Enabling Healthy Decisions

Medical Technological Innovations in Our Future

The history of medicine is full of technological innovations. The ECG in 1913, the Band-Aid in 1920, the cardiac pacemaker in 1950, CAT scans in the 1970s and the completion of the Human Genome Project on 2003 are just a few of the many inventions in just the last century.

Yet, we are now standing at a threshold of medical technological change unparalleled in history.  In the next 20 years of the Shift Age, there will be more technological change than in the last 100 years.  Let’s take a look, in loose chronological order at these changes of the future.

Low Cost Personal Genetic Mapping

In 2013 we will be able to have most, if not all, of our personal genetic maps completed for under $1,500, an outgrowth of the Human Genome Project.  This is very significant as the knowledge each of us will learn from our individual genetic maps can help us act in a preventative manner.  If, for example you are in your twenties and you find out that you have a genetic disposition to early onset Alzheimer’s, you can spend the next few decades doing whatever current medical wisdom says might slow the onset of Alzheimer’s; taking Omega-3 fish oil, working out every day and other discoveries about the disease.  In other words, personal genetic maps will allow us to address whatever genetic dispositions we might have, BEFORE they happen to us!

Bionics

There are incredible developments in the area of bionics and replacement “parts” for the human body.  New artificial arms and legs can now be controlled by thought and brain-waves.  These are now being tested on veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  In the next few years there will be replacement eye-balls that will provide 20/20 vision for years.  There will be ear implants allowing deaf people or people who have lost a significant part of their hearing to hear clearly again or for the first time.  In the next decade we will develop replacement parts that are better than the “parts” we were born with!

Tissue Regeneration

Recent breakthroughs in stem cell research are pointing the way towards tissue regeneration for all of us.  In the years ahead we will be able regenerate organs.  This will lead us to each have the opportunity to regenerate organs from our own tissue, eliminating both the need for an organ donor and the possible rejection of the new organ that often happens.  This will not be inexpensive, but it will be possible in the next decade.

DNA Pharmaceuticals

The technology for the development of DNA Pharmaceuticals flows from the ability to map individual’s genetic maps.  Think of them as personalized drugs.  We are all familiar with the “lowest common denominator” drugs as we see them advertised all the time.  This great pill will lower your blood pressure, but it might also cause sudden death syndrome, erectile dysfunction, or loss of sight.  With ever more precise genetic information, drugs in the future will be personalized to each patient, eliminating these horrible side-effects.  What works for one person will not work for another and this reality will be finally addressed in pharmaceuticals.

Nanotechnology

A nanometer is a billionth of a meter.  A human hair has a diameter of approximately 50,000 nanometers.  Medical science is currently creating microscopic bots that can enter and move freely within the human body.  The early use of this technology will be to directly attack cancers in the body with transported DNA-customized chemicals.  Nanotechnology will allow us the ability to precisely deal with such cancers and not degrade the entire body with chemotherapy

Human Cloning

In the last two decades animals have been successfully cloned.  This history, combined with some of the breakthroughs listed above, make the possibility of human cloning a reality by 2020, if not before.  The real questions here are of course moral.  What to do with experiments gone wrong?  How to treat experiments gone right?  The history of human and religious morality will be confronted with this real possibility.  It will be able to be done, but will we want it done?

Guest Post written by:

David Houle is a futurist and author of the highly regarded blog Evolution Shift. He is the author of The Shift Age and The New Health Age, and a contributor to O The Oprah Magazine, The Huffington Post,and NPR. Houle spent more than 20 years in entertainment, as part of the executive team that launched MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1 and CNN Headline News. A sought-after lecturer, he was recognized as Speaker of the Year from Vistage International, the leading global organization of CEOs. Houle is Futurist in Residence at the Ringling College of Art + Design in Sarasota, Florida.

Mobile Health (“mHealth”), the use of mobile technology to deliver healthcare services and information, skyrocketed in 2012.  44 million health apps will have been downloaded by the end of the year (predicted to reach 142 million downloads by 2016), and consumers are now spending $700 million per year on these apps.  There are over 10,000 health apps in the iTunes app store, the number of American using smartphones for health information grew from 61 million to 75 million this year, and 88% of doctors would like patients to monitor their health at home.

