innovation & e-health

A new study released by mobile engagement provider Mobiquityexposes the “gap between patients’ demand for taking control of their own health and the accessibility or availability of digital and mobile tools when it comes to the management of chronic health conditions.”

The study revealed that one third of patients with chronic diseases don’t currently use mobile apps to manage their conditions, but would like to start.

In fact, the report summary notes, one in four respondents feel that “wearable devices are the way of the future.”

Interestingly, almost 50 percent of patients believe they should bring information/digital tools to their doctor – rather than the other way around – reinforcing their desire to be actively involved in managing their health rather than trust their doctors to exclusively manage it.

When asked about the most challenging aspects of managing their conditions, 26 percent of respondents agree that finding direct means of communicating with health professionals presents the biggest hurdle. Other top challenges include:

“It’s clear the potential for digital solutions is vast: 40 percent of respondents feel mobile tools play an important role in overall healthcare,” the report summary reads.

Bard VR is a surgery virtual reality app that uses Google Cardboard.  The app enables you to simulate an operating room and surgical procedure. 

One of the biggest problems around big data, and the predictive models that could build on that data, really centers on how you engage others to benefit from that information. Beyond the tools that we need to engage noncomputational individuals in this type of information and decision making, training is another element. They’ve grown up in a system that is very counter to this information revolution. So we’ve started placing much more emphasis on the generation of coming physicians and on how we can transform the curriculum of the medical schools. I think it’s a fundamental transformation of the medical-school curriculum, and even the basic life sciences, where it becomes more quantitative, more computational, and where everybody’s taking statistics and combinatorics and machine learning and computing.

Those are just the tools you need to survive. And it has to start at that earlier stage, because it’s very, very difficult to take somebody already trained in biology or a physician and teach them the mathematics and computer science that you need to play that game.

There’s been a lot of hand wringing over robots andartificial intelligence that reflects our darkest fears ranging from concerns that they will lull us into dependence and then destroy us (ala Terminator) to learning and exploiting our weaknesses. Yet avatars don’t seem to attract that kind of negative publicity.

A USC study showed that people are inclined to trust avatars more than humans because they don’t view them as judgemental and find it easier to develop a rapport with them. Maybe avatars remind us of a game guide and we’re just inclined to relax and spill our guts around them.

One of the most interesting projects iDAvatars CEO and founder Norrie Daroga highlighted is its work with Intel on its Realsense 3D camera platform to help patients do certain medical tests remotely, such as evaluating bradykinesia in Parkinson's disease patients.

Pourra-t-on prescrire un jeu vidéo à des enfants atteints de trouble du déficit de l'attention ?