Technology, always vital to U.S. healthcare, will inevitably continue to grow in importance, due in no small part to an aging population and the increased demands placed on providers as a result.

Such innovation — in the post-acute realm and elsewhere — is critical to diagnosis, recovery and therapy. Its impact comes courtesy of apps and artificial intelligence, in prosthetics and robotics. It is wearable and watchable, life-changing and far-reaching.

The importance of technology in healthcare can be seen in three distinct areas: the quality of human life, healthcare jobs, and the world economy.

The first of those is obvious, and always the bottom-line goal: improving patient well-being and minimizing preventable deaths. But technology has also spawned increased investment, as well as increased demand for EEG technologists, MRI technologists, dental hygienists, and surgical technologists, not to mention those in sub-fields like medical billing. That growth, in turn, has had widespread economic impact.

Joseph C. Kvedar, vice president of Connected Health, Partners HealthCare and author of the book The New Mobile Age: How Technology Will Extend the Healthspan and Optimize the Lifespan, touched on the topic of patient outcomes in a post.

He noted technology’s part in extending lifespans by an average of some 30 years between 1900 and 2000 but added that the challenge now is to enhance the quality of life: i.e., to help patients achieve the best health for as long as possible.

The best way to do that, he continued, was to give them the tools to improve their health and make healthy lifestyle choices. Foremost among those tools is connected health.

He went on to cite U.S. Census Bureau data showing that the percentage of Americans aged 65 and over is on the rise: that it stood at 13 percent in 2010 and will climb to over 20 percent by 2030, putting an increased burden on healthcare providers and caregivers.

Among other things, Kvedar writes, technology helps provide elderly patients with three important elements: a sense of purpose, social connections, and physical activity, all of which are critical to longevity.

Consider, for example, such apps as Life360 and Skype, which afford seniors the opportunity to communicate with, and/or keep tabs on, loved ones. Consider websites like myfitnesspal.com, which affords users the opportunity to track food intake and activity. Consider wearable technology like the Fitbit, which gives one the means to count every step he or she takes in a given day.

On the flip side of the technological coin, doctors can do their jobs more efficiently than ever. Particularly notable is a robotic surgical system known as daVinci, which was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000 and has since been used to perform millions of surgeries, including minimally invasive thoracic, cardiac, urological and, gynecological procedures.

Corey Ryan, manager of Medical Robotics for KUKA Robotics Corp. notes that we are “at the infancy of the automation spectrum for medical robotics” and reminded one and all that daVinci, far from performing surgery itself, merely enhances the vision, precision, and control of the surgeon.

The total sales of surgical robots are expected to reach $6.4 billion by 2020, and among the many other uses of robots in healthcare settings there is the Xenex, which can disinfect a given area of a healthcare facility; the Robear, which can lift patients out of bed; and even a “social robot” capable of serving as a receptionist.

Also falling under the robotic umbrella is the Intouch system, a remote monitoring system that can track a patient’s vital signs and signal to healthcare professionals when care is needed. There are similar monitoring options for in-patients, not the least of which is the EarlySense system, which a sensor placed under a pillow or cushion. It is notably used at a string of New York City-based elder-care facilities operated by The Allure Group.

Kvedar and other experts predict that by 2020, there will be more than 20 billion everyday objects capable of capturing and sharing information via a worldwide network consisting of inexpensive sensors, GPS, and “the cloud,” meaning that biometric readings will be immediately available to healthcare provider and their patients, helping both to make informed lifestyle and treatment decisions.

Technology’s reach goes even beyond that, however, and nowhere is its impact being more strongly felt than in the area of 3D-printed prosthetics. The World Health Organization estimates that some 30 million people worldwide are in need of artificial limbs, braces or mobility devices, but fewer than 20% have them.

In the U.S. alone, some 200,000 amputations are performed annually. Prosthetics, often pricey when produced by conventional means, are far more affordable via 3D printers, which have produced skin for burn victims, airway splints, facial reconstruction parts, and orthopedic implants. Those printers are also capable of producing dental crowns and bridges.

Finally, there is the influx of artificial intelligence. Google is among those at the forefront, initiating four startups via its Launchpad Studio that are designed to disrupt the healthcare/biotech space:

• Augmedix: Streamlines visits to doctors’ offices by equipping healthcare professionals with Google Glass, which allows them to collect written notes as well as audio and video, synthesize that information, and make decisions about patients’ care accordingly.

• BrainQ: A research project geared toward creating customized treatment programs for those unable to walk, whether because of a stroke or spinal or brain injury.

• Byteflies: Creating a platform for wearables that would enable others within the software industry to make the best use of machine learning.

  advertisement

• Cytovale: A study of how a cell changes when a patient is afflicted with sepsis, and how that condition can be detected earlier.

Elsewhere on the AI front, there are such advances as the creation of an aging center, sponsored by IBM and the University of San Diego, the goal of which is to improve cognitive health and understand the microbiome, the microbes that live in the human body; a wearable that can ascertain its owner’s emotional intelligence; a virtual healthcare assistant; and an app that can can verbally explain lab results to patients.

This is, of course, the tip of the AI iceberg. There is more on the horizon here, just as other technological advances will surely be made in the healthcare field at large. It is an ever-evolving situation, and indeed must be, given the growing needs of the U.S. population.