Medicine of the future

2019

3 top trends in the medical equipment market

In early December 2019, analysts KPMG presented an overview of major trends that will affect the medical device industry in 2020. More. here

Accenture names 4 technologies that will determine the future of healthcare

In mid-June 2019 consulting , the company Accenture released a Digital Health Tech Vision study on the use of technology in healthcare. According to experts, hospitals and other medical institutions should prepare themselves for use,,, and blockchain. artificial intelligence augmented reality quantum computing

By mid-2019, these technologies, which are combined by the abbreviation DARQ (with the English distributed ledger technology, AI, augmented reality and quantum computing), are at an early stage of development in the medical sector, but in the future they will be able to transform healthcare.

Accenture recommends clinics and other medical institutions not to hesitate in mastering new technologies

DARQ technologies are ready to become the basis for next-generation products and services. Healthcare leaders in the future, which will be based on DARQ, will be ready to unite and use these competencies when technologies reach maturity at the corporate level, the report says.

Blockchain and similar distributed registry (DLT) technologies may still seem like a buzzword, but Accenture is convinced that they will soon become "an important part of medical fees and identity management." The many uses of DLT in generated datasets - from insurance to patient identification and credentials - and the cost-effectiveness they can provide make DARQ too valuable to ignore.

Experts say that artificial intelligence is able to improve the operational and clinical performance of medical institutions. 41% of Accenture's healthcare market participants agreed that AI would have the greatest impact on their organizational processes over the next three years.

AI has perhaps the largest number of new applications in medicine. The accumulation of artificial intelligence technologies is already having a huge impact on the labor force - the most important line in healthcare. AI is used in call centers, for payment transactions, studying medical records and can help patients self-medicate, analysts say.

Expanded reality, they said, had made the greatest strides in health care by 2019. It is used by 38% of medical organizations.

For example, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center uses it to "teach patients how to better manage pain with breathing techniques and positive thinking." And the Cleveland Clinic has implemented virtual reality from Zygote Medical Education to improve anatomy learning: Students can use their mobile devices to access accurate anatomical 3D models and interact with peers around the world.

According to experts, hospitals and other medical institutions should prepare themselves for use blockchain, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and quantum computing

As for quantum computers, the practical application of this "fundamentally different approach to computing" in healthcare is still rare by mid-2019. But doctors will soon use the technology to "process complex datasets, such as DNA data, to provide more personalized medicine and interaction. This can contribute to significant advances in drug creation and treatment innovation, Accenture is confident.

The study also showed the following: the majority (94%) of medical managers surveyed state that "the pace of innovation in their institutions has accelerated" in recent years due to the emergence of technologies such as DARQ. In this regard, Accenture recommends that clinics and other medical institutions not hesitate to master new technologies.^[1]

2018: How health care will change by 2030:5 technotrends

A report by Aruba (part of HPE), released in April 2018, claims that within 10 years, as health organizations change their approach to providing services to patients by adopting IoT technologies, the medical examination procedure will change in such a way that patients interact more with sensors, cameras and robotic equipment, and not with doctors and nurses.

The report "Building the Hospital of 2030" ('Building the Hospital of 2030') contains the results of a survey of senior management of health care organizations and futurologists. It demonstrates the high probability and need to create intelligent healthcare workspaces that will include mobile devices, cloud, and IoT technologies. In addition, the report describes how these changes will affect patient care and the improvement of clinical medicine.

The study makes five main assumptions about how health care will change by 2030.

1. Self-diagnosis. Special mobile applications, wearable devices and tools will allow you to see the result of diagnostics, monitor your health and even take pictures yourself. Thus, patients will be able to diagnose a wide range of diseases at home without visiting hospitals or clinics.

2. Automated hospital. Reception units will use imaging technology and sensors that detect heart rate, body temperature and breathing rate as a patient enters the facility, as well as devices that can measure blood pressure and do ECGs within 10 seconds. Thanks to this, it will be possible to automatically determine the priority of medical care and even at the same time make a diagnosis.

3. An increase in the free time of medical workers by half. Doctors and nurses, who now have to spend up to 70% of their time on administrative processes, will be able to quickly analyze pictures and medical histories on mobile devices. Thanks to this, they will have significantly more time that they will be able to devote to patient care.

