The Health | jan/Feb 2020
06
Health Business
Digital Health is the long-
awaited game changer
for the healthcare
industry. The potential
for technologies such
as artificial intelligence
and big data to make
healthcare more
accessible, affordable,
and safe for everyone is
undeniable,” - Aurelien Blaha
CES 2020 digital
health: What to expect
From blockchain to mixed realities, which digital health trends have dominated
in 2019, and what can the healthcare industry expect in the coming year?
D
igital Health Summit at
CES2020 is entering its 11th
year, with digital health tech
providers and healthcare
experts convening to discuss
and showcase the latest inno-
vations, updates, and advances in digital
health.
While the global digital health market
was valued at US$ 144.2 billion in 2018, the
healthcare industry has been reluctant to
embrace digital in the past.
Nonetheless, the past decade has seen
innovations such as big data, telemedicine,
and virtual reality accelerate disruption in
consumer wellness and healthcare; pushing
the tipping point where benefits outweigh
the costs.
Digimind, an AI-powered social listening and
market intelligence software, released a study
looking at trends in digital health to understand
topics of interest and their impact on healthcare
companies, consumers, and patients.
Analysing the public internet domain for
conversations around the topic, the study
identified and predicted key technologies and
innovations that will be at the forefront of
digital health in 2020.
An analysis of the digital health companies
that will be present at CES2020 suggests that
Future
is here
in Malaysia
MALAYSIA is on the verge of fully entering
the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) as
embodied by digitalisation alongside adopting
the 5G technology pioneered by Huawei. Digi-
talisation could be defined as the increasing
assimilation of manually-based activities into
automated systems and processes.
The Minister of Communication and Mul-
timedia Gobind Singh Deo has never tired of
expressing the government’s commitment
and determination that the country would
not be left behind in the global digitalisation
wave and revolution.
The nature of work will also be transformed
by and with digitalisation – resulting in new
jobs to be invented in the future.
Instead of technology reliant on workers
for its operation and performance, it would
be vice versa, i.e. workers would be increas-
ingly reliant on technology and automation to
perform their roles. There will be greater syn-
ergy and even “exchanges” (i.e. assimilation
of respective competencies and functions)
between humans and technology.
The boundaries between the two are
AI-powered digital health services will be the
dominant subject. Furthermore a look at top
hashtags in digital health showed artificial
intelligence, IOT, machine learning, block-
chain, robotics and fintech were key topics of
interest.
“Digital Health is the long-awaited game
changer for the healthcare industry. The
potential for technologies such as artificial
intelligence and big data to make healthcare
more accessible, affordable, and safe for
everyone is undeniable,” said Aurelien Blaha,
Chief Marketing Officer, Digimind.
“Given the complexity to develop health-
care technologies, partnerships between
technology, healthcare, and pharmaceutical
experts are critical to realize the full advan-
tages. With insights into the latest trends
and key players, pharmaceutical companies
and governments alike can prioritize areas
for investment and identify partners to col-
laborate with,” she added.
While governments and healthcare compa-
nies have long been the main investors, major
tech companies including Google, Microsoft,
and Tencent have started focusing more efforts
into digital health over the past 5 years.
As tech giants take steps to expand their
ecosystem into healthcare, and new and innova-
tive startups emerge to offer new products and
services, this provides traditional healthcare
players with a variety of potential partnerships
that can help further company growth and
satisfy unmet needs. — The Health
of neurobotics technology such as the con-
comitant of Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) as
cybernic treatment.
Neurobotics has to do with the interface
between the central nervous system and
artificial intelligence (AI) with the aim of,
for example, decoding brainwaves or neural
signals so as to simulate and reconstruct the
interaction externally.
Neurobotics leverages on the pre-existing
technology of electroencephalography (EEG).
Cybernic treatment is simply applied neuro-
botics that aims to restore and improve the
connection between the patient’s muscles and
the neural system via algorithm-based artifi-
cial or biomechatronic body parts attached to
the patient to improve mobility.
Such integration with smart
technology could also be
extended with reference to
the neurological degenera-
IOB is simply the extension
already blurred as could be
tive condition in the case of
of the IOT to the realm
seen in the emergence of the
patients suffering from
of the organic (human,
animal) body-so as to be
Internet of Bodies (IoB).
Alzheimer’s disease.
manipulated, controlled,
IOB is simply the exten-
Overall, Malaysia is on
experimented, monitired,
sion of the Internet of Things
the right track to embrace
etc. remotely
(IOT) to the realm of the organic
4IR with the healthcare sector
(human, animal) body – so as to
as an engine. By extension, the
be manipulated, controlled, experi-
digitalisation of healthcare and
mented, monitored, etc. remotely.
the generation of the new jobs of the
Here, the body itself is subject to the future in the sector should contribute towards
process of digitalisation and external pro- a more equitable distribution of income
gramming, and this eminently illustrated in growth as well as ensuring better quality of
none other than the domain of healthcare.
life as part of the quest to become a smart
In Malaysia, this can be seen in the case nation. — The Health
Fact
The technological
breakthroughs in
healthcare have
escalated over the
course of the decade,
and will continue to
grow as digitisation in
healthcare becomes
more common.