hi this is dr. Bertalan Mesko the medical futurist and now I want to talk
about what should be in a medical bag today and how portable and innovative
diagnostic tools will sheperd us into a new era where you will be the
point-of-care in its basic form the stethoscope was invented by a French
physician dr. Laennec who published a description of the instrument in 1819 at
the time dr. generally listened to patient's heart beats and lung sounds by
pressing their ears against the patient's chest and back however when
Laennec had to examine a young woman complaining of heart problems he thought
this would be improper so he rolled up a piece of paper and put one end to his
ear while the other end to the chest of the patient and just like this the
stethoscope was born and in a few years instead of using pieces of paper he
turned the idea into a wooden hollow tube although it was a simple and
brilliant innovation it took time and effort until the medical community
accepted it and started using it widely listen to what English physician John
Forbes said about it I have no doubt whatever from my own experience of its
value that it will be acknowledged to be one of the greatest discoveries in
medicine by all those who are of a temper and in circumstances that will
enable them to give it a fair trial that it will ever come into general use
notwithstanding its value I am extremely doubtful because it's beneficial
application requires much time and gives a good deal of trouble both to the
patient and the practitioner and because its whole hue and character is foreign
and opposed to all our habits and associations think about it we are only
talking about a wooden tube here physicians thought it was either a
burden or debt by having the distance from the patient they would simply lose
the art of Medicine it took three decades for a status quo
to become viola accepted but today if the universal symbol of being a
physician when I talk about digital health the fellow medical professionals
sometimes I have the impression that I have to convince those
nineteenth-century doctors about a status code they are difficult to
proceed they are reluctant to accept you to her technologies and patient
empowerment the sheer amount of innovation on the field can be
overwhelming in the 19th century physicians had 30 years to adopt a
technological innovation while now there are 30 innovations coming out in a
single day what digital health technologies do is that they make you
the point-of-care healthcare without an address today the point of care is
usually a hospital or a doctor's office in the old days doctors took their
famous leather bags and went out to treat upper-class people later on
their care extended to the general population as well
when hospitals and practices first appeared the point-of-care shifted from
the patients to these places so patients started to meet their physicians at
their offices that shift in health care happened only because hospitals had the
opportunity to offer access to big and expensive diagnostic devices which our
entire system relies on the shift taking place now driven by digital health
technologies is how the point of care comes back to us and with it they could
solve a major problem looming over health care such as the robust shortage
of physicians if adoption of new technologies fast hands up we could
redesign the medical bag for a new century so let's see what we could put
in the medical bag of the 21st century handheld ECG do you remember those huge
devices on those carts printing out ECG on paper well a life core has already
made those obsolete with their line of ECG devices called kardea they are the
textbook example of technology shaping health care empowering and supporting
otali patients but medical professionals as well
they are FDA cleared medical grade ECG devices are as big as a credit card do
an ECG in 30 seconds even on six channels and they connect your
smartphone plus they
that can easily be shared blood pressure additional cuffs are over 150 years old
technologies now the company called eye health has a line of FDA cleared
products that brings us a long overdue upgrade their products are light and
mobile while they provide the fastest measurement I've ever seen in the
digital device you can see your results within 20 seconds and it's able to
compare your readings to previous measurements to help you make better
decisions on prevention and treatment multi diagnostic devices the medical
tricorder from Star Trek is the dream of every medical student via Tom's check me
promises to bring that dream into reality by measuring ECG blood oxygen
level body temperature blood pressure heart rate step count and many other
health parameters with a single device needless to say it is portable with
light transfers data wirelessly and it's FDA approved the digital status code we
have already talked about the stethoscope and of course it has a 21st
century upgrade as well the Eco core digital stethoscope allows physicians to
listen to long and hard sounds in a crystal clear way and digitize the
results within seconds this way they can also discuss those with among peers
portable ultrasound devices like the Philips to my thigh or the Claudius
ultrasound scanner bring advanced diagnostic devices to homes only a few
years ago it would have been unimaginable to get
ultrasound any other place than a doctor's office but this is where the
promise of digital health comes through no need for a doctor's appointment no
waiting time no travel costs these pocket-sized user friend I agnostic
devices can quickly give you a scan and show the results on a smartphone the
otoscope with the help of a built in nano camera the Wisc med otoscope keeps
clear views of the eardrum in even small or partially obstructed
ear channels making exams easier and more accurate and the original images
can be further examined comfortably on a computer monitor without troubling the
patient vision test the newer based i q-- has an
MIT patented technology based on instruments and charts used in vision
testing they offer two products enabling low-cost and accessible eye test for
everyone the personal vision tracker measures an individual's refractive
status including near or farsightedness and astigmatism by the IQ inside
determines visual acuity so both products are portable easy to
use and relatively low-cost solutions that would fit very well with a modern
medical pack of course putting together a medical bag like this is not an
all-around solution we will still need hospitals where we can get more
substantial care than needed but if we adopt these technologies we have a
chance to alleviate the pressure on doctors and solve the worldwide shortage
of physicians even a non physician healthcare professional could perform a
basic examination on the patient with these and if they require further
analysis the data can be sent to a hospital to physicians who can decide if
the patient is in need of hospital care that's what the digital health
revolution is all about keeping up with technology is not going to kill the art
of medicine or replace medical professionals but it is simply going to
lighten the artists burdens but then why don't we see these devices in practice
or in a medical bag but first many physicians simply don't know about these
technologies and if they do they think they are not available they think they
exist as moonshots and prototypes in China or the Silicon Valley while as I
mentioned most of these are fda-approved and readily available worldwide
if physicians do know about these things then another preconception is that they
can't afford them but frankly they are not more expensive than the traditional
versions and as technology progresses they are getting cheaper by each year
and even if a physician is validated of all these I still regularly see
reluctance to change their way of working as I said something new
technologies might end the art of medicine that they grew up studying they
believe that putting the distance was telesco between doctor and
is making their work less efficient frankly these tools are here to help
them to create better relationships with their patients and to get faster results
with more data so what we can do to wash our physicians into a new era of
innovative diagnostic tools lawmakers need to introduce practical policies
that provide incentives for physicians to adopt new technologies why patients
need to raise awareness by bringing their own devices and the data to their
doctor patient meetings and we all need to support a development of digital hub
devices that are based on scientific evidence you can see what digital health
is capable of and we are in the early days of this evolution we need to
continue on this path of progress to adopt innovative technologies to change
the point of care to manage our health until one day the medical bag will be
obsolete and even a digital tattoo we'll be able to monitor everything at once
because trust me in the future your data will arrive at the point of care before
you do no waiting times or delays just diagnosis and treatment right away this
is the way if you want to hear more about innovative devices in the 21st
century just subscribe to this channel
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