'Digital health' encompasses a multitude of approaches. At the Digital Health Forum meeting in London in June, Jack Young, of San Diego–based Qualcomm Ventures, identified categories that range from applications for sensor-enabled smartphones through data management, analytics and changes in healthcare delivery. All imply massive data capture and analyses that extend far beyond existing patient treatment and management paradigms. “Your body is basically giving tweets all the time about your vitals. What do we do with all those data?” Young asks. Apple, of Cupertino, California, on September 9, released an app that takes a stab at centralizing all those data. The HealthKit body-monitoring system, pulls together health and fitness information—blood pressure readings, weight, body fat, calorie intake, existing medical conditions and sleep patterns—under one framework.
But despite this and other smartphone, iPad, video-based technologies, adoption so far has been slow. For new companies braving the market, “The biggest strategic challenge here is focus,” says Arthur Hiller, chief business officer at Geppetto Avatars, a Mequon, Wisconsin–based startup, which aims to improve patient management and patient monitoring through the use of digital avatars powered by artificial intelligence. “The reality is we could do a thousand different things,” he says. Geppetto has developed a platform that integrates myriad technologies, including natural language processing, facial recognition, voice-to-text recognition and biometric data analysis, as well as insights from social psychology and behavioral science, into a 'digital doctor', which can interact with patients through ordinary speech and video. Two beta customers are already using the technology in undisclosed settings, and a first commercial version is due to ship this fall.
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