Daiichi Sankyo
Digital Health: A New Experience in the Healthcare System
Stefania Alvino
New medicine is exploring paths hitherto not traveled thanks to technology, but also and above all thanks to a new lateral thinking that wants to experiment with new solutions to meet increasingly personalized needs: what we call precision medicine inserted in an even wider space connoted as digital health.
Digital Health encompasses all those therapeutic paths enabled by technology. It forms a bridge between digital technologies and the personal health, well-being and healthcare sector.
A wide range of technologies can be used to treat patients and collect and share information about their health. Such technologies include mobile applications, wearable devices, telehealth, big data, robotics and artificial intelligence. Translated into practical terms, digital health means electronic health records, adherence to therapy via smartphone, electronic prescriptions, voice interfaces, paperless hospitals and so on. The examples are countless, and all aimed at increasing the ability to accurately diagnose diseases and provide adequate assistance and treatment to the individual.
Patients will be increasingly personally involved in the clinical care process leading to a reconfiguration of the doctor-patient relationship. Greater security will be offered in the management of medical records and therapies and a reduction in costs and time spent. Furthermore, there will be an improvement in access to healthcare, for example, thanks to telemedicine, patients will be able to be treated even remotely.
We are witnessing a growing demand for tailor-made services and therapeutic pathways according to the specificities of each patient. With a healthcare system enabled by technology, treating will increasingly mean focusing on the individual, knowing their characteristics, needs and lifestyle in order to develop innovative and personalized treatment plans. This is exemplified by the ability of the technologies themselves to track and analyze large amounts of data in real time.
Big data, telemedicine, electronic health records, electronic prescriptions are some of the tools that give life to a medicine of the person, based on data: from healthcare, reports, clinical history, events, hospitalizations, up to the social aspects of the person (biometric data, styles of life, wellness, loneliness, integrated with risk indicators), as well as his “skills” (walking, eating independently, cognitive state, etc.).
According to the “Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030” study conducted by Stanford University, the healthcare sector is one of the eight sectors in which the impact of artificial intelligence will be most significant. This technology will transform healthcare organization and management models through its algorithms capable of incorporating information from the medical records of various patients and designing personalized treatment plans. The use of AI by healthcare will have the aim of improving traditional processes by radically changing the usage experience of the service by the patient and his family, and increasing the quality of care. This technology will become an integral part of the patient’s relationship and therapeutic experience through the use of common devices such as smartphones and virtual personal assistants. The patient will feel more involved in all phases of treatment, so much so that even the choice of the structure to which to apply can be influenced by the availability of advanced AI technologies.
The quantity of technological devices, such as wearables and trackers on the market (IOT - internet of things connected things), allow us to understand where the future of medicine is going: people have learned to monitor in total autonomy some parameters and results such as, body weight or sports activity, think of smart watches/fit bits etc.
Robotics is one of the fastest growing areas in digital health, not only for the support that this disruptive technology provides both to individuals with paralysis and to specialists during surgical operations, but also because it is reshaping the doctorpatient relationship. In fact there are robots, such as Jibo, Pepper, Paro and Buddy, designed to keep people who are alone or with mental disorders company. These have a variety of capabilities, from reminding the patient when to take a drug to finding a show for the evening.
Video animation or 3D printing will also provide useful solutions to clarify patients’ health conditions and, consequently, help them make informed decisions.
