Digestible sensors? Artificial organs? Medical tricorders? Does any of these already exist, is their development in progress, or do they only appear in our imagination? The world of medical innovations is complex and diverse, full of promising technologies but also hype and marketing. That’s why we collected the most relevant trends that shape digital health in one infographic that also explains at which stage these innovations are delivered, and which medical process and actor they influence. Check out the infographic here!
How to analyze digital health trends?
An infographic about 40 trends shaping digital health. It analyzed how promising each trend was, whether they would benefit patients or doctors; and if they would improve prevention, diagnostics, treatments, or long-term consequences. This illustration became so popular that we keep updating it, it currently exists in its third reincarnation.
Despite the updates, the basis for visually explaining the trends hasn’t changed. We still take three perspectives answering three questions to efficiently interpret the forces shaping the world of medical innovation. These are the following:
Does the trend affect patients or healthcare professionals?
Which stage of healthcare delivery and the practice of medicine is affected by the trend? Does it appear in prevention, data input and diagnostics, therapy, and follow-up, or does it rather impact patient outcomes and the consequences of certain conditions?
Is the outcome of the trend already available, is its development in progress, or does it still need some time to materialize?
For instance, along these lines, the infographic could tell that direct-to-consumer (DTC) artificial intelligence would impact prevention and diagnostics, it would mean a huge difference for patients, but its availability and applicability are further down the road. We still have to wait for a couple of years, if not decades, for DTC AI to appear in the family physician’s office. DTC is already used in many other industries. Physicians are often late adopters of technology (EHRs)
DTC Brand Examples
Allbirds
Away
Casper
Dollar Shave Club
Glossier
Harry’s
Hims & Hers
Rent the Runway
Stitch Fix
Warby Parker
In Silico Clinical Trials:
Imagine a clinical trial performed by artificial intelligence or an LLM?
HumMod is one of the most advanced simulations in this respect. It provides a top-down model of human physiology from whole organs to individual molecules. It features more than 1,500 equations and 10,000 variables such as bodily fluids, circulation, electrolytes, hormones, metabolism, and skin temperature. HumMod aims to simulate how human physiology works, and claims to be the most sophisticated mathematical model of human physiology ever created. HumMod has been in development for decades and it is still far from completion. It may take decades to get there.
Most of these will take considerable time to translate to daily clinical medicine and are presently used for testing purposes in nonclinical situations. They will all require vetting by the Food and Drug Administration.
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