ICT and health
I am increasingly pleased with how hospital care has advanced thanks to ICT. Add to this big data and artificial intelligence.
When a person goes to a medical specialist, their history is recorded in a database and so, in the event that they have to visit another specialist, the latter will have access to all the patient’s information: medication, medical history, etc. They will consult the databases of current medications and thus favour their treatment so that they are not incompatible with those prescribed by another doctor, thus avoiding side effects and favouring a much more individualised, fast and effective care.
Nowadays there are countless technological devices within the field of medicine. To give an example of devices that are ‘smart’, we can find those for the continuous monitoring of glucose or CGMs. Some work in real time and others act as if they were a scanner and operate intermittently. They send the information via Bluetooth to a smartphone app.
How do they transmit it? It seems like something out of a ‘Total Recall’ type film in which Arnold Schwarzenegger had a chip inserted to control his movements, but the reality is much more precise and harmless. An adhesive patch, which acts as a sensor, is inserted into the arm or abdomen. There are also more advanced ones that are inserted into the human body. This measures the glucose in the fluid inside the cells, not in the blood, and sends the information via a transmitter to a telephone, or to a receiver, or even to an insulin pump that injects the substance into the diabetic patient according to the need detected by the patch.
This is very useful for controlling how, for example, food affects the patient, or for immediately treating rises and falls in glucose levels, and preventing other diseases caused by diabetes.
ICT and cinema
Continuing with ICT, other devices that look like something out of a science fiction film are smart contact lenses. They are still in the research and development phase, but in the future they will help us improve our quality of life, or so I hope. They will not only correct vision, but will also have other uses, such as augmented reality (AR). Imagine feeling like Tom Cruise in ‘Mission Impossible’ identifying the bad guys in the film, places, objects, people, etc., just by focusing your vision, as if you were Google Lens.
If you want to know more about these advances, I invite you to visit the expert.digital website where they explain all the applications that will be given to these contact lenses.
Through cinema we have seen inventions that, thanks to the evolution of technology, have become a reality, surpassing science fiction. An example of this is what we saw in the film ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ where Luke Skywalker fought Darth Vader and lost a hand, which was immediately replaced with a bionic one. Well, that prosthesis already exists and as a tribute to Luke, they have named it after him. This has been a major milestone, as it has improved the lives of many patients who have lost an arm or a hand. If you want to see what a wonderful prosthesis it is, you can visit the Mobius Bionics website where you will find out all about it.
Smart pills
Other ICTs that I find fascinating are smart pills.
How do they work? These pills contain electronic circuits that can be digested by the patient. They contain a chip that collects information from the human body and transmits it via Bluetooth to an app that the patient has downloaded to their smartphone, which can also be accessed by the doctor, who analyses the information and acts accordingly.
The mobile app is designed to send notifications and reminders to the patient. The doctor, in turn, analyses the information collected, thus ensuring that the patient is complying with the treatment. In addition, it can measure certain parameters such as the patient’s blood pressure, pH and temperature.
These pills are currently being used in the field of psychiatry on individuals suffering from schizophrenia or depressive disorders. At RMIT University (Melbourne) they designed smart capsules that are completely harmless and ingestible. They travel through the digestive system and measure the levels of gas in the gastrointestinal tract. This is very useful for diagnosing intestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome or for detecting how the individual absorbs carbohydrates and acting accordingly.
Pills, lenses and smart devices are all a magnificent step towards a future in which we hope the quality of life will be much better for everyone thanks to all those people who have not settled for a seemingly inevitable destiny, such as doctors, scientists, researchers, etc., and who are allying themselves with technology to make patients’ lives better, medical care more personalised and, as a result, enable us to live healthier lives.
Creativity and passion are key for all those who work in this field and who want to challenge the impossible, and thus make real all those dreams that at some point seemed unattainable.
As Thomas Alva Edison said: ‘Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration’. All that is needed is for governments to invest more in R&D and for us not to end up like in the film ‘Elysium’, where it talks about the existence of machines that could cure diseases, but only the most economically advantaged had access to them. Hopefully we can all enjoy these technologies and the world will be a little better for everyone.
