Vim & Vigor - Winter 2012 - St. Anthony - (Page 20)

To learn more about the latest and greatest mobile health devices, we checked in with Topol, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care, and Daniel Kraft, M.D., who chairs the medicine track for Silicon Valleybased Singularity University and is executive director of FutureMed, a program that explores convergent technologies to revolutionize healthcare. ROBOTICS: THE ROBOT IS IN WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW: The da Vinci surgical robot isn’t R2D2 wielding a scalpel; it is a revolutionary high-tech tool used in more than 200,000 operations a year around the world. The surgeon sits at a console and peers into binocular-like lenses at highly magniﬁed, 3-D views provided by a vision system arm with an endoscope (small camera). The other interactive robotic arms hold the tiny surgical tools that, as controlled by the surgeon’s hand movements, make the snips, staunch the blood ﬂow and sew up inside when all is done. The system is used for open heart surgery, prostate resection, gynecologic operations and other procedures, most of which require incisions no longer than three-fourths of an inch. Even though “the hardware alone costs $1.5 to $2 million,” Topol says, “the uptake rate by surgeons has been extraordinary.” The same company that developed the da Vinci surgical robot also recently came out with Single-Site Instrumentation. These instruments allow surgeons to use the robot as they remove the gallbladder through a single small incision. WHAT’S NEXT: Be on the lookout for wearable robotics, or mechanical exoskeletons, made by manufacturers such as Ekso Bionics, to enable people with spinal cord injuries to walk again. “We’re going to change the deﬁnition of ‘disability’ to be in some cases superabilities,” Kraft says. to travel, thanks to Cisco HealthPresence, a videoconferencing tool with high-tech innovation such as a telephonic stethoscope and tracking of blood pressure, respiratory rate and heart rhythm. Other tools such as Skype allow video calls over the Internet, as does Apple’s FaceTime on the iPhone (provided both you and your doctor have an appropriate Apple device). WHAT’S NEXT: “I think telemedicine has a lot of interesting potential for better outcomes, lower costs and better access to care, particularly in rural areas, where people have a lot more difﬁculties in coming in to see their providers,” Kraft says. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: DOCTORS’ SMARTEST ASSISTANTS WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW: Fans of Jeopardy! watched in amazement as IBM’s computer Watson outwitted the TV game show’s best human players in 2011. The trick up Watson’s sleeve is its ability to read and understand 200 million digital pages and deliver an answer within three seconds. What’s next for Watson? IBM has formed partnerships to explore using Watson as an assistant to doctors—not to make diagnoses or give physicians a single answer, but to make suggestions and determine probabilities in complex cases. IBM also has formed a Watson Healthcare Advisory Board, made up of experts in primary care, oncology and other ﬁelds, to discuss how the technology could be used in medical innovation and clinical settings. While there are well-deﬁned treatment guidelines for individual conditions like heart disease, diabetes and asthma, these guidelines are far less helpful for patients who have more than one condition. For example, some beta-blocker drugs are good for heart disease, but bad for asthma. WHAT’S NEXT: “Artiﬁcial intelligence and supercomputing are going to be increasingly important over time,” Topol predicts. “Tomorrow you’ll have a voice on your phone say, ‘You’re not getting adequate control of your blood pressure; you should be increasing your dose of blood pressure medication.’ ” TELEMEDICINE: THE DOCTOR WILL SKYPE YOU NOW WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW: “Video [doctor] visits could prove to be important for increasing the efﬁciency and productivity of both patients and doctors,” Topol says. Technology now makes it possible for patients in remote areas to see their doctor without having NANOSENSORS: TINY HEALTH DETECTORS WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW: It may sound far-fetched, but breathalyzer technology to detect cancer exists today at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, where gold nanoparticle sensors are being tested to detect distinct breath 20 Vim & Vigor · W I N TER 2 012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Winter 2012 - St. Anthony

Vim & Vigor - Winter 2012 - St. Anthony
Contents
Opening Thoughts
Community Connections
The Speed of Life
Pinpoint Precision
Because I Said So!
What’s Wrong with This Picture?
The Future Is Now
Everyday Hero
What Does 200 Calories Look Like?
Johnny Be Good
In the Driver’s Seat
We’ve Got Your Back
Bank on Your Health
Virtual Health
Be a Proactive Patient
The Solitaire Strategy
Top Honors
By the Numbers
From the Foundation
Ask the Experts

Vim & Vigor - Winter 2012 - St. Anthony