Digital

From Code to Cell: How Digital Innovations Are Transforming Healthcare

Alana — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 11:37:22 +0000

From Code to Cell: How Digital Innovations Are Transforming Healthcare Alana Wed, 06/07/2022 - 11:37

Creating a brand new digital you

Imagine a digital version of yourself, living in a virtual space, growing and developing autonomously in parallel to your own existence. In a concept born from science fiction and brought to reality by NASA, virtual replicas of human beings are now being created. While NASA have virtual replicas of their spacecrafts which allow engineers to model and solve technical problems that emerge up in space, healthcare vendors are working towards creating virtual patients, allowing medical professionals to try out different treatments on patients without consequences in reality. This approach is set to become important in the world of personalized medicine.

Unreal Engine (a 3D computer graphics game engine) is also advancing virtual human technology by creating weirdly realistic digital people such as Ana, their hyper-realistic virtual human capable of deep learning. This is an advance of their work in metaverse development, and it could also be used to create a digital twin that looks spookily like you.

Robotic technology continues to make us question what it is to be human

The University of Oxford and robotics company, Devanthro, have recently used robot technology to grow human tendon tissue.

Doctors also successfully transplanted a 3D-printed ear made from human cells onto a woman born with a rare ear deformity. 3DBio. Therapeutics launched the first clinical trial of this technology, heralding the success as a major step forward in tissue engineering.

Meanwhile, researchers in Spain are using nanobots to kill off bacterial infections. A new study shows that self-powered nanobots could be very useful for delivering targeted antibiotics to fight infections, as well as getting drugs to exactly where they need to be in the body to be maximally effective.

Highlights from WWDC 2022 (Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference)

Apple held its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June and presented their new “Medications” feature. Available on Apple Watch and iPhone, the feature allows users to manage their medications and supplements, as well as receive reminders. Apple also announced a new atrial fibrillation history feature which was recently cleared by the FDA and plans to integrate this into the upcoming watchOS 9.

The FDA has also recently approved the Apple Watch to track Parkinson’s symptoms. Neurology start-up Rune Labs’ Parkinson’s tracking app “StrivePD” collects motion data from the watch and along with self-reported experiences, brain imaging and other clinical information, will help improve care management.

Apple also announced the Passkey feature to eliminate passwords across platforms, allowing users to log in to all of their Apple devices without a password. Developers are to start implementing Passkey later in 2022.

Interesting developments in healthcare AI

Sanofi are partnering with AI firm, Yseop, to use AI to automate parts of clinical trial report writing. The aim is to speed up the clinical study submission processes by using Yseop’s natural language processing system to analyze data and automate the production of key documentation.

Eli Lilly has partnered with Sidekick Health to offer personalized management apps for breast cancer patients. Alongside access to educational content developed with advocacy groups and clinicians, the program will promote tasks focused on physical activity, diet, sleep and stress management, as well as adherence. The app uses gamification to reward healthy habits among people participating in clinical trials and is set to launch in Germany in July.

In 2019, a kidney disease screening tool called RetiKid was developed by SERI and the National University of Singapore's School of Computing. The tool was trained with over 23,000 retinal images from nearly 12,000 participants in Singapore and China. In a recent internal test, the AI was shown to have an accuracy of 91%. The team intend to use RetiKid as a preliminary screening test for CKD, especially in high-risk groups such as patients with diabetes.

Retinal scans are also being used by an AI firm in New Zealand to assess heart risk. Their tool, “ORAiCLE”, uses an AI platform to pick up subtle changes in blood vessels and pigmentation to identify cardiovascular threats more accurately and assess a person’s risk of stroke or heart attack.

And there are more crazy, interesting ideas out there in Digitaland

According to a recent study published in JAMA, regular electronic symptom-tracking surveys improved the health-related quality of life among cancer patients. In a randomized trial that included 52 practices and 1191 patients, researchers found statistically significant improvements in quality of life after three months.

In the UK’s Lake District, the Great North Air Ambulance Service is sending paramedics to save lives using jetsuits. Wearing the suit, a paramedic can get to a stranded patient at the top of a mountain in just 3 minutes and 30 seconds, versus around 1 hour 20 minutes on foot.

Medtronic has partnered with DaVita to launch new kidney tech company. They aim to develop a range of new kidney care tech, focusing on at-home treatments to make dialysis more easily accessible.

Big Health’s Sleepio app has been given backing by NICE for use in England. This app is designed to help the 800,000 individuals suffering from insomnia and provides an alternative to prescribed, potentially habit-forming sleeping pills. The app is a six-week digital cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) course that includes a sleep test and weekly interactive CBT sessions, alongside a diary of users’ sleep patterns.

June 15th was a momentous day for developers worldwide as Microsoft finally killed off its legacy web browser Internet Explorer after 27 years.

Stay tuned for next month’s dose of all things digital!

