MARCH, 2019 | The Health
Tech & Innovation
19
Trends in health tech 2019
As technology and healthcare becomes exponentially connected with one another,
our health and wellbeing will indefinitely be intertwined with our smart devices.
Here are some of the trends we could see emerging in 2019 and forward
1
Connected to professionals
through smartphones
Our smartphones are one of those devices that,
6 years ago, would not mean so much. Now however,
it plays a big part in our lives.
Healthcare is not different in taking advantage of
this fact than any other type of services, in that we’ll
be more connected with our physicians and are able to
communicate with them directly through our phones.
No, we don’t mean through Whatsapp. Apps and
services such as Doctor2u, DoctorOnCall, Naluri, and
the more recent OurCheckup aims to help patients
connect with their doctors, and receive other medical
services through our phones.
2
Video calling
As we are connected with our physicians over
the phone, there will definitely be an increase
of video calls made.
This could be the way for medical professionals
to assess emergency situation faster and able to
provide basic life-saving procedures, or they could
have preliminary assessment of their patients to see
whether they have any medical condition worth a visit
to the clinic.
3
Health wearables going
mainstream
Up till now, fitness trackers are still more or less
a niche market. There are thousands of fitness trackers
worn as wrist watches out there to choose from. Yet
more recently, the complete feature of a fitness tracker
finds its way into the more mainstream market of
smartwatches.
Smartwatches are the supplemental devices some
like to use so that they wouldn’t have to take out
their phones from their pockets so much. And yes,
smartwatches is also quite niche, but it is at least more
mainstream than your regular fitness tracker.
Smartwatches are more glamorous, and now
they could be having the same functions (and be as
accurate) as fitness trackers.
Take the Apple Watch for example. The latest ver-
sion of the smartwatch is now able to perform an ECG
(electrocardiogram) to check for irregular heartbeat
of the wearer. The feature is not yet made available
outside of the US for now, but looking at how Apple
devices are well-liked among Malaysian, we could be
seeing it soon.
4
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
We’ve mentioned the app Naluri (see first
point), an app which not only lets you con-
nect and have a conversation with your doctor, but
could also learn from your behaviour with its AI
functionality.
Say for example you complain about not eating
enough vegetables to your doctor, and how it’s hard
to start liking them. With the AI built into the system,
it will be able to provide you with tips and recipes for
nutritious and delicious vegetable dishes, without you
having to look for it.
This maybe a very blatant example of what Naluri,
and AI in general can do, so here’s a more proper
explanation; AI in healthcare is the use of algorithms
and software to approximate human cognition in the
analysis of complex medical data. Specifically, AI is
the ability for computer algorithms to approximate
conclusions without direct human input. It goes to
show how AI will play a big part in healthcare down
the road.
Now if only we can have AI to start exercising for
us, that would be so great.
5
Less invasive testing devices
Courtesy of our friends at MIMOS, we were
introduced to the GlucoSenz, a device devel-
oped by the company to provide zero-invasive blood
glucose tests to patients in the clinic.
The device works by using light instead of a small
needle. Light will be projected onto our thumbs, and
the reflected light is then collected by a fibre-optic
probe that guides the light to a detector. The light
spectrum of the blood is then analysed by a built-
in software module. The blood glucose level then
appears on the LCD display.
They are working towards making the devices
available in clinics for doctors and nurses
to use on patients. However, there is also plan
to develop a smaller version of the device to be
used in the comfort of our homes. A welcomed
effort by diabetics who would need to prick their
fingers a lot to measure their glucose level. — The
Health