AS a former physician, I shivered a bit when I heard Dr. Vivek Wadhwa say he would rather have an artificial-intelligence doctor than a human one. “I would trust an A.I. over a doctor any day,” he proclaimed at a recent health innovation conference in San Francisco, noting that artificial intelligence provided “perfect knowledge.” When asked to vote, probably a third of those in attendance agreed.
"Les antibiotiques, c'est pas automatique" : c'est le slogan de la campagne lancée par l'Assurance maladie française pour lutter contre les phénomènes de résistances qui menacent de se propager à grande échelle. Et pour cause : si les malades prenaient systématiquement des antibiotiques, les bactéries deviendraient beaucoup plus résistantes et de banales infections se transformeraient rapidement en épidémies fatales. Des chercheurs de l'Université hébraïque de Jérusalem viennent de découvrir un nouveau mécanisme à l'origine de cette résistance des bactéries aux antibiotiques : la dormance.
C'est ce que propose l'Equipex PHENOVIRT (Phénotypage humain et réalité virtuelle). Ceux-ci ont en effet conçu un docteur virtuel, sous la forme d'un ACA, qui réalise des entretiens cliniques afin d'orienter les patients dans les filières de soin ou de suivi adéquates (pathologie du sommeil ou de désordre cognitif). Rappelons qu'un ACA est un Agent Conversationnel Animé, c'est-à-dire un personnage interactif situé dans un environnement virtuel dont le but est de communiquer avec un utilisateur que ce soit par l'écrit, l'oral, la posture ou encore la gestuelle.
True story: When I was 15, I went in for a sports physical and the primary care doc heard a heart murmur that concerned him. He thought one of my valves was too small and might have to be replaced. So he sent me to a specialist whose waiting list was a couple of months long. During that time I was worried sick, and so were my parents. When we finally went to the cardiologist (200 miles from home), he quickly told us that the murmur was nothing and that I would grow out of it. He was right.
ore than two million people die each year from diseases that could otherwise be prevented through the use of vaccines targeted at those ailments. The challenge is not so much a shortage in the supply of those vaccines, but that they must be refrigerated from their point of manufacture to their point of distribution to end-users in remote locations that lack reliable the power required to keep those vaccines properly chilled.
A machine that pulses deep regions of the brain with magnetic current may help heavy smokers quit the habit, an Israeli study shows.
In the study, which experts say is the most rigorous test of the technology to date, 44 percent of a group of heavy smokers who had failed to quit using other methods were finally able to stop after a few weeks of treatment. One third of the smokers who were treated had still not lit up six months later. It may not sound like a high success rate, but failure rates of other anti-smoking methods can reach about 90 percent.
Healthcare providers are under pressure to better monitor and care for older and at-risk patients between in-person doctor visits. Current systems are all too focused on providing care only after the patient has gotten sick enough to return to the doctor’s office (or the ER).
So caregivers need an effective way to stay in touch with patients, and keep them following doctors’ orders while they’re at home. Outcomes could be improved, costs could be contained, and patients would be healthier and happier.
EEUU siempre ofrece nuevas ideas y nuevas perspectivas. No en vano es ‘la tierra de las oportunidades’. Eso es precisamente lo que ha visto la cadena de hipermercados estadounidense Wal-Mart: una oportunidad en el campo de la atención sanitaria, para lo que ha puesto en marcha un programa piloto de apertura de clínicas en sus centros en las que ofrece atención primaria a sus clientes, todo al precio de cuatro dólares por consulta a los empleados y cuarenta en el caso de los clientes, si bien habrá cargos adicionales por las vacunas o las pruebas de laboratorio a las que deban someterse, pero siempre con algún tipo de descuento.
The promise of bringing the doctor’s office directly to one’s home or digital device is spurring a wave of investment into the growing telehealth market. According to CB Insights data, 2014 YTD has already seen the highest amount of funding of any year to the telehealth, or telemedicine, space since at least 2007.
Best Doctors, which offers second opinions and reviews from medical experts around the world, has scooped up the Chicago-based population management company Rise Health for an undisclosed sum.
Rise Health studies large groups of patients and helps payers and providers determine how to treat them all, from the healthiest to the sickest. With Rise Health’s people and technology on board, Best Doctors hopes to be able to predict which sick patients might be best served by its expert opinions.
This might dramatically increase the number of medical reviews Best Doctors arranges every year.