#WordFromTheWeb

At AS&K, one of our key values is Being Curious ‒ asking what if, why not, could we? The Word From the Web blog series is one example of how we are horizon scanning and infusing the latest innovations within our medical communication services. Want to learn more about how AS&K can help you stay in front of the latest trends? Contact our Business Development Director, Alana Zdinak at alana.zdinak@asandk.com today!

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Katherine Vik - Digital Project Director

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A Question of Ethics: AI and Health Apps Are Raising Big Questions

Alana — Tue, 31 May 2022 09:57:20 +0000

A Question of Ethics: AI and Health Apps Are Raising Big Questions Alana Tue, 31/05/2022 - 09:57

From tech equality to data protection, here's what's new in healthcare

Unless you’ve been living under a technology-phobic rock, you’ll no doubt have heard of artificial intelligence (AI). The concept of AI is best described as the simulation of human intelligence by machines through the combination of vast amounts of data with super-fast data processing and intelligent algorithms. AI software constantly consumes data like a curious child, learning from patterns in such data. Similarly, machine learning relies on human (programmer) teaching to feed the data and give instructions to enable the AI to learn, make decisions or take actions.

AI and healthcare have long been friends. There are AI systems that can scan in excess of 100,000 lung x-rays and identify anomalies in the dataset that could be evidence of cancer, with greater accuracy than clinicians. AI is also increasingly being used to reduce the administrative burden that drives physician burnout. AI-powered voice solutions like Suki work to reduce doctors’ documentation workload and improve access to patient information.

But consideration of ethics has long been a persistent area of contention in the world of AI. The first large-scale legislation has recently been announced, with The European Union planning a legal act that aims to avoid the worst harms associated with AI; however, It will be at least another year before a final text is set in stone, and a couple more years before businesses will have to comply. Click for table reference.

And in the world of wearable tech…

Could wearable tech be helping or hindering healthcare equality? On one side, a man has built his own bionic hand out of melted plastic bottles, and he is now selling custom 3D-printed hands to others for as little as $800. Meanwhile, researchers have been warning that access to wearables could become a social determinant of health. Scientists from the US National Institutes of Health's "All of Us" program found that cost and technology awareness could be a barrier to broad adoption of digital health devices.

Next up in question: The integrity of health apps, particularly when it comes to women’s rights 

It turns out data Marketplace has been selling information on who uses period tracking apps - a breach of data rights that could potentially help anti-abortionist campaigners identify the individual users of apps and their menstrual patterns. This kind of data breach could be catastrophic for women’s rights in a post Roe vs. Wade America. 

Researchers found that most popular women’s health apps don’t meet basic privacy and security standards. In this study 20 of the 23 apps reviewed shared data with third parties, only 16 displayed a privacy policy, and three collected data before consent. 

Some recent mobile app-based health studies have also been hampered by low participant engagement and retention rates. In one large-scale study, mean engagement with the app in question lasted just 4.1 days. 

Meanwhile the tech behemoths are never idle

Keeping us entertained is the Elon Musk Twitter soap opera. Elon Musk may have bought Twitter for $43 billion, or maybe not (as he is currently arguing with the company about how genuine their user statistics are). Curious about the future of Twitter? This podcast is a great listen.

The days of passwords may soon be cut short as Apple, Google and Microsoft set out to make “Passkey” the new standard. The scheme would mean the app or website that you're logging in to would push a request to your phone for authentication - these capabilities are planned to go live later this year.

On the subject of stricter security, “pay with your face” is becoming reality as Mastercard launches tech that lets you pay in stores using your face or hand. The program is already live in five St Marche grocery stores in Sao Paulo, Brazil and it is planned to roll out globally later this year.

Finally… if you’ve ever been anxious about when to show up to the party…

The Atlantic have (with the help of mathematicians) made an interactive calculator that can tell you the best time to turn up at a party. Are you keen to be early? Or prefer to be fashionably late? This tool will give you the max mins for when to arrive to have a good time. Geeks these days don’t want to waste a minute!

#WordFromTheWeb

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Katherine Vik - Digital Project Director

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Google Health, Good Vibrations and Gastroenterology: The Latest in Healthcare Innovation

admin — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 16:58:34 +0000

Google Health, Good Vibrations and Gastroenterology: The Latest in Healthcare Innovation admin Tue, 26/04/2022 - 16:58

From Google to Amazon, the giants are getting serious about healthcare innovation

In recent years, Google and their parent company Alphabet have been seriously investing in the health sector. Google Health – conceived in 2006, discontinued in 2012 and restarted in 2018 – “is committed to helping billions of people be healthier through products and services that connect individuals and bring meaning to health information”.

