6 Major Health Tech Trends in 2024 – This And More News In Digital Health This Week

Breaking news from a personal front: I'm thrilled to announce the arrival of our son last week! To enjoy these special moments and be there for my family, I'm on paternity leave until the first week of January. I'll be back next year, with fully charged batteries - and hopefully not too sleep-deprived.

Before checking out for the year, we wanted to share a bit of lighthearted fun. We've created a short video that illustrates a typical morning at The Medical Futurist.

As we approach the holiday season, I want to extend my warmest wishes to all of you. Happy holidays and a Happy New Year! See you in January, and dive into another exciting year of digital health innovation.

TOP 6 MEDICAL TRENDS TO WATCH FOR 2024

With only a few weeks remaining of this year and 2024 already well in sight, it is time to take a look at the most important medical innovations that are worthy of our attention in the coming months.

Following last year’s list, we collected 6 medical innovations that are the most significant at the moment in terms of shaping how healthcare is delivered.

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THE CURRENT STATE OF ALMOST 700 FDA-APPROVED, AI-BASED MEDICAL DEVICES

The FDA, a global leader in healthcare regulation, is adapting its framework to include AI-based medical devices, with nearly 700 approvals to date, indicating an acknowledgment of AI’s expanding role in healthcare.?

Radiology leads in AI device approvals reflecting deep learning’s applicability in image-based diagnostics, while the 510(k) submission pathway is predominant due to its streamlined process for devices similar to existing ones.

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INVEST IN DIGITAL HEALTH - THE MEDICAL FUTURIST'S GUIDE

This guide is aimed to serve as an executive summary for those interested in investing in digital health. In it we discuss reasons to invest in this industry; analyse 24 technological trends we consider the most promising; take a closer look at famous and notorious examples of companies that succeeded brilliantly or failed tragically in the industry; and the lessons investors can learn from them.??

From the impact of the pandemic to companies that leave a bitter taste in investors’ mouths following unfulfilled promises, anyone interested in digital health can get additional insights by analysing investments in the field.

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INTRODUCTION TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN MEDICINE AND HEALTHCARE

Want to get comfortable regarding AI and how we'll use it in the future of medicine? Come and join our course which was designed to give structured knowledge in an easy-to-grasp manner.

Come as you are, no previous knowledge or coding skills are necessary, we go for the scientific understanding and prepare you to make the most of this revolution.

ENROLL NOW

GOOGLE IS ROLLING OUT NEW AI MODELS FOR HEALTH CARE. HERE'S HOW DOCTORS ARE USING THEM

Google just announced another set of healthcare (probably generative) AI models! It is called MedLM and involves new healthcare-specific AI models designed to help clinicians and researchers carry out complex studies, and summarize doctor-patient interactions, among others.

"The MedLM suite includes a large and a medium-sized AI model, both built on Med-PaLM 2, a large language model trained on medical data that Google first announced in March. It is generally available to eligible Google Cloud customers in the U.S. starting Wednesday, and Google said while the cost of the AI suite varies depending on how companies use the different models, the medium-sized model is less expensive to run."

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A STANDARD MORNING AT THE MEDICAL FUTURIST

"Aoun, who cofounded San Francisco-based health tech startup Forward in 2016 and today announced a fresh $100 million in funding to bring 25 of these pods to malls across the country, compares his healthcare approach to what Elon Musk is building at Tesla.".

Here is what I don't understand: Why build very expensive kiosks with medical technologies inside (let's not even focus on regulating these for now to make the case simpler) when patients can obtain almost all of the data through the technologies they already own?

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FDA APPROVES FIRST GENE THERAPIES TO TREAT PATIENTS WITH SICKLE CELL DISEASE

After the UK, the United States' FDA also approved the first CRISPR-based therapies to treat sickle cell disease.

"CRISPR/Cas9 can be directed to cut DNA in targeted areas, enabling the ability to accurately edit DNA where it was cut. The modified blood stem cells are transplanted back into the patient where they engraft within the bone marrow and increase the production of fetal hemoglobin (HbF), a type of hemoglobin that facilitates oxygen delivery. In patients with sickle cell disease, increased levels of HbF prevent the sickling of red blood cells."

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MORE NEWS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE

REMOVE BLOOD CLOTS –? Miniature marvels: Wireless millirobots successfully navigate arteries

JUNIOR SENSORS? –? Littlebird Connected Care Reveals the Littlebird Marlon: The Pinnacle of Digital Health Wearables for Children

E-SKIN – Healthcare robot with ‘sense of touch’ could reduce infection spread European hospital pilot launches to support clinicians with patient care

ALL MILESTONES – The Timeline Of Digital Health In One Infographics