4. Digital data stores. Digital patient maps will be integrated into the devices, allowing for automatic updates of health and treatment plan information. Thus, medical personnel will be able to quickly receive more complete data in real time for optimal decisions.

5. Adoption of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence (AI) will play an increasingly important role in diagnosis and treatment, and support for new technologies from society will grow. People will be more willing to agree to an automated examination, provided that services are developed and implemented taking into account the interests of patients, the benefits will be explained to them, and consent to the procedure will be previously requested.

Professor of University College London, Dr. Hugh Montgomery (Hugh Montgomery) talks about the possibilities of improving the level of medical care using artificial intelligence:

"In the next 10 years, it will be possible to determine about 50,000 different blood proteins from just one drop of it. Diagnosis will be performed much faster or even automatically. This will be a radical breakthrough, this is currently impossible. Today I can only estimate 30 indicators. "

Maneesh Juneja, a futurologist in the field of digital medicine, shares her opinion on the prospects for self-care:

"Suppose in 10 years you are diagnosed with diabetes or high blood pressure. After that, you will be able to monitor your medication and you will not need to visit health facilities as often to adjust your treatment plan. The system will remotely analyze your condition in real time, detect deviations from the diet or course of treatment, and send you digital notifications on smartwatches or augmented reality glasses. "

Such opportunities are anything but science fiction, according to an Aruba report. This development of technology can play a decisive role in improving the care of the elderly population (according to the UN, by 2030 the number of people in the world aged 60 and over will grow by 56%) and significantly increase the need for better health services.

"The large-scale transformations and breakthroughs that are expected in health care in the next 5-10 years are explained by two reasons," said Hugh Montgomery. - Firstly, there is a rapid development of technologies, and secondly, in the industry there is a huge pressure to implement these technologies. If we don't implement them, there will be a crisis in the healthcare industry. "

The report's creators note that health organizations are already taking the first steps to adopt digital technologies, recognizing the need for modernization. According to a study by Aruba, about two-thirds of medical institutions (64%) began to connect devices to monitor the condition of patients to their network, and 41% of organizations began to connect diagnostic imaging devices and X-ray machines. These activities are stages of an IoT strategy that involves networking millions of medical, wearable and mobile devices that effectively share up-to-date information and deliver better health care.

However, this approach as of 2018 carries certain risks. 89% of healthcare organizations that implement the IoT strategy have experienced data breaches. Due to the proliferation of a huge number of new devices in the next 10 years, the main problem for organizations will be to maintain close attention to all devices connected to the network and exchanging medical data to monitor the implementation of strict security rules.

2017: 5G-enabled smart bandage

In April 2017, it became known that in the next twelve months, a "smart" medical bandage will be tested at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at Swansea University in the UK. Due to the built-in nanosensors and support for 5G networks, it will be able to quickly inform the doctor about how the wound is healing, reports BBC News.

With this data, the doctor will be able to remotely assess the patient's condition and change the treatment plan depending on how well the wound heals. It will also be possible to follow the activity of the patient and whether he complies with the motor regime that the doctor recommended to him. As a rule, the healing process is faster if the patient does exercises to increase the blood supply around the damage, notes Phone Arena.^[2]

Smart medical bandage with support for 5G networks created

Such a "smart" dressing using the nanotechnology used in it will allow you to determine the state of the wound at any time. The bandage will be connected to the 5G infrastructure, and that, through your phone, will allow you to find out something about you too - where you are, how active you are at one time or another. All this information will be received by the attending physician, so he will be aware of the state of the wound, and will be able to adjust the treatment in accordance with the state of the specific patient, - said the BBC about the project director of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Professor Mark Clement.[3]

Sensors that will monitor changes in the wound are developed by specialists in the field of nanotechnology. As for the dressing itself, it will be made at the Institute using a 3D printer, which will reduce the cost.

It is noted that the development is part of a special project for development and digital innovation in south Wales. The government and private investors intend to allocate £1.3 billion ($1.63 billion) to finance it in the next 15 years.

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