Initially, Google Health sought to analyze people’s health data, but the latest incarnation is more focused on health-related artificial intelligence research, developing technological clinical tools and creating partnerships within the healthcare sector. The organization focuses on four primary areas:

Consumer health tools: Google completed their acquisition of Fitbit in 2021, and they aim to provide individuals with information to make informed health and lifestyle choices
Clinical tools: developing clinical tools in partnership with doctors and clinicians
Imaging and diagnostics, including using artificial intelligence
A research group

At the end of March 2021, they staged their second “Check Up” event. This year, they focused on how Fitbit is supporting heart health, improving access to health information and care, how YouTube is making high quality health information available to everyone, and the equality of access to health information worldwide. Some of their more recent advances include a radar to help computers read human body language and an AI dermatology assistant. You can also see how they are using AI to turn smartphones into stethoscopes and other at-home disease screening tools, including for diabetic and heart valve disorders.

Although it’s not just the Google gang who’ve got their foot on the gas...

Research was recently presented at American College of Cardiology’s 71st Annual Scientific Session (ACC), which showed that wearable-device data on heart rate and rhythm may be less accurate for people with darker skin tones. Researchers reviewed ten previously published studies involving a total of 469 participants and concluded that "algorithms are often developed in homogeneous white populations, which may lead to results that are not as generalizable as we would like."

The #ACC2022 also saw the release of results of a massive Chinese smartwatch study, which had screened more than 2.8 million participants for signs of atrial fibrillation.

Have you ever thought you would take your medicine by hearing it?

Most likely not, but in a new study, researchers have been experimenting with audio “digital drugs” - using digital sounds to feed conflicting sound frequencies into each ear. By tuning in to these 'binaural beats', patients found that it reduced pain, enhanced memory and eased anxiety and depression.

In the social media world, TikTok has launched a music distribution platform, SoundOn which allows artists to upload their music directly to multiple streaming platforms. SoundOn will distribute the music for free and pay 100% of royalties to its creators. TikTok has also expanded its maximum video length to 10 minutes, challenging YouTube with longer-form content. YouTube has hit back by introducing short-form videos to compete with TikTok.

Amazon is jumping on the bandwagon too having just recently entered the live-audio industry with its new “Amp” app. This is Amazon's answer to Clubhouse, Greenroom and Spaces.

AI continues to amaze...

Medtronic hopes to cut down on the inaccuracies in a standard colonoscopy through the use of AI. Their new device claims to increase the number of precancerous polyps detected during a colonoscopy according to research recently published in Gastroenterology – the journal for the American Gastroenterological Association.

Meanwhile, researchers have used AI to map people's subjective experiences while using psychedelics to specific regions of the brain, with the aim of finding new psychiatric treatments. It has been found that psychedelics can dramatically reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Last, but not least...

Researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the University of Western Australia are aiming to 3D print artificial heart valves made from a patient’s own cells that grow as the individual ages.

Finally, next time you want to speak to a doctor, ask Alexa! Amazon has partnered with Teladoc health so that users with an Amazon Echo device can ask to speak to a doctor for non-emergent medical care, and Alexa will connect them with the Teladoc call center. This is the technology’s first attempt at providing on-demand general medical care.

That’s all for this month. Check back in May for more inspiring innovation!

#WordFromTheWeb

At AS&K, one of our key values is Being Curious ‒ asking what if, why not, could we? The Word From the Web blog series is one example of how we are horizon scanning and infusing the latest innovations throughout our medical communication services. Want to learn more about how AS&K can help you stay in front of the latest trends? Contact our Business Development Director, Alana Zdinak at alana.zdinak@asandk.com today!

Author name and role

Katherine Vik - Digital Project Director

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Heroic HTML: Waging War Against Misinformation

admin — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 15:49:03 +0000

Heroic HTML: Waging War Against Misinformation admin Thu, 31/03/2022 - 15:49

Messaging in a time of war - how digital transformation has created a new battlefront

Since the digital age began, the way we learn, communicate and view the world has transformed. Over recent weeks, it has become increasingly clear how the world’s digital metamorphosis offers power to the people in previously unprecedented ways.

An example of this is Telegram, a multi-platform messaging app  like WhatsApp which offers channels that enable a single user, or a group of users, to communicate with large numbers of people. In the latest published analytics on Statista, Telegram is the second most popular messaging app in the world based on the number of monthly downloads, with an estimated 550 million monthly users.

One of its biggest features is  privacy and the employment of end-to-end encryption which is what stops those outside of the conversation from seeing what has been sent. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Telegram started a news channel to  share the latest war news 24 hours a day. This has become an essential source of information for Ukrainian citizens, and messages from verified Ukrainian government accounts and politicians are helping to keep people safe, counter potential Russian disinformation, and warn of emerging threats.

Much has been written recently about the influence and use of digital technologies to spread information, misinformation, influence, report, and hold truth to account. Ukrainians around the world talk about  fighting an information war  and social media platforms are making changes to  stop misinformation online  to an extent never seen before. 

