The 5 most exciting innovations in digital health right now
1. AR surgery systems
The use of VR and AR for training purposes has been growing over the last decade, across a number of industries.
TheAmsterdam Skills Centrehas been at the forefront of drastically cutting the time it takes to train surgeons by applying virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and other cutting-edge technologies.
US-based companyAugmedicshas taken things a step further with xvision,an augmented reality system to assist with real-time precision in spinal surgery.
Around31% of freehand surgeriesare completed in a less than perfect manner, with inaccurate positioning of screws, which then leads to neurological complications and the need for reoperations to correct it. The xvision technology helps to solve this by reducing room for error thereby minimizing further complications.
With the xvision system, surgeons wear an AR headset that gives them X-ray-like vision: they can essentially look through tissue and see a 3D visualization of the patient’s anatomy. With a built-in tracking system that superimposes the navigation of the surgical tools over the patient’s CT scan, surgeons can watch their actions in real-time, greatly improving their accuracy.
2. Biofeedback APIs
According to a2020 Deloitte reporton the outlook of global healthcare: “Lifestyle-related factors including smoking, poor diet, hypertension, obesity, and lack of physical activity contribute to many of the top 10 global causes of death.” In fact,80% of the impacton people’s health is as a result of their environment, lifestyle, and socioeconomic status.
Health wearables are becoming a key tool in the fight against lifestyle diseases, as they can monitor the impact of specific activities such as quality of sleep, number of daily steps, distance traveled, and calories burned.
While these functions rely on the user purchasing an additional wearable, Amsterdam-basedHappitechhas developed a program that can monitor heart rate and detect any rhythmic anomalies through the user’s smartphone, providing a real-time feedback loop without the need for an additional add-on.
As a boon to telehealth, the component is being used to identify atrial fibrillation (AF), which affects1 in 11people over the age of 65. Early detection means decreasing the otherwise high risk of a stroke or heart attack. More recently, the technology was also applied toa remote heart-monitoring appto help patients who were forced to stay away from hospitals during the coronavirus crisis. The app is now being scaled across the Netherlands.
3. AI for early diagnosis
Similar to heart disease, the rates of mental health disorders are also growing quickly, with suicide being the most severe outcome if untreated.
There’s an alarmingly high percentage of affected people that receive no treatment – around75-85%in low/middle-income countries, and around35-50%in high-income countries.Mental healthcare costs are already aroundone trillion US dollarsglobally, and WHO predicts that“depression will be the leading cause of disease burden globally by 2030”.
One company addressing the issue by providing early diagnosis and data accuracy isCompanionMx.
CompanionMx uses digital phenotyping to passively track user’s behavior through the use of a smartphone app, which monitors your social interactions, physical movements, and the tone of your voice when using voice commands, in order to provide early diagnosis of depression and prevent it from escalating.
In addition, if it detects low mood or low energy, the app will offer healthy lifestyle prompts and recommendations for the user, to take a walk or practice a breathing exercise for example.
If necessary, the collected data can also be used to alert clinicians to make a more direct person-to-person intervention.
4. On-demand healthcare
In response to the increasing desire for on-demand healthcare services, Amsterdam-basedCarohas developed an app to provide better communication between patients and doctors.
This ‘digital companion’ provides patients with information and recommendations related to their treatment and recovery using easily digestible content such as videos and bite-sized chats. Meanwhile, doctors can gain greater insight into the symptoms of their patients, enabling them to provide better and more personalized care.
Additionally, all Caro’s data is encrypted andGDPR compliant, the services run on the cloud, and the platform doesn’t use any traditional server that could be hacked.
5. AI for personalized care
Pacmeduses AI and machine learning to collect and share observational data, creating a feedback loop between doctor and patient that results in delivering more personalized care for the patient. With access to more relevant data, doctors can make more informed decisions about the best treatment for a particular patient.
Currently, Pacmed is using its doctor-support technology in three ways in hospitals across the Netherlands:
It’s this collaborative loop between AI innovators and clinicians — along with all others involved — that will ensure that innovations will continue to accelerate and spread.
Smart health governance
Believing that ahealthierhealthcare ecosystemwill lead to a healthier population, Smart Health Amsterdam (SHA) was set up to bring together all relevant parties —data experts, healthcare workers, academia, business, visionaries, and policymakers —to apply AI and related technologies to improving health and wellness in our communities and beyond.
Many incredible health and AI innovations have already taken place both in Amsterdam and around the world — everyone inspiring each other to accelerate further innovations.