So what are some of the top medical and health apps we’ll be using in 2013?

1)      MediSafe Project – MediSafe Project is the first-ever cloud-synced pillbox app that not only reminds you when it’s time to take your medication, but also sends your family, friends and caretakers alerts if you miss a dose, leveraging the power of your support system to keep you healthier.  Compatible with the FDA’s drug database, generic and brand name medications autocomplete as users enter them – automatically recording the correct pharmaceutical name, manufacturer and medication strength.  Or, use your smartphone’s camera to snap the FDA’s universal National Drug Code (NDC) number, found on all original pharmaceutical packaging, to enter a medication.  iPhone and Android.  Free.

2)      EveryoneEat! – EveryoneEat! helps the 150 million American living with a chronic condition or dietary restriction find restaurants serving meals appropriate for them.  By partnering with nationally recognized health associations, clinical and registered dietitians, and thousands of your favorite restaurants, the app finds dishes that meet your dietary needs and displays them by cuisine type or restaurant name.  Simply enter your age, height, weight, gender and activity level, and the app is ready to use.  iPhone and Android.  Free.

3)      WebMD Pain Coach – WebMD Pain Coach helps people with chronic pain conditions make daily health and wellness choices, so they can manage their pain smarter.  From back pain to migraines, the app lets you record daily pain levels, export your pain history to PDF and email it to your doctor.  You can also select doctor-approved goals from five lifestyle categories related to your pain condition(s): Food, Rest, Exercise, Mood, and Treatments, view ‘bite-sized’ tips matched with your goals and organized into the same five lifestyle categories, and read hundreds of articles, videos, slideshows and quizzes on pain management related to your condition(s).  iPhone only.  Free.

4)      Emotion Select – Part of the ‘Spotlight Autism’ app series, Emotion Select helps children on the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or those suffering other social delays practice learning and identifying emotions.  After reviewing illustrations for joy, sadness, anger, surprise, and fear, children are given the chance to anticipate and apply them in ‘real life’ social situations.   Includes statistical analysis for parents, teachers and therapists to track specific strengths and weaknesses of children’s learning progression.  iPhone only.  $9.99.

5)      Emergency Kit – Emergency Kit is an easy way to aggregate all of your most critical information – and could save your life in a medical emergency.  Emergency technicians will be able to view your vital stats including blood type, allergies, medications, and emergency contacts within the app.  It can also turn your phone into an SOS light beacon, send out an emergency text message or email with your GPS coordinates, or look up how to treat different injuries.  Windows Phone.  Free.

This post was written by:

Omri ‘Bob’ Shor is co-founder and CEO of the MediSafe Project, the first cloud-synced mobile app helping families prevent emergencies caused by over- or under-dosing medications.

Inspired to create the MediSafe Project with his brother after their diabetic father accidentally double-dosed on insulin, Shor drew on his considerable entrepreneurship experience to successfully develop and bring the product to market in less than one year.  MediSafe continues to receive support from the Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure, after graduating its inaugural program for early stage, mobile & cloud-based startups.

Previously, Shor served as marketing and product manager for legal app developer Masadit Software, where he increased the company’s roster from eight to 2,000 clients, enabling it to reach sustainable profitability.  Prior to that, he managed a department of twenty-five salespeople for Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s most widely circulated newspaper.

Since 2012, Shor has been a leader of Entrepreneurs in Jeans, a Boston-sponsored organization promoting the entrepreneurial scene in his hometown of Haifa, Israel.  He was also an Israeli Air Force Flight Academy cadet and decorated army sergeant, having commanded a paratroopers’ unit in the Israel Defense Forces from 1999-2002.

Shor received an MBA in Entrepreneurship & Strategy, cum laude, from The College of Management – Academic Studies (COMAS) in Rishon LeZion, Israel.  He lives in Haifa with his wife and daughter.