Meanwhile, in other social media news…

A Digital Opinion Leader (DOL) is an online influencer who is an HCP or someone who influences public health, policies, or public health implementation. The pandemic has accelerated this trend and the importance of DOLs has increased but it can be hard to find the most relevant opinion leaders.

'Digital sleuthing' helps to connect with the right social media influencers  and this company uses artificial intelligence to sift through millions of social media conversations to help companies find the most impactful DOLs in their relevant disease areas.

But how willing are consumers to dish out their data? Well, in a study published by JAMA, it was noted that consumers are reluctant to share their social media data for health-related use. It was also noted that they are more willing to share physical activity data like step count data than other types of information.

From home to hospital, healthcare gadgets are the helping heroes

TV watching has a bad rap when it comes to physical health implications, but soon, TVs are to be used as  remote care platforms for doctor patient interactions. TV-sized screens help minimize the downsides of virtual visits for doctors as patients can easily stand, move around and show the HCP more of their body.

And help around the house doesn’t stop there! This new personal boxy bot carries stuff around your house and aims to  help people with mobility issues  live more independently.

On the subject of movement and mobility, there’s been monumental moves from Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain chip firm, as it lines up  clinical trials in humans for implants that could allow paralyzed people to walk.

Things are changing in the operating room too! Medtronic's  Hugo surgery robot  was recently used in its first European procedure.

In the dermatology space,  Claro  is a new free, and clinically verified,  digital tool to support psoriasis patients  to improve their mental wellbeing. Produced by Almirall in partnership with Happify, it aims to provide a meaningful and fun experience to teach patients how to cope with psoriasis in a more positive way.

Additionally, Verily, Alphabet's life-science subsidiary, is teaming up with L'Oréal to improve understanding of skin care and develop new digital tools in the dermatology market.

 Sometimes it’s good to get personal

MIT says, when it comes to voice tech, the more social behaviors a voice interface exhibits,  the more likely people are to trust it  and engage with it, and consider it to be competent.

Corsight AI says they are capable of devising  a solution for using DNA to create a model of a face!

Next time we pop to the pub, let us print you a drink?

Finally, are you looking for ideas to increase office attendance? We reckon this one might help! The company Cana has unveiled a molecular beverage printer, described as a ‘Netflix for Drinks’, that can make any type of drink the user wants. It uses a single cartridge filled with flavor compounds that the inventors claim can make a nearly infinite number of drinks.

Cheers - until next month!

#WordFromTheWeb

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Katherine Vik - Digital Project Director

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Drones With Defibrillators and Disinterested Doctors in the Digital World of 2022

admin — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 17:38:11 +0000

Drones With Defibrillators and Disinterested Doctors in the Digital World of 2022 admin Tue, 25/01/2022 - 17:38

Disease regression, drones with defibrillators and disinterested doctors? Welcome to the digital world of 2022.

2022 is already making a name for itself in the world of innovation, with a number of attention-grabbing digital health products debuting at the Consumer Electronics 2022 show earlier this month.

Among the plethora of healthcare-focused technology was Avokad, a portable breath analysis device that provides users with insights on their nutritional needs, based on analysis of the ketones in their breath.

But it’s not just avocado-shaped breath analyzers that are saving the day, drones want in on the action too! In the depths of winter in Sweden, a 71-year-old experienced a cardiac arrest while shoveling snow. A drone turned up with a defibrillator and he was resuscitated by a nearby doctor, saving his life. Someone experiencing cardiac arrest needs help within 10 minutes in order to survive. Everdrone’s Emergency Medical Aerial Delivery (EMADE) service can send a defibrillator drone, making it possible to keep the patient alive before an ambulance arrives.

On the subject of hearts, Vantari VR have developed a virtual reality-based right heart catheter training program delivered in three stages. The first stage will train clinicians in performing catheterization; the second stage involves the recognition of waveforms from real patient cases; and the final stage covers the management of complications.

Things are also stepping up in the field of brain, spinal cord and nerve disorders, with STEPS Rehabilitation based in Sheffield now home to MindPod, the world’s first immersive neuro-animation experience that delivers brain repair. A recent study shows it has double the effectiveness of conventional rehab for upper limb recovery in stroke.

A good beat gets our feet tapping … and legs moving!

MedRhythms is an experimental digital therapy that combines sensors and music to help people with Parkinson’s disease walk. NMT or ’neurologic music therapy‘ uses music and feedback to help train the brain during physical therapy. Following rehab with NMT, many patients’ walking abilities improved.

But as we all know, our mental health is just as important as our physical.

Wired magazine examined what happens when an AI knows how people feel – an interesting article about how AI can understand our emotions and predict and prevent negative behavior as well as how sentiment analysis works.

