Karel's HealthTech Chronicles #7: "Revealed: The Future of Medicine in Smart Hospitals – The Vision of What's Coming!"

Rapid development in healthcare and incoming new technologies forced me to the idea of creating a definition of a smart hospital based on the current state of the art. Here is my vision.

1. Definition of the Role

Even if we are passionate about new technology, we cannot forget the purpose of our existence. Now I mean our industry. We are here to make people healthy, to help them maintain their healthy conditions, and support them if they are in need. You may ask why the definition of the role is so important. It is simple. The role defines the design. Therefore, a clear definition of the purpose will lead us to correctly build a hospital and its processes. Let's declare it one more time: We are here to help people stay healthy as long as possible. ??

2. It Starts Outside the Hospital

I promised to write about smart hospitals, and I think it is quite symbolic that it all starts outside the hospital. A smart hospital communicates with people remotely and helps them support their health to even avoid the situation where people will need its services. It's very important to realize that a hospital is the last instance, and we can do a lot to prevent people from needing it. We can create a comprehensive preventive program, personalized to deliver the best results for every individual. With big data, we can connect remote vital functions monitoring, lab results, x-rays, and much more to create individual health plans for everybody. Later, we can also add gene therapies. This will create a whole new world we have yet no idea about. The medicine will not be only about the facilities; it will discover the big outside world. Communication will also be completely different. Everybody will have an app with easy access to medical care. Digital companions will be as ordinary as bank apps nowadays. I wonder if we can expect apps like Uber or Booking in healthcare. "I need a dentist, please." "Sure, let's have a look and find the best and fastest offers you can get in your city." Of course, we still have to bear in mind that it's about healthcare and sophisticated treatment, but it's good to be inspired by other industries. ????

3. Predictive Medicine

We can stay outside the hospital a while yet. Predictive medicine will be a real thing. AI loves patterns and can detect them among millions of others. We can teach machines to see these patterns in the data of millions of people to let us know what they find. We all know the known fact, the earlier we know about a problem, the better we can solve it. Predictive medicine is about letting us know there can be a risk, so we talk about a comprehensive system of alerts for people to help us act. Sure, it will not be easy to build such a system. We will have to find out how to distinguish between real problems and false alerts. We will also get too much information, which can lead to confusion. Nevertheless, predictive medicine will be a cornerstone part of prevention. ??

4. And One More Outside the Hospital - Chronic Disease Management Apps

Unfortunately, too many people suffer from chronic diseases. Modern medicine has to find a way to break this circle. Before we find the cure, we have to offer some help now. It's personalized chronic disease health management plans provided by apps. All major chronic diseases will have their own apps soon. They will help you with everything you can imagine: planning doctor's visits, not forgetting medication, exercises, nutrition, mental health, and much more. You will get a stronger supporter than you could ever imagine. ????

5. Direct Communication with the Hospital

Even if we do everything, from time to time we need some intervention. It's not easy now for people outside healthcare to reach the proper doctor's office. This is going to change. A dedicated app will help patients reach the right doctor and nurse instantly. The app will do a basic initial triage of the patient's needs. It is very useful and will enhance the efficiency of healthcare operations within the hospital. ??????

6. Doctor's Office Visit or Admission

What a process now. How much information we still need to repeat whenever we enter a doctor's office. This will not be necessary in the future. Our electronic health records will be available worldwide, and doctors will be informed about the major facts before we see them. AI tools will real-time discover relevant data. Doctors will also see all the supportive summaries prepared by the machines. It will be a significant booster of the quality of healthcare. Admission to the hospital will also be different. We all feel the lack of information before we are admitted to the hospital. We lack information about the stay in the hospital, about the treatments, simply almost everything. There will be strong guidance with all the possible information. We will exactly know what to expect

. We will also be able to see authentic stories from other patients who underwent the treatment we are going to get. In general, the art of information in healthcare will change in all aspects. ????

