Abundant creativity typically emerges during times of distress, triggering significant transformations. In the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) era, this has been the case. With the risks associated with direct patient contact, crowded waiting areas, and hospital stays reduced, healthcare technology has risen to the fore to assist healthcare providers in better managing their patients.
Artificial intelligence
Both individualised remedies and disease diagnosis are made possible by artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. For example, in a mass detection situation like COVID-19, it powers systems that process thousands of computed tomography scans. In addition to giving extra information and enhancing monitoring and diagnosis accuracy, this frees up radiographers and doctors to attend to patients.
In addition to substituting real experiments with simulations that vary many parameters, machine learning is being used in the pharmaceutical sector to find novel drug candidates without the need for the time-consuming and costly traditional way of sorting through chemical libraries. The entire procedure is far quicker in addition to being far less costly.
Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are being used to construct robotic systems that will replace people in routine unskilled jobs that are currently performed by expert healthcare practitioners. As a result, they will have more time to treat more patients, which will improve the patient’s outcome.
The negative aspects of AI
AI can be used to steal patient and provider identities, syphon cash, and misuse information by breaking into medical computer systems, even while it is being utilised to improve healthcare. This can happen through wireless networks in healthcare institutions, private systems connected to hospital software, or the Internet of Things (IoT). Therefore, it’s possible that the cost of protecting these systems against malware driven by AI and tailored assaults will be higher than the savings that result from using them.
Preventing, identifying, and promptly plugging in data breaches requires careful planning, efficient training, continuous supervision of medical and technical personnel while they utilise data systems, and the installation of data security solutions.
The development of mobile health
Mobile health information and sensing technologies, or “mHealth,” have become more popular as a means of meeting these needs. These instruments appear to produce better healthcare results at reduced costs. They can make it possible for a small group of providers to keep an eye on a larger number of individuals, both individually and collectively.
Applications of mHealth can reduce the number of medical visits, assist in self-managing chronic illnesses, encourage healthy behaviours for the avoidance of primary or secondary diseases, and enhance provider training. They can also assist in greatly personalising interventions at the same time.
These days, mHealth can be applied to wearables, mobile devices, and other gadgets that let users go about their daily lives while the gadget sends useful data on a variety of factors back to the server. Research-driven initiatives to support and enhance patient health can benefit from this data’s ability to provide information on a wide range of patterns and predictive indicators, both now and in the future.
Today, there are several platforms that support the development of healthcare apps, supported by elite IT companies such as Apple.
Telemedicine
Due to pandemic limits on public transport, telemedicine has become a significant breakthrough that is currently used in many nations across the world. Thanks to this technology, medical professionals may diagnose and treat a wide range of illnesses in patients without having to visit them in person. Both patients and practitioners find this to be an appealing alternative because it saves time and money, and it doesn’t appear like this trend will go away very soon.
Virtual reality
Novel applications of augmented and virtual reality are being developed to help medical students receive training outside of hospitals and without endangering real patients, or to divert anxious patients during surgery. Additionally, a hands-free mode of operation is enabled, which enables healthcare professionals to view patient records or other data without having to leave the patient or interrupt a process they are performing.
The Internet of Medical Things
The Internet of Medical Things, or IoMT, is a network of gadgets and smartphone applications that monitor and avert catastrophic incidents during long-term medical illnesses. It connects patients and physicians to enable improved care and monitoring of these ailments. Wearable electrocardiography (ECG) monitors, for example, can help patients identify problematic changes early enough to prevent heart attacks.
Additional wearables could be used to track blood sugar, pulse, or fever. The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is predicted to account for nearly one-third of the global IoT (Internet of Things) market going forward.
Digital Twins
The capacity to manage two items at once, or digital twins, simultaneously in a computer-generated virtual world, can be helpful. This is crucial given the abundance of medical devices on the market today, many of which are created digitally with the expectation that the finished product will be identical to the model in every manner.
Additionally, models can be developed for testing, and the outcomes are quite trustworthy. This technology also underpins remote surgery, which reduces costs and saves time.
Blockchain
Although the application of blockchain technology remains controversial, it is increasingly becoming apparent that it has the potential to enhance the safe, practical, and quick exchange of medical records between patients and approved doctors. This tool’s design permits many users without sacrificing the security of utilising a single ledger. This presents a serious threat to the way electronic health records are currently used, placing them on par with cloud computing and the Internet of Medical Things.
Cloud Computing
Given the changing nature of patient data, healthcare practitioners must have a seamless and secure way to exchange and maintain the information that informs their clinical judgements. A great solution for managing, storing, and gathering data from a single location is provided by cloud computing. One advantage of this strategy is the subsequent time-saving improvement in inpatient treatment.
Nanotechnology
The advancement of nanotechnology has led to the creation of numerous novel therapeutic approaches. By the end of 2021, reports of xenobots—tiny organic robots that can replicate themselves—had surfaced. Nanotechnology in medicine has many potential uses, such as the use of nanobots to detect disease by navigating tiny blood vessels and the precise delivery of toxic drugs to target cells while minimising or eliminating off-target effects using nanoparticle drug delivery systems.
Three-dimensional printing
With 3-D printing, it will be possible to create implants, bionic prostheses, customised surgical equipment, artificial veins, and even pills in the future. This technique allows for the speedier and less expensive manufacture of several drugs.
Primary illness prevention
It is anticipated that the use of all current medical knowledge, technology, and lifestyle counselling can only affect patient outcomes by up to 20%; the remaining 20% is attributed to social determinants of health (SDOH). Upon considering these factors, medical professionals will have the ability to forecast an individual’s health trajectory and recommend proactive steps to halt health decline early on, instead of waiting for complex and expensive interventions to be required at a later date.
Neural chips
Businesses are competing to develop microelectrodes that can be safely inserted into the brain to help those who have lost their sight or voluntary muscular movement regain some level of capability.
Large-scale data analysis
Large amounts of data will be securely stored in data silos, enabling analysts to mine the data for relevant information that may inspire further AI and machine learning research. These two help to recognise and decipher trends in the data that may be undetectable to humans but may present an opportunity to act in the patient’s best interest. Standards for interoperability and data exchange will also be upheld for the benefit of patients.
In summary
Standards and laws are required for medical technology in order to assure product fit, public safety, and product safety. But the current regulatory framework not only hinders innovation in health care but is also impractical and difficult to implement in the context of new and personal medical technologies. Simultaneously, it is clear that newer health technologies need to be closely regulated by new regulatory frameworks in order to maintain patient benefits and their centrality in healthcare, given that human nature is essentially unchanged and that the true goal of technology has always been profit.