They also provided an interesting take on how online gaming offers another way to communicate. For people with anxiety about their appearance or speaking, gaming is an opportunity to discover ’a voice in its different forms’. It noted that children who struggled with in-person therapy began to come alive and develop more confidence in a virtual environment.

Among the crowd of anxiety-busting gaming is the company Mightier who develop video games aimed towards children who need help with anxiety, tantrums or anger, but also those with diagnoses like ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder and autism spectrum disorder. These are paired with a wearable heart-rate monitor, allowing them to practice how to calm down and take a pause when upset.

But are HCPs drowning in a digital ad downpour?

Apparently so! According to a recent survey, Pharma marketers don’t have a good understanding of what HCPs need. Instead, results suggested they are overwhelming doctors with emailed drug promos and not tailoring the content. A total of 70% of HCPs in this survey felt that reps “do not completely understand their needs and expectations,” while 62% of HCPs were “overwhelmed” by the promotional content they receive from Pharma companies. HCPs cited webinars and webcasts, in-person meeting discussions, online journals, websites and offline journals as preferred interactions. The survey also pointed to an increase in the adoption of social media by HCPs, which is expected to rise in the coming years.

Outside of Pharma, HubSpot released their annual survey of digital marketing trends for 2022. Top line opinions were that influencer marketing will become even more common, short format video marketing will increase, mobile optimization will continue to be crucial, permanent social media posts will overtake short-lived content, and corporate social responsibility will be of major importance.

That’s all for this month!

Now, with all that reading, chances are your eyes might be feeling a little funny! Check out this article on why staring at screens is making our eyeballs longer – and how to stop it.

#WordFromTheWeb

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Katherine Vik - Digital Project Director

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Robots to the Rescue: Unlocking Unknown Possibilities with Automation

Beatrice — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 10:02:55 +0000

Robots to the Rescue: Unlocking Unknown Possibilities with Automation Beatrice Fri, 24/12/2021 - 10:02

Are the robots going to save us all?

In previous blogs I’ve been in awe of the amazing pizza making robots of Paris, but now the robots are getting serious – the Cobi robot, for example, is aiming to vaccinate the world!

Cobi is a robot that autonomously performs needle-less vaccinations. Developed by Canadian start up Cobionix, it is claimed to be the first robot to successfully perform an intramuscular injection without using a hypodermic needle.

In the US, Movia is looking to use robots to help children with autism and developmental or intellectual disabilities learn new skills. Its TheraPal Home and TheraPal Clinical Assist Aides aim to help improve social and emotional development and teach life skills through robotic-assisted interventions. The robots analyze the children’s behaviour and report back data to parents and care providers.

And check out Ameca, an amazing looking robot that has the most realistic facial expressions I’ve seen in a robot yet. The UK based company Engineered Arts released a short video which shows how Ameca can smoothly display human-like expressions. Anyone who remembers this little gem by electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk will appreciate how far we’ve come!

To learn more about the importance of robots in the world of medicine this fascinating article provides a decade retrospective of medical robotics research from 2010 to 2020.

Twitter head honcho quits, with sights on metaverse activities

Big news recently was that Jack Dorsey resigned as the head of Twitter. Parag Agrawal, has taken over, previously being CTO (Chief Technology Officer). Why does this matter? One of Agrawal’s biggest projects has been overseeing the Bluesky platform, an open and decentralized standard for social media. This change in leadership shows Twitter will move towards being a more open platform when it comes to managing their technology. Jack Dorsey is looking to focus more on his other company, Square (that he’s renaming ‘Block’) which is switching its focus to cryptocurrencies and Web 3.0.

Also entering the metaverse this month is Barbados. Not content with ditching the queen as their head of state, Barbados aims to become the first free nation with an embassy in the metaverse. They are working with multiple metaverse companies to establish digital sovereign land, establishing their presence in a new domain. I foresee an explosion in the market for Rhianna-related NTFs!

Meanwhile, Lush turns the world of social media strategy upside down

The British cosmetics brand Lush is leaving four of the major social platforms, as a response to the negative effect of the Facebook papers and lack of ethical responsibility taken by social media companies generally. The company has implemented a Global Anti-Social Media Policy and vowed to communicate with their clients in different ways. In this interesting article on their social media strategy, Chief Digital Officer Jack Constantine explains that ”social media was not designed to look after people’s health, but our products are”. Lush will be concentrating on creating and using content differently, and have also developed Lush Stories, a portrait video format like Snapchat and Instagram Stories, which it is using across its app, product pages and website. Is this the type of social media strategy that could work best in pharma?

And the world is still full of remarkable things

Is it possible to diagnose illnesses from the sound of your voice? Vocal biomarkers have amazing potential in reforming diagnostics. In certain diseases the brain can alter a person’s voice, and AI-based voice analyzes provide new horizons in this area of medicine.

This smart artificial pancreas could conquer diabetes, by sensing blood glucose and administering insulin accordingly.