7. We Are Finally Coming to the Hospital Operations - Let's Start with Doctors and Nurses

We have to start with the most important ones, doctors and nurses, as they represent the most important "business unit" in healthcare. Their work will be much more supported in the future. It will be finally really paperless, and many daily routine activities will be fully automated like, for instance, gathering vital function measurements. Hospital information systems will change. The frontend will finally look like modern apps. The backends will provide useful data. All tools like AI language models, generative AI, voice-to-text tools, and Natural Language Processing will be fully implemented. What's the difference between today and the future? Today, doctors get info, well, there are many supportive tools, find your best ones. In the future, they will get a comprehensive suite of tools at one place called Digital Doctor. It will be the same for the nurses. ??????

8. Digital Diagnostics

Diagnostics will be fully enhanced and executed by machines. Diagnostics is one of the healthcare fields that will change most significantly. It will combine the advantages of both people and machines. Machines will be able to see patterns and combine data from different sources. Imagine the fusion of data from labs, CTs, MRIs, X-rays, and all other devices. And even through time. And then add a human's eye to it. It's mind-blowing what we are going to see. ????

9. Digital Treatments

Each treatment requires good planning. Now it's going to be automated. The doctor will see the draft of the treatment based on the assessment of all possible sources, customized for the patient. The plan will fully comply with all guidelines since they will be implemented in a planning module. All physical treatments like surgery will be fully 3D visualized. If necessary, doctors will be able to train for an operation prior to the execution in a controlled environment. Also, 3D models printed on 3D printers will be available. It will lead to more precise and accurate medicine. There will also be a tool combining predictive and acute medicine. We will be warned about possible hospital-acquired infections and will immediately get drafts of possible interventions. Acute medicine will now be based on millions of best practices. Yet, the doctor will still have a leading role in the process. ????

10. Robotic Medicine

I am a huge fan of robotic surgery, therefore I cannot forget about it. Robotic surgery is on the rise. Soon we are going to see more and more diagnoses that can be treated by robots. Sooner or later, there will be fully automated treatments executed by robots. We cannot forget that robotic medicine doesn't have to be about big things. It can also be about small ones like pumps, syringes, or local anesthesia. ????

11. VR and AR

Let's start with VR. It has been a long journey. The technology of VR is known for many years, but it finally pays off very much in recent years. There are use cases in rehabilitation, physiotherapy, education, communication during demanding situations, and I believe many more will come. It's a whole new world of our senses. We will get a unique space for our healing. The same excitement and potential I feel with AR. It has the potential to merge the benefits of our real world with those of the virtual one. It can help us as patients and also doctors and nurses. Imagine operations with state-of-the-art AR apps. Imagine their planning. Imagine navigation systems delivered directly onto our glasses. I am thrilled by the opportunities. ?????

12. Remote Healthcare

As I wrote about what we can do before the patient arrives at the hospital, we cannot forget to talk about what we can do after they leave the hospital. We can do a lot already now. Telehealth is quite a common thing. It will be much wider in the future. So far, it's about diagnostics. But imagine we can even deliver some interventions remotely. The hospital healthcare is now in our minds connected to the building, facility. In the future, it will be different thanks to remote hospital care. It's worth observing the development in wearables. It takes some time to invent them, but to be honest, we already see many that we could not have imagined. ??????

13. AI in Healthcare

AI in healthcare is a real game-changer. So far, we see use cases like AI in Radiology, Endoscopy, predictive medicine, customized individual GPTs based on guidelines, but

much more is coming. Therefore, I have to mention it in this special paragraph. AI will help us provide the best medicine possible. We just need to find the best use cases. But AI may also help us with this task. ????

14. Hospital Management and Support Systems

A very important part of the smart hospital. It's all about the resources and efficiency of their allocations. We are back to the purpose of the industry. We are responsible for finding ways to deliver the best healthcare with the resources we have. It all starts with budget planning of OPEX and CAPEX and continues with detailed planning of all the parts of the financial life of the hospital. If we want to do that properly, we have to go one step back. We need the right data for it. It's not only about ERP systems. We can now add smart logistics, RFID tracking, Internet of Medical Things . It will help us get data about the utilization of our resources like devices, drugs, medical materials, but it will also help us understand the processes of our hospital in-depth. Smart logistics contain all these processes, including smart storages and just-in-time delivery of drugs to patients. There is so much to explore in hospital logistics. There is one more interesting area: Hospital BIs. So far, we struggle. BIs do not have enough quality data. The time we need for the preparation of some overview is so long that we do not have enough energy to make their assessment. It will be different in the future. We will get all the dashboards automatically. We will even have the tools for further work with the data coming from those dashboards. Not only will the tools be different, the entire flow will be changed, and we are going to work differently. ????

