in actionable form. In other words, it needs to be clear at any time not
just what the data means – which story it tells – but also what the options for
action are on the individual level. Intelligently designed feedback loops are
essential.
At the same time, ongoing data analysis might lead us to discover potential
health problems before a routine check-up would have surfaced them. As such,
health data gains additional importance in the context of prevention.
EFFICIENCY & AUTONOMY
Technologically enhanced prevention, treatment and rehabilitation can – by
empowering patients and doctors alike – increase efficiency and lower costs of
treatment. It can save further costs by enabling patients to take care of
themselves better, or by supporting their families to care for them. The GlowCap
is a powerful example of a relatively simple device – an internet-connected bottle
pill – that increases compliance, thus increasing chances of successful
treatments.
As patients take more responsibility of their own health before, during and after
treatment, costs are saved for the health system while at the same time allowing
patients to lead a more independent life for longer.
At the same time, automation of repeat tasks should lead to cost-saving across
the whole sector, and enable a more purposeful despatch of medical staff.
Electronic Health Records should, when rolled out properly, enable much quicker
diagnosis on the basis of available medical history of a patient. Availability of
data gathered from personal health tracking would enable practitioners access
19. to more data about the patient and thus make diagnosis even speedier and
more accurate.
BETTER RESEARCH DATA
The breadth of data becoming available spells a boon for medical research, as it
drastically increases the scope of what can be researched. The first effects of this
can be seen in Genome analytics, but the whole field of medical research is
bound to be changed by big data analytics.
20. OUTLOOK / WHAT TO EXPECT
The trends we outlined in this report are clearly set to continue onward.
More devices will reach the market that will track ever more of an ever larger
number of people. The devices highlighted above are in many cases initial proof
of concept versions that reach only very limited numbers of people but as this
technology matures and the market becomes more accustomed to this type of
technology it is due to reach higher and higher levels of market penetration as
well as product maturity.
These devices will also increase the data shadow that everybody casts with each
device recording and transmitting data. All of this data will need to be stored
somewhere and processed. The storage solutions that are currently most
popular will probably be considered too insecure and too limited. At the point
where just about everything is recorded, the architectures will need to change.
These large volumes of data will yield better insights but will also prove to be
immensely difficult to grasp as a whole. Combining disparate data streams in a
way that does not lose the goodwill of the users is going to be the tightrope act
that players in this industry will need to walk. Breaking down the data into
feedback loops that present the users with concrete options for action is key.
Overall spending on healthcare is rising. At the same time, it is highly doubtful
whether these new technologies will be equally beneficial for all people:
Financial aspects are just one dividing line that separates from those benefitting
from those that don’t; Different speeds of adoption for new technologies (the so-
called Digital Divide) is another.
On the one hand automation and technology hold the promise to be able to do
more for more people at lower cost. On the other hand technology increases the
scope of what is possible so that its full application will probably be prohibitively
expensive for all but a small elite. While we can expect improvements in
production and development to increasingly become more accessible both
within the richer industrialised states and and the global South, we do not
currently see a rising tide insofar as it does not lift all ships equally quickly.
Overcoming this barrier to entry and making emerging technologies count for a
wider part of society will be a key challenge for the coming years.
In the meantime, we will need to work towards positive change in both policies
and cultural acceptance of data-intensive health applications to fully realize the
potential of technology in the health space.
21. KANT
KANT, the Kreuzberg Academy for Nerdery and Tinkering, is a Berlin based hub
of creative technologists. KANT’s skill base covers everything in the fields of
emerging technology and user centered design and members of KANT do work
in all stages from conception to design and implementation and also in the fields
of analysis, review and commentary. This report is a product of our analysis
branch.
Want us to take a crack at some of the challenges you are working on?
Reach us at:
Web: kantberlin.com
Email: info@kantberlin.com
Twitter: @kantberlin
22. ABOUT THE AUTHORS
KANT consists of five collaborators:
ALPER CUGUN
Alper Çuğun M.Sc. is a designer, developer and publicist
active on the focal point of technology, design and
society. After graduating from Delft University of
Technology, he has been active in the Amsterdam startup
scene. Having built up an extensive network there, he
moved to Berlin. Alper currently is partner at Hubbub,
one of Europe’s leading studios for the design of games
and playful systems. Hubbub helps organizations with
understanding and inventing new games and playful
systems, primarily in the space of social issues, creativity
and collaboration. Alper is also on the board of the Open
State Foundation, where he oversees the creation of open data and open
government policy for the Netherlands and the rest of Europe.
CHRIS EIDHOF
Chris Eidhof is a software developer and entrepreneur
originally from The Netherlands. He currently focuses on
building iPhone and iPad products, from strategy down
to implementation. Together with Peter and Matt, he
organizes UIKonf. He is one of the founders of objc.io, a
high-profile magazine about Objective-C.
MARTIN SPINDLER
Martin Spindler is interested in how digital technologies
feed back into the world — how the bits start to shape
the atoms. As such, he works as a strategy consultant,
speaker and writer focussing on the Internet of Things
and Smart Energy. Martin is Co-Founder of Internet of
People, an international consultancy network centred on
the Internet of Things, and the Cognitive Cities
Conference, which looks into how the pulse of cities
changes once they get equipped with “smarts.” Martin
studied Political Sciences, Economics and Islamic Studies
at the University of Heidelberg.
23. MATT PATTERSON
Matt has been building for the web for over 10 years,
doing everything from web design and front-end
development all the way through to back-end
development. He was one of the founding developers of
the UK’s Government Digital Service, has worked on
critically-acclaimed video games, is involved with the Rails
Girls movement, coaching aspiring developers, and has
been doing a lot of work with data and visualisation.
PETER BIHR
Peter explores emerging technologies, their implications,
and the people driving them. This translates into a
number of things: digital strategies, a great network of
collaborators, curation services of sorts, and the
occasional product or prototype. He is an independent
digital strategist and consultant, serves as Program
Director for the conference NEXT Berlin, and co-founded
Makers Make. He also co-organizes events like UIKonf,
Cognitive Cities Conference, TEDxKreuzberg and Ignite
Berlin