The health care frontier has gone through a revolution because of computer technology. The way we obtain information about conditions or diseases that are of personal interest has changed dramatically due to the ability of all of us to navigate the internet. Of the one million plus apps for smartphones, there are thousands related to health, healthcare, medications, and disease. As of 2020, 84 million people have used healthcare apps.
No longer is there information inequality, where the physician or caregiver has a monopoly on knowledge. Any literate person with internet access can learn almost anything—from diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis, to side effects and complications—about a medical subject of interest to them. There are programs that can give you an accurate assessment of your physiological age and your life expectancy. Just check out the RealAge test.
And you can be location agnostic which means that you can obtain information no matter what kind of digital device you have—smartphone, iPad, laptop, or desktop computer. There are now more smartphones in the world than toilets, according to Dr. Eric Topol’s 2015 book, “The Patient Will See You Now.” Probably that is because almost no one shares their smartphone.
There are also many attachments which add a powerful set of tools. An “otoscope,” for example, can be added to the camera portion of your smartphone and enable you to take a picture of someone’s eardrum, email the image in the middle of the night, and have a quick diagnosis with a subsequent prescription emailed to your nearby pharmacy, thereby avoiding a visit to the emergency room.
Another attachment to a smartphone is a device that can evaluate your heart rhythm just by placing your fingers on the back of your phone. You can even email the rhythm strip to a computer for instant interpretation. This technology device is compact, quick, convenient, and costs only a couple of hundred dollars for the device. Smartwatches and other wearables have the same capacity plus can detect an unexpected fall.
Dermatology has taken up the use of technology much the same way described above in looking at an eardrum. Take a picture of your rash or bump and email it to the dermatologist. A minority of patients will need to follow up with an in-person visit, but most are done electronically. Insurance companies initially were slow to cover these consultations but that has changed. Remember when we used to have little bank books with deposits or withdrawals recorded by the bank teller or taking camera film to the drug store to be developed? Now these practices are relics of the past.
Doctor On Demand was a novel computer site in 2017 where a person could Skype or FaceTime with a physician and present his/her medical problems. COVID was terrible in many ways but did accelerate virtual visits. Eighteen of the twenty most common problems for which patients go to an emergency room can be treated by using virtual technology. Just share your complaint, allergies, medications, and a credit card to be billed—and you are quickly connected with a physician for a diagnosis and treatment plan.
We are just at the beginning of a revolution focused on “disruptive innovation,” which will turn the traditional manner of receiving care upside down. Home monitoring and “hospitalizations” at home—in your own bedroom, with telemetric monitoring—are now available. Technology has preceded our adaptation. After all, we were able to monitor an astronaut on the other side of the moon in 1969, so knowing your vital signs from across town is not a big deal.
There is much more to come, with apps being just an early way to lead us to better care at a lower cost for all concerned. Stay tuned.