15. Healthcare Total Management

I was always thinking about how to deliver the best management results. And then I started to understand it. It's only possible if we merge medical and non-medical knowledge with the industry. We have to merge the know-how of doctors, nurses, medical workers, and management. We all have to talk about the healthcare we provide. Only this merged knowledge can help us solve the complexity of our industry. I know it's not an easy field, it's even hard to imagine what it means. Let's talk about an example. For instance, gastroenterology. The head of the department knows the historical development of this specialization, sees the major diagnoses, the current development, and can foresee the future one. Management can add some financial data and a comprehensive analysis of resources used by gastroenterology in the past. And now we set the questions. How to prepare the hospital for the future demand on our services? This is our goal. So we all come together, doctors, nurses, experts on finance, reimbursement, biomedical engineering. And we are going to create a long-term strategy for the gastroenterology department. Only if we combine all this knowledge, only in this case can our strategy for gastroenterology be complex. We should start with the departments and then look at the entire hospital. And if we manage a chain of hospitals, we can do that even at that level. Thanks to the involvement of all the experts working in healthcare, I call it Total Healthcare Management. ????

16. Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement is something that is in the DNA of healthcare. We witness this every day. So this bullet point is not about changing the industry. It's about opening it to the knowledge coming from other industries. TQM (Total Quality Management), Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing/Lean Management, Six Sigma, PDCA Cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act), 5S, Value Stream Mapping, Benchmarking, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Root Cause Analysis (RCA), Balanced Scorecard, Theory of Constraints (TOC), Gemba Walk, Quality Circles, Statistical Process Control (SPC), and many more can be applied in healthcare. Let's use their advantages. ????

17. Some Other Technology - Blockchain

At the end, we cannot forget to mention technologies that are not yet so visible or explored. One of them is definitely Blockchain. Look at these use cases of Blockchain: Patient Data Management, Supply Chain Management, Clinical Trials and Research Data Management, Consent Management, Interoperability, Billing and Claims Management, Credentialing of Healthcare Professionals, Personal Health Record (PHR) Systems, Remote Monitoring and IoT Integration, Genomics Research, Smart Contracts for Healthcare Services. I am sure we are going to see some new technology coming that we have no idea about yet. ????

Summary

So, this is my humble vision of the smart hospital of the future. It is based on my current knowledge of the industry. It's definitely not a comprehensive overview of smart hospital characteristics, but hopefully, it's enough to inspire and trigger further discussion. I would be more than happy to share this topic with you. It's my real passion. I would greatly appreciate it if you could share with me your insights, ideas, and thoughts. For me, this overview is the real masterpiece of my know-how. Thanks to everyone who read this article to the very end. Let's talk together about the future of smart hospitals, not forgetting their purpose and why they exist. ??????

Annotation of "Revealed: The Future of Medicine in Smart Hospitals – The Vision of What's Coming"

This article presents a detailed vision of the future of healthcare through the lens of 'smart hospitals.' It begins by establishing the fundamental role of healthcare in society and the impact of rapidly advancing technology on this sector. The author highlights the importance of integrating these advancements to enhance patient care, emphasizing the shift from traditional hospital settings to more dynamic, technology-driven environments.

Key points discussed include:

1. Preventive and Predictive Medicine: Utilizing big data and AI for early detection and prevention of diseases, shifting the focus from treatment to prevention.
2. Remote Healthcare: The expansion of telemedicine and its role in making healthcare more accessible and efficient.
3. Personalized Treatment Plans: Leveraging AI and digital data to create customized treatment plans for patients.
4. Advanced Diagnostic Tools: The use of AI, VR, and other cutting-edge technologies in diagnostics.
5. Efficient Healthcare Management: Streamlining hospital operations through digital tools for better resource allocation and patient flow management.
6. Robotic Assistance in Healthcare: The role of robotics in surgeries and routine hospital tasks.
7. Enhanced Patient Experience: Improving patient care through digital interfaces and patient-centered technologies.

The article concludes with a reflection on the potential of these technologies to revolutionize healthcare and an invitation for further discussion on the future of smart hospitals.

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