technology is revitalising the health sector
One such individual is Karen Salirrosas, a specialist endocrinology doctor at the Ricardo Palma University in Peru and founder of Smart Doctor. The company serves as a bridge between healthcare professionals and patients, with a telemedicine service that removes physical and geographical barriers to making and receiving diagnoses. "Technology is helping us to get closer to people, both in terms of communication and when it comes to monitoring their health indicators, with the help of connected devices", says Salirrosas.
As a result of the pandemic, which has fostered a rise in digital consultations, telemedicine platforms are booming, as the people behind AcceXible and Smart Doctor can confirm. Salirrosas explains that "remote consultations allow people in rural settings to access specialists, who are often only based in big cities".
Data to save lives
The availability of data will become increasingly relevant in order to feed algorithms, but the need to safeguard sensitive information about patients must be taken into account. With that in mind, Spain's Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, presented within the framework of the European Next Generation funds, considers the creation of a medical 'data lake'. This data repository would bring together information for mass analysis to assist with identifying conditions and improving diagnoses and treatments.
Incorporating the data into shared systems and processing them will be paramount. "We're going to have a unique moment in which there will be a large health data repository, with interoperable cloud-based systems", states Quibim's Ángel Alberich-Bayarri. In this expert's opinion, sharing data may help advance medicine. “Sharing anonymous medical evidence in online software and giving professionals access to that will allow doctors and researchers around the world to make great progress”, he says.
In this manner, perhaps leading countries in organ donation, such as Spain, can reinvent themselves to become leaders in data donation. With the opening up of information, collaboration between experts from mathematicians to computer scientists and doctors, and momentum from technology, the health sector can already envisage a better future for all patients.
Gloss