Healthcare & Tech
By Iqra Akhlaq, Content Analyst
Technology has touched almost all fields, ranging from education and entertainment to environment and industries. Healthcare is no different; the role of technology in healthcare is commendable. Medical conditions that were earlier deemed as hard to diagnose are now being effectively handled by technology. Healthcare information technology offers numerous opportunities for improving and transforming healthcare by reducing human errors, improving clinical outcomes, facilitating care coordination, improving practice efficiencies, and tracking data over time.
Artificial intelligence (AI), in particular, is used extensively for analyzing complex medical data and then extracting meaningful outcomes for the purpose of research. Several unique approaches in the brain care vertical have achieved impressive outcomes and created new avenues in terms of diagnosis, treatment, and research. Artificial intelligence is a blessing for healthcare and its application in healthcare frequently aims to mimic, if not outright replace, human intellect in the examination of complex medical data.
Among the various AI branches, machine learning (ML) plays a significant role in brain data analysis. In layman's’ terms, machine ML is an adaptive process that allows computers to learn through example, analogy, and experience. The goal is to define generic algorithms that are able to automatically improve their performance over time on the basis of previous results. This is achieved by training the algorithms via proper optimization approaches. Among the different ML solutions, Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) are the current state-of-the-art answer for many challenges, including those involving brain imaging. These human brain-inspired algorithms have been shown to extract highly significant statistical patterns from large-scale, high-dimensional datasets.
Evidently, technology is setting its ground in the treatment of brain and nervous system related diseases. Even the Neuralink Corporation, founded by Elon Musk, is working extensively to develop implantable brain-machine interfaces (BMIs). In 2019, the Neuralink team revealed the technology of the first prototype they had been working on. It is a device that includes ultra-thin probes put into the brain, a neurosurgical robot that performs the procedures, and a high-density electronic system that can process information from neurons.
Another example is gammaCore, the first non-invasive, hand-held medical device that, when placed to the neck, emits gentle, proprietary electrical stimulation via the skin to activate the vagus nerve reducing pain. It received an FDA release in April 2017 for acute treatment of episodic cluster headache in adults.
Conclusively, technology has come a long way from just using computer lead approaches for health information management (HIM) in the 1960s to the effective treatment of some once undiagnosable ailments. The extensive use of technology has made healthcare more affordable and cost-effective.
We see the use of healthcare technology not only in large medical institutions but in our everyday lives as well. Think of the mobile apps that help you track your health, the smartwatch that tells your pulse, the portable blood pressure measuring device and so on. It is quite evident that technology is the new reality of healthcare.