EaseVRx has released a VR treatment for chronic pain which includes a VR headset and a device that amplifies the sound of the user’s breath to assist in breathing exercises. It uses principles from cognitive behavior therapy, aiming to address pain through relaxation, distraction, and improved awareness of internal signals.

Smart mug maker Ember is creating new devices for transporting medicines and sensitive pharmaceutical products by maintaining much lower temperature ranges.

A British man has been given 3D printed eye in world first,  at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.

This year’s State of AI Report 2021 considers technology breakthroughs and capabilities, the concentration of AI talent, commercial application for AI, regulation of AI, and predictions for the future of AI technologies.

There is speculation that Apple’s goal is to replace the iPhone with AR in 10 years and their new AR headset is the first step to achieve this project.

Also, check out our podcast of the week!

Check out this year’s super interesting Reith Lectures, which started last week with renowned British computer scientist Stuart Russell discussing ‘Living with Artificial Intelligence’. In this year’s series, Stuart Russell asks how AI could transform the world and discusses the fears around AI adoption in society. The Reith Lectures were inaugurated in 1948 by the BBC to mark the historic contribution made to public service broadcasting by Sir John (later Lord) Reith, the corporation's first Director General. Reith believed in broadcasting as a public service that enriches the intellectual and cultural life of the nation, and this long-running annual broadcasting event continues in his memory.

And finally… here’s a bit of fun!

Who doesn’t love a museum? The mobile phone museum has a phone for you! Their collection currently includes over 2000 individual models from more than 200 different brands. A trip down memory lane (for some)!

See you again in 2022.

#WordFromTheWeb

Author name and role

Katherine Vik - Senior Digital Project Manager

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Pharma Podcasts, the Mighty Meta and Applying AI to Achieve the Amazing

Beatrice — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 10:10:28 +0000

Pharma Podcasts, the Mighty Meta and Applying AI to Achieve the Amazing Beatrice Mon, 22/11/2021 - 10:10

Popular podcasts, the mighty Meta, and amazing AI advances

Welcome to the podcast revolution!

Podcasts are nothing new, but during the pandemic they have been rising in popularity exponentially. Just look at this graph which shows the growth of ebook and podcast app Audible in 2021… 256% growth so far this year. That is a crazy statistic.

Image source: appfigures.com

Here are some popular podcasts for those of us in MedComms.

The Healthcare Comms Podcast aims to showcase people’s stories within the sector. They aim to bring to life the true wins, true failures and true successes of healthcare comms. Digital Health Today is a podcast about accelerating innovation and the implementation of health technology. There is also a good list of healthcare podcasts available here.

Spotify are also expanding into the podcast and audiobook arena. They’ve announced the acquisition of Findaway, which is an audiobook services and distribution company, the purpose being to accelerate the addition of an audiobook catalogue onto the platform.

Meta: PR monster or brave new world?

At the end of October, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced Meta, as bringing together the company’s technologies under one new company brand. Meta’s focus will be to bring the metaverse to life. Put simply, the metaverse is where the physical and digital worlds come together. When I’m asked “what is the metaverse, anyway?” my answer so far is, everything and nothing - the metaverse is tough to explain as it hasn’t been built yet. It’s partly a dream for the future of the internet (a Web 3.0) and partly a combination of some current trends in online infrastructure, including the growth of gaming and real-time 3D worlds. This podcast covers the lack of a clear definition nicely.

Will life in the Metaverse leave you legless?

Ever wondered what life in the metaverse is like right now? The Wall Street Journal locked one of their journalists in a hotel room for 24 hours – and this great 7 minute video shows what it really is like. Turns out it has a high proportion of creepy guys, and distinct lack of legs!

Last week, Microsoft also kicked-off its own metaverse master plan. The company said their first part of the metaverse will be Mesh for Teams (remember those holograms?), which will be available sometime next year.

Meanwhile Niantic (the maker of Pokémon Go) launched a platform to build ‘real-world metaverse’ apps, with the aim of also wanting to be the future of AR glasses. Lightship is a software toolkit for building metaverse apps which is free for any developer to access.

Meta has this week also unveiled a haptic glove prototype that lets you feel VR objects using air pockets, which reproduce sensations like grasping an object or running your hand along a surface.

Never missing a trick, the country of Iceland also got in on the metaverse trend developing their very own Icelandverse. If you only have time to click on one link in this blog, make it this one!

