Is 2022 the turning point?

Wrapping up 2021 here.

What a year, the time has flown by. Sometimes when I see documentaries or items about World War II, I'm thinking about those 5 years that kept the world in its grip. Now living this pandemic, we all see how these 24 months have already passed within a blink of an eye. And it's not over yet, however as I'm writing, this news kicks in about the Omnicron mutation that -although preliminary- sounds hopeful at least. Having said that, the impact of all of this will stay with us for a generation, if not longer.

On the other side, the creativity shown during these days, how innovation, collaboration, and 'back to basics' has helped progress is amazing. We cán achieve great things if only we would work together, cross silos, cross-industry and cross-planet. Not only on our health(care) challenge but also on how to create a sustainable environment on this planet for all.

I work on a 'climate case for digital health' with some great partners. To research, to show and tell how digital health -next to a better user interface and user experience, can also help down drilling the carbon footprint for healthcare.

More news will be to learn at the?ICT & Health conference?in the coming spring.

Meanwhile, enjoy this newsletter with some great nuggets I found about developments that can push health and healthcare further toward a more sustainable model for patients and healthcare workers, and the planet.

Stay safe!

AI-designed Xenobots reveal an entirely new form of biological self-replication—promising for regenerative medicine.

Spooky, was the first emotion when I read about self-replicating robot cells. Now scientists at the University of Vermont, Tufts University, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have discovered an entirely new form of biological reproduction—and applied their discovery to create the first-ever, self-replicating living robots.?Read more via this link

What happens when the world’s largest health care conglomerate breaks into full-service, consumer-oriented primary care?

In August, CVS launched a nationwide?virtual primary care offering?(via Teladoc). In September it has announced a plan to refurnish a select crop of existing stores into "super clinics", a natural step-up from their?HealthHUBs. These are equipped with primary care physicians, ancillary staff, and a suite of services to directly compete with traditional primary care, health systems, and brick-and-mortar primary care startups.?Read more via this link

New FDA-approved eye drops could replace reading glasses for millions: "It's definitely a life-changer". Is it?

Is this going to be a mainstream option to get rid of all of those reading glasses? A newly approved eye drop hitting the market on Thursday could change the lives of millions of Americans with age-related blurred near vision, a condition affecting mostly people 40 and older. Vuity, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in October, would potentially replace reading glasses for some of the 128 million Americans who have trouble seeing close-up. The new medicine takes effect in about 15 minutes, with one drop on each eye providing sharper vision for six to 10 hours, according to the company.

Toni Wright, one of the 750 participants in a clinical trial to test the drug, said she liked what she saw.?Read more via this link.

This New Ultra-Compact Camera Is The Size of a Grain of Salt And Takes Stunning Photos.

Scientific ingenuity means cameras keep on getting smaller and smaller, and the latest to appear is not only incredibly tiny – the same size as a grain of salt – it's also able to produce images of much better quality than a lot of other ultra-compact cameras. Read more via this link

11 med-tech trends likely to define 2022.

It’s prediction season. That means it’s time for shaking off the worst of pharma news the past 12 months (Ivermectin? Really?), waxing nostalgic about the best (3.13 billion people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 through early November), and turning the calendar to a new year ripe with possibility. Here’s what a host of med-tech thought leaders expect to see in the months ahead. Klick Health medical director Dr. Gautam Gulati. Read more via this link

Videocalls on steroids for healthcare?

An 8K screen, four GPUs, four microphones, and a whole bunch of cameras, could be helpful for healthcare remote consultations?

In a?new research paper, Google has detailed the tech behind its impressive Project Starline demo from?this year’s I/O conference. Project Starline is essentially a 3D video chat booth that aims to replace a one-on-one 2D video conference call with an experience that feels like you’re actually sitting in front of a real human being.

I definitely see this happening in rural medical centers, and when technology shrinks also embedded in our homes (remember Jetsons?) Read more via this link.

Here's a profession you might've not seen done remotely

Yes of course I see that one coming, probably just like you. But seeing this materialize at scale now was impressive to see. These semi-autonomous capability lets drivers monitor and control the Pod remotely and on-demand, allowing for a more regular work environment while staying closer to home. Read more via this link.

Just how effective is digital mental health support and intervention??

Dr. Kate Bunyan, chief clinical innovation officer at Doctor Care Anywhere, shares her expertise to answer the key questions. 'Technology also then enables us to look at well how can we knit together the pathways, as healthcare is really complicated. But if we're going to make it work for people, we need to use technology to put the complicated bit on the back end and make it really seamless for the user on the front end. So you don't need to think about where you need to get to and how you get around the system, that's taken care of, and technology lends itself to that pathway integration process, streamlining all of that.'?Read more via this link.

Shameless self-promotion...

It has been an extraordinary year, again. It feels like a rollercoaster ran over all of us in healthcare, especially those of us at the forefront. Next to my work for the hospitals, I work at, next to my role for Deloitte and HIMSS, a chunk of my roles are my speaking activities since 2009. For a long, I had the ambition to combine a bit about these roles into one video, also to be used to see if there would be a fit for your conference or gathering. As the holidays approached, I actually had another (7th) episode of kidney stones, luckily not as much as this guy in India, but still.

Killing time as the meds kicked in, I had to wait for them to descend unless another OR was/is needed (work in the process now). So partially in bed, I was able to finalize my 2022 video reel about my speaking activities. Will still be tailoring it, but what do you think?

That's all for now folks! Wishing you happy, healthy, and safe holidays and 2022