A possibility of immediate communication with a doctor brings along its advantages. Sensors monitoring life functions can instantly send your doctor an emergency signal. Thus, health care is reaching a new dimension. Thanks to these sensors, doctors get instant access to the data on your health condition and we may be under their continual supervision. Just in case they cannot provide the treatment from afar, visiting them in person is necessary. On the other hand, this situation brings along certain risks too. Diagnosing yourself based on the data from the Internet or sensors may not only be wrong but dangerous too. On the Internet, we can find plenty of unproven and controversial facts; it definitely pays off to leave the diagnosis to doctors.
A research carried out in the USA showed that six out of 10 Americans diagnose themselves wrongly based on the data found on the Internet. There is definitely no threat of making doctors redundant; this is rather about rationalising their work and improving the process of diagnosing thanks to the possibility of continuous patient´s monitoring remotely with no necessity of personal visits or even hospitalisation. Development and price reduction of sensors will make health monitoring easier for them. Then, people themselves may adjust their behaviours, eating habits and exercising based on the data collected by sensors. Blood pressure or heart rhythm record may serve us as an indicator of possible stress in various situations, which then can be handled better or avoided. However, doctors cannot become mere data collectors. Seeing patients and talking to them is still necessary for determining the correct diagnosis and treatment. Data alone will not improve the health care, which can also be seen in researches from the USA, where the government gave billions of dollars to health data processing and the results are unconvincing. In addition to other aspects, this is also caused by a great issue with its unified structure because the data comes from plenty of varied sources. Just like in any other big and complex IT system, health care also needs pilot tests and gradual removal of mistakes. After all, it is our health which is at stake, not a car register J. “Doctor Algorithm” may not win over “Doctor Human”. They just cooperate.
For those who are used to exercising or moving regularly, it is natural to record their activities and monitor their targets. All this data also impacts prevention which radically influences or completely removes the causes, not only results of health problems. There are thermometers-pills which you can swallow – these are for example used to monitor the temperature of sportsmen during their exercise. Medicine has also progressed in prevention and new diagnostic models. Thanks to the digitalisation of the methods of human genome sequencing, the cost of determining a diagnosis went down from 100 million dollars in 2001 to 10,000 dollars in 2011. This alone means a breakthrough in diagnosing mental illnesses and enables us to solve the causes not the results. However, “playing with genetics” may also bring along serious human, philosophical, and social questions. Thanks to artificial insemination you can have a child with anybody who has a suitable genetic material, so genetic material may not only cure but can also modify and clone the population. Discovery and development of the cure against dementia may lead to a conclusion that retiring from work is useless as brain generally benefits from physical exercise, work, and intellectual activity.
Extract from a new book Digitální ekonomika published by Albatros Media.
By Ivan Pilný