In other news, AI advances continue to find new applications…

An NYU study finds that an ultrasound-analyzing AI improves breast cancer diagnoses by 37%.
Zebra Medical Vision gets FDA clearance for a new AI tool is able to analyze CT scans and that can categorize patients based on cardiac calcium detected and help clinicians detect patients with cardiovascular disease.
Bayer and Huma plan to develop a machine learning model that can distinguish between different forms of non-small-cell lung carcinoma in imaging data.
An Exscientia AI study spots which blood cancer therapies work and which don't.
Alphabet (Google) are aiming to become the next big thing in pharma, launching Isomorphic Laboratories, a new company that uses AI to discover new drugs. It will use the work done by DeepMind to build tools that can help identify new pharmaceuticals. It will focus on developing partnerships with pharmaceutical companies.
And Alexa is selling itself at large scale to healthcare providers. “Patients will be able to use their voice to control more functionality in the rooms, access more entertainment and information, and communicate even easier.” Amazon has also unveiled an Alexa-connected home air quality monitor.

Plus so much other cool tech news in the last few weeks!

Research found that in pharma marketing, mobile is the top-performing device in terms of conversion and clicks.
Leo Pharma wants to reduce clinical trial costs and time by 25%, through a partnership with Veeva Systems.
A new study in JAMA shows that wearable tech may be the key to detecting the flu even before a patient begins to show symptoms.
This systematic review of studies found that digital interventions using wearables and apps don’t improve physical activity for people with a low socioeconomic status.
Milena Mitova, digital brand activation lead at Merck  & Co. has said that starting with just 40 marketing assets such as a webinar or brochure, she can get “close to 2,600 snackable pieces” of content that can be used in email, social posts or paid ads.
This article outlines the top 5 ways tech is helping combat heart disease in 2021.
And finally, Apple is reportedly evaluating whether AirPods can be used to check someone’s temperature, monitor their posture, and serve as some kind of hearing enhancement.

That’s it for this month!

#WordFromTheWeb

At AS&K, one of our key values is Being Curious ‒ asking what if, why not, could we? The Word From the Web blog series is one example of how we are horizon scanning and infusing the latest innovations throughout our medical communication services. Want to learn more about how AS&K can help you stay in front of the latest trends? Contact our Business Development Director, Alana Zdinak at alana.zdinak@asandk.com today!

Author name and role

Katherine Vik - Senior Digital Project Manager

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Digital

Amazon Advances, the Rise of Digital Therapeutics and Conquering Colon Cancer

Beatrice — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 09:08:37 +0000

Amazon Advances, the Rise of Digital Therapeutics and Conquering Colon Cancer Beatrice Fri, 22/10/2021 - 09:08

Creepy robots, smart toilets, and the rise of digital therapeutics

Last week Amazon announced a flurry of innovations, including a super cute robot on wheels named Astro. Internet commentators cited privacy concerns about this Alexa on wheels that can spy on kids, recognise faces, deliver a beer, and report it all back to Amazon HQ. Astro is supposed to learn over time, so it has to track the humans around it and learn about its environment. Creepy, cute, or your future new best friend?

In Alexa news, Alexa Together was launched, which is a subscription service that allows carers to help and remotely monitor aging family members in their homes. The service sends alerts if users haven’t used Alexa for a certain amount of time, as well as setting medication reminders and managing shopping lists.

Moving swiftly on to the news from down below…

In the 1980s, Public Enemy urged people to “Fight the Power.” Now rapper Chuck D and hip-hop artist Pete Colon are encouraging Black and Latino communities in the US to "check your behind" and get screened for colon cancer.

They could have teamed up with this team at Duke University who are working on a smart toilet to diagnose illness and health concerns each time you spend a penny. The question is whether people will trade their privacy for the chance to find out exactly what is in their waste.

Some of the other interesting stories from the last few weeks

Digital therapeutics (DTx) is considered a “new category of medicine”. Will we be prescribed smartphone apps and digital health technologies? It’s a definite yes.

A warning from the FTC about how health apps deal with users’ personal data.

Your iPhone could be the one diagnosing you with a mental illness.

How international experts are leveraging technology to gain fresh insight into the patient experience. This discusses the shift to consumer-centred systems, which enable patients to interact with health professionals and get involved in their own care, for greater engagement, improved outcomes and increased patient satisfaction.

The UK’s first National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy launched, to help the UK strengthen its position as a global science superpower and seize the potential of modern technology to solve global challenges such as climate change and public health.

That’s it for now. See you in November!

#WordFromTheWeb

Author name and role

KATHERINE VIK - SENIOR DIGITAL PROJECT MANAGER

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Digital Roundup: Seriously Impressive Gadgets, Artificial Organs, and the Promise of Immortality

Beatrice — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 13:58:35 +0000

Digital Roundup: Seriously Impressive Gadgets, Artificial Organs, and the Promise of Immortality Beatrice Wed, 22/09/2021 - 13:58

Gadgets are taking over the world

Ray-Ban’s popular “Never Hide” advertising campaign launched in 2007, and is still regarded as one of the most creative and impactful for their brand. The campaign targeted the non-conformist spirit, centred on being true to oneself, personifying the desire to be an individual.

