IoT and eHealth Digital transformation: How are they going to change our lives in the near future?
World goes tech as fast as never did it before. Recent data by scientists shows that businesses across industries have vaulted 5 years forward in consumer and business digital adoption in a matter of around 8 weeks. Health industry is one of the main fields where new technologies and humanistic solutions create a huge impact for society and digital transformation becomes more and more necessary.
Responding to needs, eHealth experts met to discuss the Future of IoT in healthcare, Pharma Industry, A Digital Transformation of Chemotherapy Process in the workshop IoT & eHealth Digital transformation powered by the European Commission funded project ATHIKA and hosted by La Salle – Ramon Llull University.
ATHIKA proposes to explore innovative approaches for technologically advanced training and support that explicitly integrates humanistic concerns, aimed at increasing the successful implementation of ICT – Internet of Things, Big data and Artificial Intelligence Systems integrated into Decision-Support Systems for the healthcare sector of European companies and ventures.
One of the main topics in the virtual event was bringing a humanistic approach to IoT. Entrepreneurs and scientists assured that new technologies are being created to solve different problems: from more comfortable living conditions for aging society to new equipment in hospitals and many more.
“There will be double numbers of old people around the world in 2040 – it will include about 10 percents of the whole world population. So, we need to react and offer smart solutions for older people to have a better life in a changing world”, – said David Moreno Sancho, Chief Operating Officer of Technosens. He presented the idea of Digital Helpers which can complete Human and Chemical helpers.
According to him, with the increasing numbers of elders in the world chemical helpers (drug) and human helpers is not a sustainable and scalable model. Ageing must be addressed with a systemic approach. For e.g. physical health is not the only one issue of elder people, usually they need universal help like an unusual situation detection or nursing home and professionals who are able to offer needful help or individual consultation by app. Smart homes should ensure safety and comfort – it is important for good physical and emotional health.
During the virtual event Global Head of Mobile Apps of Sanofi David Moreno asked not to be afraid to say out loud that HealthTech is business, not only support for business. He presented the solutions for the biggest challenges of digital transformation in HealthTech. One of challenges is collecting data when amounts of information are growing very fast and all eHealth systems must ensure efficient usage with comfortable ways to save and analyze needful data.
eHealth expert and project manager of Fundació TIC Salut i Social Jesús Berdún Peñato revealed some interesting facts about the history of medical devices – when the first medical device was invented and how transformation of this field was developing.
“The stethoscope, which was considered one of the first medical devices, was invented in 1815. Now we have an estimated 2 million different medical devices on the world market, categorized into more than 7000 generic devices groups. In the near future everyone will be able to monitor sleep patterns, check activity and heart pulse by smart o’clocks or triggering warning signals about bad health and give a signal to the hospital. Hospitals will use smart devices that will help to react faster and collect data much more accurately”, – said the expert. He also shared new trends of digital transformation in eHealth.
In the event was also talked about progress in chemotherapy. Technology Deputy Director of Catalan Institute of Oncology Marta Carbonell Cobo shared insights about digital transformation in such a sensitive field – a treatment of cancer. While scientists are still looking for drugs from this insidious disease, medics together with IT professionals apply new solutions in chemotherapy.
One more special guest Project Manager of Garage Stories Mar Gimeno Lumbiarres invited to participate in the online hackathon Hack The Hospital and create new ideas that can improve long-term pediatric patients' experience at the hospital so as to protect their emotional and personal development.
ATHIKA Project Coordinator Alan Briones presented the project ATHIKA. He said that the course focus is on the current industry’s needs and problems in order to provide the students with the knowledge to create innovative, flexible, problem-oriented solutions.
“The main aims of the project ATHIKA are creating an innovative approach for training and support, aimed at increasing the successful implementation of ICT innovations and initiatives for the European healthcare sector companies and ventures and brining a humanistic approach to the engineering education while addressing the most important new research in the world of AI and IoT linked to Healthcare”, – said Alan Briones.
He also introduced three units for students who have active online training with experts. During the project more than 200 students from different countries gain the skills in IoT Architecture for Smart Health services, IoT Development guidelines, Social Internet of Things, IoT and Big Data relationship, Ambient Assistant Living paradigm.
Until the summer students will participate in two workshops, then they are going to accept the challenge in the competition. The winners from three universities will be rewarded with 2 weeks of mobility in one of the companies of the ATHIKA project.