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How is technology helping in access to healthcare?
SevagKechichian
Posts: 13 XPRIZE
How is digital technology (especially artificial intelligence) currently being used to increase access to basic health care in low- and middle-income countries?
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AI will play an increasingly important role as data gets collected at the Last Mile via cell/smart phones. This data can be analyzed and be used by health care workers. For example, a 29 year old patient presents with a fever, has a cough, and has two other family members that are sick. A health care worker that is attending to this patient can be guided by an AI system, enabling her decision making. Should she manage this patient herself, or send to a hospital, etc.? It's important to note that AI cannot replace people, but will play an important enabling role.
Hi @owen and @dzera - As you have experience in technology, you may have thoughts on how we can leverage technology to increase access to basic healthcare in LMICs. Please join the discussion. Thanks.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6686993478657839105
This discussion is part of our Frontline Health Prize Design, which will seek to bring technology-powered frontline health systems to everyone, everywhere. We're interested in any and all initiatives that already use digital technology to expand access to frontline health in low- and middle-income countries.
Our first drive should be to move from HealthCare/Medicine to Health. Recent studies done during Covid -19 has hown to digital literacy was key for avoiding oneliness, distress and deterioration in health condition.
The other comment I wish to make is to look at Portugal. It is has the largest percentage of old popualtion in Europe but they managed to launch a nationwide digital literacy program in 2014. So now, all citizens, especially the elderly, have digital access to tele-healthcare services.
Bottom line - start with digital literacy.
As explained by the project's senior researcher, Dr. Philip Pratt, "With the HoloLens, we're now doing the same kind of [scan] and then processing the data captured to make it suitable to look at. That means we end up with a silhouette of a limb, the location of the injury, and the course of the vessels through the area, as opposed to this grayscale image of a scan and a bit more guesswork." Now an operating theatre of an under-resourced hospital in rural India has suddenly been upgraded to a state of the art facility with just a $3500 HoloLens 1.
From Peter Diamandis' Blog
New medical devices allow non-invasive cancer diagnosis: India-based iBreastExam can detect breast cancer with tactile sensors, while French company Damae Medical uses a new optical technology for skin cancer detection. In the future, machine learning may allow US startups Grail and Freenome to detect cancer through liquid biopsies—like a simple blood test. A low-cost approach more adapted to developing countries, echOpen is an open-source echo-stethoscope (ultrasound probe) connected to a smartphone. It allows cheap and fast preliminary diagnosis, to support a better orientation for further medical care.
For instance, Living Goods (US) delivers life-saving products to the doorstep of the poor in East Africa, thanks to a network of local entrepreneurs called “health promoters”. Each of them gets basic medical supplies, as well as a smartphone loaded with diagnosis and pregnancy apps etc.
Nutrient deficiencies impair a third of the world population, especially in the poorest countries. While the diversification of local diets remains a priority, food and life sciences also enable products and ingredients with higher nutritional value. For instance, humanitarian food science pioneer Nutriset (France) has developed since 1993 a wide range of therapeutic food products for children and mothers affected by malnutrition.
Initial findings have been published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene: http://www.ajtmh.org/content/journals/10.4269/ajtmh.18-0869
https://en.preventicus.com/en/about-preventicus/
This is especially important in the COVID-19 era, since it looks like even mild or asymptomatic cases can cause heart damage that lasts for months (78 out of 100 patients in a recent German study), which the patient might not know about. We don't know how long this damage takes to resolve, if it resolves at all. Study source:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/fullarticle/2768916
Having an app like Heartbeats in regular use for all, not just for patients with known conditions, could catch these instances before they cause significant morbidity.