From digital twins to the role that fake data can play in the future of healthcare, it was all on offer at Medica, says Lu Rahman
As ever, Medica never disappoints and the 2019 event lived up to its promise of delivering tomorrow’s healthcare to its audience. Of course, the size of the event makes it impossible to see everything – global healthcare expertise from over 5,500 companies wasn’t designed for a whistle-stop tour – but it was still possible to come away with a sense of excitement about global healthtech.
No trip to Medica and Compamed would be complete without paying a visit to the Health IT Forum. Every year, this event highlights the future of technology in the healthcare space. This year AI, digital twins, digital medicine and 5G were the key topics.
“What sounded futuristic just a few years ago, has now entered the healthcare sector and has already become the standard in many countries,” explained Dr Nana Bit-Avragim, digital health expert at Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane, before the session began.
According to Bit-Avragim voice recognition will continue to have a significant place in healthcare. This is something that we’re already seeing. Zana, for instance, mixes voice recognition and AI to develop an interactive health assistant. Zana interacts with the user over various channels such as internet chats and speech. At Medica the company also discussed the ways health data can be tracked and relayed back to the patient. Zana reminds patients to measure vitals, it carries out health check-ups, reminds patients to take medicine, detects critical clinical data and informs the patient on disease and treatment.
Another product using similar technology is My Diabetes Coach. This app collects data from connected devices such as sleep trackers, scales, blood glucose monitors, and also monitors daily food intake. Using Amazon’s Alexa it helps people manage their diabetes properly.
Digital twins
One of the most interesting healthcare themes recently for me, has to be the digital twin. The role that a digital twin can play in the treatment of illness and disease is fascinating and this was a key theme at the Health IT Forum. Christina Rode-Schubert of Orange itb explained how digital twins – the transference of real objects to the virtual world via data analysed by AI algorithms - has a significant role to play in research.
The work being carried out by Siemens Healthineers in this field is interesting - Siemens has years of cardiology experience providing data that can be used to map the digital twin of a human heart’s physiological system. Supported by multiscale models, electrophysiology, biomechanics, and haemodynamics, the company is collaborating with partners in the simulation of trends in specific patients and their response to treatment.
It was interesting to hear about the work being carried out by the European research initiative DigiTwins, supported by Department of Microsystems Engineering IMTEK at Freiburg University.
Comprising more than 200 partners from industry, economy, and clinical research in 32 countries, this community is working towards establishing a personal digital twin for each and every European citizen. It intends to revolutionise the healthcare sector and biomedical research for the benefit of the citizens and society and, by creating digital twins, to afford a contribution to the European strategy for a digital domestic market. It’s an ambitious project and one which relies upon sufficient quantities of data.
Data or fake data?
This leads nicely onto another theme at the forum – fake data and whether it has legitimate role to play in the future of healthcare. This was the cornerstone of Alexandra Ebert’s presentation, from mostly.ai. This company’s synthetic data engine Generate, is designed to generate an unlimited number of realistic synthetic customers that correspond to the patterns and behaviours of actual customers on a level never seen before. This data engine analyses customer data to generate anonymised, synthetic data for the properties and activities of real people. It is no longer traceable and therefore in no need of data protection. Then part it has to play in meaningful healthcare is fascinating – does fake data have a significant role to play?
