Another area I felt it would be useful to research to help me learn more about the current healthcare sector was the latest innovations. I hoped to find out what the latest developments are and what problems they are trying to solve. By looking at the latest innovations I hope to gain inspiration and ideas for my own healthcare project.
All links to articles and information I found are on this Miro Board: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVNvrblts=/?share_link_id=287939903071
Artificial Intelligence seems to be the biggest area for innovation in all sectors currently and healthcare is no different. AI is being trained and tested to review scan and x-ray results at a much higher speed, without any loss of accuracy. This is leading to much faster diagnosis and therefore less delays in beginning any necessary treatment. In mammograms for breast cancer it is also reducing the need for biopsies to confirm scan information allowing patients to avoid an extra procedure and the time required for this.
There are currently two main types of AI generative (like ChatGPT) and predictive (where AI uses historical data to predict future results) as the healthcare sector collects a huge amount of data it is a perfect sector to take advantage of predictive AI and there are many examples of this. One I found particularly interesting was the use of AI to predict how many beds would be required to admit those in A&E that needed it in 4 and 8 hours time. This AI system took various data points about each patient such as age, test results and how they arrived at A&E to predict whether they would need to be admitted to hospital. This system outperformed the current system that uses data from beds required in the last 6 weeks and could allow managers to prepare for increased demand, therefore reducing instances of long A&E wait times for people requiring a bed.
I also wanted to look at the opportunities for using generative AI tools as these can generate new content. In the main most people are looking at generative AI to do tasks such as write up clinician’s notes or and this is one area I found exciting to translate complicated and jargon filled consent forms into language much more easily understood by patients. There has also been research into using generative AI for diagnosis and there has been some progress but there are also concerns with how quickly a trained generative AI system could react to a new virus and data privacy issues with training data.
For me when looking at the issues in healthcare especially those for displaced persons, language was a massive issue and the ability for doctors to communicate with patients across a language barrier is hugely important. If a Large Language Model similar to ChatGPT could take voice input and translate the consultations between doctors and patients in real-time that would make a huge difference to the healthcare outcomes of displaced persons. The fact that this is already being tested for consent forms suggests that it could be possible.
I would need to do further research into the availability of translators to verify the size of the problem, although with other concerns around ensuring translators are not attached to the government of the country a person has fled or affiliated to a group that may be the reason the person fled, a non-human AI may be an answer to these concerns. I also need to look at if there are current LLM translators available and their accuracy.
Virtual Reality is another technology that is being implemented in healthcare and could offer real benefits to how patients are treated and their outcomes.
The use of Virtual Reality in a medical training environment is the most common use today, here VR is of great benefit as it allows doctors to experience carrying out procedures much more realistically than previous methods. It allows doctors to practice skills and techniques in a controlled environment leaving them better prepared for completing the procedure on a real person. 80% of studies have shown a higher accuracy in medical professionals trained with VR.
Virtual reality has also shown promise in the treatment of mental health disorders and pain management. For mental health it allows practitioners to develop scenarios that are causing a patient issues and see for themselves what happens and develop treatment that can help to manage the issues. This has proven to be useful for PTSD and Anxiety.
Studies have also shown how VR can help reduce pain in those with chronic pain and end of life care and could revolutionise pain management.
Virtual Reality can also be used alongside other diagnostic methods such as MRI scans to help doctors to come to a diagnosis without the need to carry out more invasive diagnostic surgery. Speeding up diagnostic times and avoiding more procedures and recovery.
Virtual Reality has huge potential in healthcare and with the recent launch of the Apple Vision Pro and improving technology will continue to grow and offer more capabilities.
There is huge potential for the use of smart technologies in healthcare, connected devices of all kinds have the power to massively improve outcomes for patients and allow conditions to be monitored in real-time and alerts set to warn of potential issues. Improved connectivity can also help with communication between different medical professionals allowing handover between services to be made seamless and the flow of care not to be interrupted.
Examples of smart technology that can monitor health and give early warnings of issues are: