Page 28 - EngineerIt May 2021

TECHNOLOGY FOR DIGITAL HEALTH

Realising a brave new world of

healthcare technology

Increased consumer engagement with digital health
innovation fuels a new vision for the future

Jens Kögler, healthcare industry director EMEA, VMware

n 1816 Rene Laennec invented the This disruptive technology is faster, more effective and half the price of analogue
stethoscope, the first tool a physician stethoscopes before it. And there’s every likelihood your doctor is not using it. Why?
Icould use for treating patients, Remember the three decades it took for the first stethoscope – effectively a wooden
opening the doors to a new era of tube – to be adopted. Now, consider the speed of digital innovation happening before
medical diagnostics. Yet, it took the our eyes; the myriad of new technologies becoming available every day, on top of the
industry three decades to widely adopt exponentially expanding amount of medical research and studies available, and the lack
this, as medical associations shied of any real curriculum helping healthcare professionals to upskill and incorporate these
away from using a ‘gadget’ on patients. into daily practices.
Fast forward to the present day Are the tides now finally turning? We have in the past year witnessed the single biggest
and the first digital stethoscope is now accelerator of digital disruption and adoption the healthcare sector has ever known. A seismic
a matter of fact, not fiction – with AI transition has been forced into existence following the pandemic outbreak, with regards to
powered algorithms in the back of the consumer attitudes to embracing digital healthcare and how the industry needs to respond.
device listening to the most precise of Like never before, it is having to keep up with the pace of disruption. Let’s investigate.
patient anomalies and relaying these
findings to doctors. The doctor need Choice, concern and convenience: changing the dynamic
not even be near the patient – the New research from VMware involving over 6,000 European consumers found that almost
digital stethoscope can be sent to areas half (44%) are now comfortable with - or even excited about - replacing routine medical
experiencing doctor shortages, where consultations with remote, virtual appointments. And this isn’t just the younger, typically
an application will guide the patient ‘tech-savvy’ generations; 45–54 year-olds were among the most enthusiastic for a new
through its use and a doctor can listen virtual world of healthcare, where their regular consultations are conducted via technology
from continents away. rather than in person.

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