PAP programs (or Patient Assistance Programs) have been around for years. This is typically where a pharmaceutical manufacturer will set aside funds for their medications (theoretically) for those that can’t afford the medications. There are many other foundations and groups that will help patients to afford their treatment.

Interestingly, patients are now the biggest traffic draws on GoFundMe which is a crowdsourcing website for people to raise money. It leverages the power of social media to get the word out and draw people in. This replaces the local bake sales to raise money for individuals. A recent Time article (Crowdfunding a Cure by Alice Park) gave several examples of people raising money for surgery (e.g., $14,000) and cancer treatment (e.g., $144,000).

Of course, the risk here is fake diseases to steal money from caring people. The article says that GoFundMe requires a link to a legitimate Facebook profile and gated promotion beginning with an individual’s social network. But, in a world where we can buy Twitter followers, I’m not sure this really gives me much confidence. This seems like a great opportunity for an mHealth app to jump in and raise money that is directly paid to a provider and not collected by the patient. This would certainly limit some potential fraud and abuse.

Another site I found when researching this topic was GiveForward.

As someone who never tracked what I’ve eaten in my life (until recently with my FitBit), I’m just learning the value of this (more on another post). To that point, I was very interested in seeing several applications at the mHealth Summit last week in DC. While there are lots of different pros and cons, I sat down with Michael Segal from wHealthy Solutions (Wealth + Healthy) to talk about their FoodSmart app.

I found their application different and interesting based on the following:

1. You can scan in your food.
2. It tracks your food and provides recommendations (see example below).
3. The algorithm for recommendations changes based on your chronic disease.

FoodSmart’s new Custom Ranking feature gives people in special health populations a way to search the database by typing in a specific chronic condition. Users can search on the following categories to view custom rankings of food and beverages specific to these health concerns: Prediabetes, diabetes (type 1 and 2), weight management, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Service functionality includes warnings about unhealthy ingredients; recommendations for healthier alternatives; user community taste rankings and reviews; personalized product lists; and the ability to create and share shopping lists with family members and other users.

This is an interesting opportunity here since they’ve been growing primarily through viral growth. I talked a bit with Michael about trying to get incorporated into other applications and being used by nurses and others. I think that would drive adoption along with getting this to be something that dieticians would “prescribe” to their patients.

I will admit that it was fascinating to see how the recommendations change based on your disease. It plays well into what I think is important which is gradual change. For example, if I always eat cereal for breakfast, you might not change my habit, but you might get me to pick a better cereal.

If you read my interview with Michael Graves, it might have started your mind thinking about any of your visits to the hospital and all the problems you encounter. While many architects I’ve known have focused on the healthcare business over the years, I think it’s interesting to see the discussions of this topic move into more mainstream literature.

I was reading Fast Company’s article called Spaces That Heal which talks about redesigning hospitals (and it’s not their first article on this topic). It had several interesting points:

• Future rooms may all be private. (Thank goodness! And, studies show that you get more infections in rooms with other people.)
• These future rooms may move from being high tech clinically to being high tech for the consumer – moving shades, controlling the temperature, interactive walls for TV and Internet.
• While a lot of research to support this has been out there for years, it’s finally been the CMS shift in focus to patient satisfaction (i.e., experience) which is making this happen.
• Colors, shapes, art, and layout can all contribute not only to the experience but actually to health outcomes and recovery.

The article talks about HOK (where I did an architecture internship) and their project with the University Medical Center of Princeton to create a new patient room layout.

A related article goes on to provide more on the research on this topic…

Although architecture and design substantially contribute to patient and staff safety, efficiency, reduced infections, reduced patient falls, and improve patient and staff interactions, it has been found that music, aroma, and access to nature can alleviate stress for patients, families, and staff. Hospitals are increasingly providing access to green spaces or gardens, which have been proven to reduce stress (reducing blood pressure) and improve patient satisfaction for patients, families, and staff. Even viewing nature and trees has been shown to reduce hospital length of stay and result in fewer medications for patients.