Smart health falls under the broader umbrella of digital transformation and indicates the use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI or AI), Internet of Things (IoT), big data and robotics to improve disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring. The idea is to create truly personalised and predictive healthcare.
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Smart health: what it’s and how it can improve your health
Health is the most valuable asset we have, but also the most challenging to maintain. Every day we face new threats, such as chronic diseases, infections, pollution and stress. It’s therefore important to adopt good habits right from the start that will help us prevent health problems and improve our quality of life.
How to do this? One of the most innovative solutions is the use of the 7 most promising technologies in smart health. Smart health is a “smart” approach to diagnosis and treatment that uses the latest technological advances to prevent disease effectively and efficiently.
7 most promising smart health technologies
The 7 key technologies of smart health are:
1. Telemedicine
Telemedicine enables the remote delivery of health services through e-health practices, apps, instant messaging services, video calls and other communication channels. It also reduces hospitalisations and makes services more accessible.
An example of successful telemedicine is the Doctor On Demand platform, which allows the sick to talk to doctors via webcam.
Or there is SleepCycle, the app that tracks circadian rhythms and helps you improve sleep quality. These are just two of thousands of apps that enhance the well-being of millions of people every day.
2. Mobile health
Mobile health is that branch of electronic health or e-health that encompasses information and communication technologies (ICT), wearable devices and other tools for health prevention, promotion, treatment and maintenance.
Emerging technologies in m-health are:
- mobile learning or m-learning, which makes new ways of learning possible;
- mobile CME (continuing medical education) platforms;
- health performance analysis and reporting services;
- disease surveillance and control systems;
- automated emergency calls or messages, which alert designated contacts in the event of accidents and/or other dangers.
3. Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence or AI, together with machine learning, helps in early diagnosis, identification of customised therapies and predictive analysis.
Using conversational AI such as ChatGPT from Californian OpenAI, it’s possible, for example, to quickly extract accurate information about a patient and make important clinical decisions based on data processing.
With AI it’s also possible to create customised information systems for each patient or to facilitate communication between doctors and patients.
4. Internet of Things
Internet of Things (IoT), through wearable sensors and network-connected medical devices, makes it possible to acquire and process a huge amount of data, useful for therapeutic treatment. Medical wearable devices, in fact, monitor and notify certain vital parameters, such as heartbeat, blood pressure, blood oxygen level or sleep.
5. Blockchain
Blockchain enables the secure exchange of healthcare data between patients, hospitals and specialists, ensuring privacy and transparency at the same time.
Blockchain is nothing more than the recording of information related to a transaction in a decentralised and secure manner. It’s a kind of distributed ledger, where each node (or block) of the chain/network keeps a complete copy of the data.
6. Big data
Big data, i.e. larger and more complex data sets, enable the collection and processing of large amounts of health data to get useful health information. Big data and AI can, indeed must, work together.
7. Robotics
Robots are already being used in surgery, nursing, rehabilitation and other medical fields. For example, in the field of nano-technology, they are used to stimulate the brain in cases of dementia or to detect the presence of tumours. Finally, 3D printers produce tissues and organs modelled on the patient’s anatomy.
Benefits
Smart health benefits are obvious:
- faster and more effective treatment;
- reduction of errors;
- optimisation of resources;
- patient empowerment;
- precision medicine.
Ultimately, it’s about truly putting people at the centre and providing healthcare tailored to their needs.
Apps
Smart health has several applications in the field of 4P medicine:
- preventive;
- participative;
- personalised;
- predictive.
It’s a medicine capable of:
- prevent diseases by cross-referencing the different biological profiles of the person, through a simple blood sample or the processing of data from IoT devices;
- make each person no longer a “patient”, but aware of and participating in their own state of health thanks to real-time communication with doctors;
- personalise diagnosis and treatment by analysing the most relevant risk factors and information obtained from wearable devices;
- predict the severity of the risk factors of a disease before it manifests itself.
Italian smart health examples
There are already some interesting examples of smart health in Italy. For example:
- the IRCCS National Cancer Institute Foundation has created an innovative system called Smart Hospital, based on IoT sensors installed in hospital rooms to monitor the clinical status of patients;
- the Apulia Region launched the Smart Health Apulia project, which involved various public and private entities in the creation of a regional network of hospitals;
- the Federation of Associations of Incontinents and Ostomates (FAIO) has developed an application, called Smart Incontinence, which allows patients suffering from involuntary urinary or faecal leakage to better manage their condition.
Rely on IPPOCRATE AS for the development of smart health software solutions
Smart health is the future of healthcare and IPPOCRATE AS is the ideal partner for those looking for innovative and customised software solutions. If you are interested in finding out how technology can transform healthcare and medicine, please contact us by filling out the contact form below or call +390954683879; we will map the way to the healthcare of the future together.