Exponential Medicine Roundup
The Astonishing Healthcare Tech of the Future Is Arriving
Earlier this month Singularity University hosted its annual Exponential Medicine conference. The conference aims to connect the dots between healthcare disciplines and cutting-edge tech by convening medical practitioners, technologists, entrepreneurs, and over 80 expert speakers from the field.
It’s easy to say “healthcare is broken” and call it a day, but a quote from brilliant thinker Maria Popova reminds us of the power of optimism to create change:
“Pessimists can tell you what’s wrong with the world, but it’s the optimists who set out to change it.”
There’s still considerable work to be done to create more effective healthcare systems in the US and worldwide. That said, at the conference we learned about incredible progress we can both celebrate and focus on moving forward.
For a look inside the conference, you can watch:
- An in-depth live demo of Intuitive Surgical’s famous da Vinci surgical robot
- A live VR demo of me building a skeleton inside of a simulated Darwin’s Lab
- A 360º time-lapse video of the expo hall
- Peter Diamandis speaking about Human Longevity, Inc
- This session on the future of cancer
- Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified when talks from this year’s Exponential Medicine go up
The Big Picture
Healthcare as we’ve known it for decades is evolving. New AI systems are helping medical practitioners make sense of complex patient histories and sorting through big data to help doctors make better diagnoses. Advances in robotics and synthetic biology are transforming precision medicine and minimally invasive surgery.
But we’re still left with big questions like, “How do we use these technologies to bring quality care to all populations around the globe?” and, “What are the ethics of having AI make choices that impact human lives?”
There’s also a flip side to new healthcare technologies. All things digital are vulnerable to cybercrime, and hospitals are facing large-scale security breaches in medical data. Improved cybersecurity will be critical as we gather more data.
Below, we’ve collected Singularity Hub’s coverage of the conference. These articles explore developments in technologies advancing healthcare and medicine and also probe into some of the big unanswered questions within the field.
Healthcare 2.0
It’s a Powerful Time to Reshape Healthcare Across the Planet
Daniel Kraft described how we are now seeing innovations in healthcare that used to only exist in science fiction plots — like when Dr. Beverly Crusher in Star Trek would find a brain tumor before it was too late. The real life version has doctors 3D printing visuals of tumors to better understand the tumor.
Taking the Pulse of Medtech With the Exponential Medicine MEDy Awards
At this year’s MEDy Awards, startups focused on preventative care via wearables, apps, and data sets. The common thread: rather than treating disease only after it has advanced to the point of being discoverable, let’s create systems to prevent disease in the first place.
Related read:
The Future of Healthcare Is Arriving — 8 Exciting Areas to Watch
Artificial Intelligence
We’ll Soon Trust AI More Than Doctors to Diagnose Disease
Humans aren’t set up to handle the vast and ever-growing chunks of health data the latest technologies are generating. From proliferating health sensors to whole genome sequencing, our world will soon be awash in more health data points than stars in the universe.
—Jason Dorrier
The Future of Surgery Is Robotic, Data-Driven, and Artificially Intelligent
In the years since da Vinci first came out, many other surgical robots have arrived. And today there’s a new generation coming online, like the Verb robot, a joint venture between Google and Johnson and Johnson. This means surgery is about to get even more interesting.
—Sveta McShane
Bridging the Mental Healthcare Gap With Artificial Intelligence
What if artificial intelligence could bring quality and affordable mental health support to anyone with an internet connection? This is X2AI’s mission, a startup that’s built Tess AI to provide quality mental healthcare to anyone, regardless of income or location. X2AI calls Tess a ‘psychological AI.’
—Alison E. Berman
Related reading:
Singularity Hub’s AI archives
Robotics
Robotic Tissue-Slicing Microscopes and DIY Crowd Science to Accelerate Research
During a session on disrupting clinical practice at Exponential Medicine conference we got a look into how cloud computing, robotics, artificial intelligence, and advanced imaging technology are transforming the practices of pathology and non-invasive heart imaging and enabling crowd-sourced medical research. Here’s a look at three interesting companies we heard from.
—Alison E. Berman
Related reading:
Singularity Hub’s Robotics archives
Longevity
How Humans Can Live 100 Healthy Years
If there was ever an industry in need of a paradigm change, it’s healthcare. The World Health Organization estimated total spending on global health in 2012 was $6.5 trillion. And that cost will increase unless pioneers develop new technologies and frameworks that focus on preventative medicine.
—David Hill
Related reading:
Singularity Hub’s Longevity archives
Synthetic Biology
Writing the First Human Genome by 2026 Is Synthetic Biology’s Grand Challenge
[Hessel] thinks 2026 for a fully engineered human genome is realistic if synthetic biology follows an exponential pace like genome sequencing did. ‘So, a new race is starting, ladies and gentlemen,’ [he] said…‘It’s still in the organizational phase, but it’s going to accelerate, and guaranteed, by 2026, we’re going to succeed.’
—Jason Dorrier
3 DNA Technologies That Will Forever Change Your Home Life
Today, anyone can have their entire genome sequenced in 12 hours for $1,000, and companies are racing towards a future where sequencing a complete human genome costs just $100. McCauley predicts that in 2018, the cost of sequencing a human genome will be under $20, or the cost of a delivery pizza. By 2022, it’ll be the same cost as flushing a toilet.
—Sveta McShane
Related reading:
Singularity Hub’s Biotechnology archives
How We’ll Stop Future Pandemics? Engineer Vaccines From the Ground Up
As genomic sequencing, computer power, and protein engineering advance and converge, Poste envisions a world capable of a very rapid and wide-scale response to future viral threats.
—Jason Dorrier
Virtual Reality
How to Train Thousands of Surgeons at the Same Time in Virtual Reality
In April of 2016, [Dr. Shafi Ahmed] live-streamed a cancer surgery in virtual reality. The procedure, a low-risk removal of a colon tumor in a man in his 70s, was filmed in 360 video and streamed live across the world. The high-def 4K camera captured the doctors’ every movement, and those watching could see everything that was happening in immersive detail.
—Sveta McShane
Nanotechnology
Detecting Cancer Early With Nanosensors and a Urine Test
Imagine a sensor so small it could circulate around the body, find cancer, then send a signal to the outside world. Bhatia thinks nanotechnology can get us there. Hundred-nanometer particles (one thousand times smaller than the thickness of a human hair) are injected into a blood vessel… The particles then detect enzymes that tumors make as they’re invading.
—Vanessa Bates Ramirez
Global Health
5 Billion People Need Better Healthcare — Technology Will Help Deliver It
If technology can democratize healthcare, why not start with one of the most challenging cases? Can a hospital in Burundi serve as a platform to show the world that innovation and technology can exponentially improve the wellness of the global majority?
—Vanessa Bates Ramirez
Related read:
Global Citizenship: Technology Is Rapidly Dissolving National Borders
Related read:
From Drones to Heartbeat Detecting Devices — Tech Can Aid Disaster Response
Cybersecurity
Health Devices Are All Too Hackable — Here’s What You Need to Know
Marc Goodman asked the room, ‘Who here likes big data and analytics?’ Everyone raised their hands. To which he responded, ‘Criminals love big data and analytics too.’ Today in healthcare, there are a few key security threats that patients, practitioners, and hospitals all need to be aware of so they can take measures to prevent them.
—Alison E. Berman
Related read:
Smartphones to Bionic Body Parts: Our Tech Can (and Will) Be Used Against Us
📝 Curation by Alison E. Berman
🚑 Browse all of our Exponential Medicine coverage here
💚 Recommend this post to give us some love
