What We've Learnt About Digital Health In 2022  – The Medical Futurist Newsletter

These trends will define healthcare this year Welcome to 2023, I hope you'll have a wonderful year full of personal and professional success and a little more balance all around the world! Let's kick off with a forward-looking summary: there were a number of digital health technologies, trends and initiatives in 2022 that finally became mainstream. From digital biomarkers to digital therapeutics, these will define how healthcare will develop this year. I hope you will find the newsletter useful! Best regards, Berci Bertalan Meskó, PhD The Medical Futurist [TOOL TO SPOT BREAST CANCER AT HOME WINS UK DYSON AWARD]( A device called Dotplot that helps women self-check at home to detect breast cancer has won the prestigious UK James Dyson Award. This handheld device lets users record tissue composition once a month with soundwaves - and if there are any suspicious changes or abnormalities, they are advised to see a healthcare professional. [READ MORE]( WHY DO I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT? A typical digital health innovation. We bring something from the point of care to patients' homes to engage them more in their care. [THE NEW BUZZ: THESE ARE THE TOP EXAMPLES OF DIGITAL THERAPEUTICS]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Digital therapeutics (DTx) delivers evidence-based, clinically backed solutions to manage and/or improve health conditions, often in the form of prescription-only apps. DTx solutions are typically delivered through smartphones. Accessibility is one of the key factors for any new solution to become widely used, and it allows a certain kind of privacy, bringing treatments to the patients’ homes, removing stigmas typically connected to a number of therapies. [READ MORE]( WHY DO I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT? Several healthcare segments (like diabetes care and mental health) seem to utilise the potential the most. In 2023 we'll see many more. [TRENDS THAT WILL DETERMINE THE HOSPITAL FROM THE FUTURE]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Physical institutions will be part of the future of healthcare. However, their roles will be significantly different from what they currently are. The recent shift towards digital health technologies, the adoption of remote care approaches and patient design will determine the path, and hospitals will become specialised centres for invasive procedures, acute care and disease prevention. [GET IT HERE]( [AI TO DIAGNOSE ILLNESS BASED ON THE SOUND OF YOUR VOICE]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Vocal biomarkers are making their way into medical practice. It's not a novel concept; physicians have been utilizing patients' voices to diagnose certain diseases for ages, but AI can assist in doing so even when no physician is around. "The project is part of the NIH's Bridge to AI program, which launched with more than $100 million in funding from the federal government, with the goal of creating large-scale health care databases for precision medicine." [READ MORE]( WHY IT'S IMPORTANT? The project started by focusing on five areas: neurological disorders, voice disorders, mood disorders, respiratory disorders and pediatric disorders like autism and speech delays. [DRONE CARRYING A DEFIBRILLATOR SAVES CARDIAC ARREST PATIENT IN SWEDEN]( --------------------------------------------------------------- "A man in Sweden is alive today thanks to — in part — a drone. The 71-year-old had a heart attack while shovelling snow and was resuscitated by a nearby doctor after a drone flew in a defibrillator." Now you don't read such science fiction-like stories every day. But it perfectly shows the potential digital health technologies have in healthcare. [READ MORE]( WHY DO I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT? Drones - among many other solutions - will provide new ways to deliver healthcare - and not only in remote, hard-to-reach areas. [TECH GIANTS COLLABORATING WITH HEALTHCARE: WHAT CAN WE LEARN?]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Tech giants have been eyeing the segment for years. But 2022 signified the beginning of a new era. The role of these companies has profoundly changed: instead of delivering solutions for healthcare providers, they became providers of healthcare themselves. But what is happening besides the few largely advertised announcements? Hard to know. We aimed to map it out with this database. [READ MORE]( WHY DO I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT? Descriptions and publicly available information about the actual exchange of data or the purpose of the collaborations are very often vague. A much clearer declaration of what is happening with what kinds of data would be essential. [3 POWERFUL REAL-WORLD AI EXAMPLES USED BY PATIENTS IN HEALTHCARE]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Despite the unquestionable buzz, it is challenging to pinpoint examples of artificial intelligence solutions that actually found their way into everyday medical practice, that became part of “standard” healthcare. AI in skin-checking apps, vocal biomarker analysis and cough analysis are technologies that – we think – are closest to becoming widely used. [READ MORE]( WHY DO I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT? Algorithms will become valuaable allies of healthcare professionals in many areas from diagnostics to administrations or logistics tasks. MORE NEWS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE --------------------------------------------------------------- MAJOR STEP – [Paralysed man with severed spine walks thanks to implant]( UNLIKE OTHERS – [6 Potential Medical Use Cases for ChatGPT]( LOOK & LEARN – [DiGA: How Germany Channeled Digital Health Apps Into Its Healthcare System]( CHECK, CHECK – [Is It Revolutionary? A 6-Question Checklist To Assess Any Digital Health Announcement]( [color-forwardtofriend-48.png](mailto:berci@medicalfuturist.com) [color-facebook-48.png]( [color-youtube-48.png]( [color-linkedin-48.png]( [color-twitter-48.png]( [color-instagram-48.png]( © The Medical Futurist 2023 This email was sent to {EMAIL} [why did I get this?]( [unsubscribe from this list]( [update subscription preferences]( Medical Futurist · Budapest · Budapest, Pest 1118 · Hungary