All Change In Healthcare
A special about how healthcare will be disrupted
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The doctor is ready to see you - just tap your phone. A new app, Dr AI, will be on your Android or iOS device soon. Traditional search on the web throws up a mind-boggling array of possibilities when it comes to health, but it doesn't personalise the results. That's where Dr Al excels. You have to first enter all your details like age, weight and medical history. When you enter your symptoms on the app, it does a quick triage and asks follow-up questions just like a physician would. It then tells you what your problem might be, and recommends visiting a 'real' doctor (or even an emergency room) depending on what it finds, or connects you via video chat to doctors in a cloud service.
An intelligent app will not replace doctors, of course - but it does give patients much better and more convenient information by automating and devolving some of the first steps that doctors follow.
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That device in your pocket continues to throw up surprises. Which part of your business will it take over, and will that change be led by you or by newcomers to your industry?
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Your phone can diagnose cancer?
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Computers may be able to classify skin cancers as successfully as human experts. A new system based on image recognition could be developed for smartphones, giving ordinary folks who develop skin lesions a way of knowing whether they are cause for concern. Skin cancer accounts for one in three cancers diagnosed worldwide, so this is a big deal. US researchers from Stanford have created a computer system that uses deep learning - a class of algorithms used in artificial intelligence (AI).The system uses image recognition and compares the results to tens of thousands of clinical images. The results thus far reveal the system may be better than human experts at diagnosing cancers. This does not replace dermatologists, please note - it merely creates a new form of early diagnosis.
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This will happen to all professionals: technology will start doing some of your work, even better than you can. The smartest folks will embrace this and elevate their own roles.
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A surgeon uses Snap Specs
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The 3 Bells told you about Snap Spectacles recently: the funky new sunglasses that are actually a video camera, allowing you to record whatever you're doing and upload it quickly. That's just a cool product for teenagers, right? Wrong. UK teaching surgeon Dr Shafi Ahmed has livestreamed an operation using the spectacles. The routine hernia repair procedure took place at the London Independent Hospital. The footage, and Dr Ahmed's commentary, could then be viewed by medical students and used in teaching.
This is fascinating. When innovations are launched, the second- or third-order use cases are often more important than their initial proposition. The Snap Specs (and their many iterations to come) could turn out to have many uses in many sectors that no one has yet thought about.
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"I'm always looking for ways to develop my teaching, especially using wearable technology," said Dr Shafi. Does that sound like you in your job? It's a winning attitude, but few have it.
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