Fast forward to 2021. This month, Facebook and Ray-Ban launched Ray-Ban Stories, embedding the popular sunglasses with a Facebook based camera. On one hand, these are a super convenient way of capturing photos without a phone, or thirty second videos of yourself playing with your kid, or kicking that goal in the park. And from Facebook’s perspective, it’s a stepping-stone to AR glasses, which it is touting as the next major consumer device. They are very convincing – whereas Google Glass was an obvious camera device, Ray-Ban and Facebook’s glasses look scarily normal. 

Which is why Ray-Ban Stories could be a turning point that will change our social landscape. Will being able to film someone just by tapping the side of your glasses become a social norm? How will we feel going about our lives in public, knowing that anyone around could be wearing stealth surveillance technology? Will we need to explain to everyone we meet that we’re not actually filming them, and what does that say about the nature of friendship and trust?

“Never Hide”. No one could have imagined that almost 15 years later the famous slogan could have such a different meaning.

Meanwhile, Apple had their big annual conference announcing what to look forward to in the weeks ahead. 20^th September saw the release of operating system iOS 15 and the new iPhone 13, Apple Watch, iPad, and other devices are on the way. There was nothing earth shattering to see, but they made a big deal of improving battery life and other upgrades.

You and me, we’re gonna to live forever…

Obviously inspired by Oasis, Jeff Bezos (Amazon founder), Russian-Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner and others have started Altos Labs, a biological reprogramming tech company. Altos Labs is currently hiring some of the world’s top scientists to join them to search for the secret of immortality, giving them free reign on their anti-aging research.

AI Yai Yai!

There have been so many healthcare developments in the Artificial Intelligence space over the last few weeks!

MIT are developing a robotic nose can detect first sign of disease. The Nano-Nose (based on the idea of dogs being able to sniff out diseases) is powered by AI. It is currently being trained to detect prostate cancer in urine samples, but it will be completely scalable to other diseases. One day, this powerful tool could be in millions of smartphones.

Medtronic have launched an AI pilot program to tackle race, gender disparities in cardiac care.

And researchers from Case Western Reserve University have developed a remarkably accurate algorithm that can predict which COVID patients will require a ventilator.

Extra health tech news

South Korean researchers have created a chameleon-like artificial "skin", which quickly adjusts its hues like a chameleon to match its surroundings, with applications for wearable tech.

The World Economic Forum believes that digital technologies can address 5 sources of health inequity.

A US-based team of researchers say their bioartificial pancreas could substantially enhance type-1 diabetes treatment.

Sales reps are asking how they can build relationships with physicians. The New England Journal of Medicine says that physicians don’t have time to engage with less-than-premium content.

That’s all for now. See you next month!

#WordFromTheWeb

At AS&K, one of our key values is Being Curious ‒ asking what if, why not, could we? The Word From the Web blog series is one example of how we are horizon scanning and infusing the latest innovations throughout our medical communication services. Want to learn more about how AS&K can help you stay in front of the latest trends? Contact our Business Development Director, Alana Zdinak at alana.zdinak@asandk.com today!

Author name and role

Katherine Vik - Senior Digital Project Manager

Blog image

Blog tags

Digital

Managing Mental Health and Mastering Events With the Help of Machines

Beatrice — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 10:57:15 +0000

Managing Mental Health and Mastering Events With the Help of Machines Beatrice Wed, 25/08/2021 - 10:57

Welcome to the Metaverse

Science fiction has a long history of predicting the future. Back in 1992, Neal Stephenson wrote the fantastic cult novel Snow Crash, where the term Metaverse originated. In Snow Crash, the metaverse is an outlet for entertainment and an economic underbelly to a desperate nation that is governed by corporate franchises. The metaverse originated as a dystopia. The concept was reimagined in the novel Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, referring to a completely digital world that exists beyond our boring analogue realm.

Fast forward to today and we have Facebook, a company that has recently been acquiring other businesses with the idea of constructing this metaverse for themselves. Facebook is becoming ‘a metaverse company’, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says, "the defining quality of the metaverse is presence, which is this feeling that you're really there with another person or in another place.” Facebook has been heavily investing in AR and VR technologies as they offer them the possibility to control their own hardware platform, and creating a team of top executives to lead the project.

In other metaverse news, Nvidia (the company that designs graphics processing units for PCs) recently pulled off a stunt to showcase its latest technology by digitizing its CEO Jensen Huang in a conference keynote. They created a digital version of Huang that conversed using AI, using their platform Omniverse. This incorporates various tools for engineers to create animations, which Nvidia refer to as a "metaverse" for engineers.

Maybe next lockdown we’ll all be holidaying in the metaverse!

So, those Olympics were a blast, weren’t they?

Aside from the amazing sports on show, the commitment of the participants, the sheer joy on the faces of athletes who have overcome many personal hurdles, there were some fun new tech things going on. This video shows the drone display during the Olympic Opening Ceremony. The display was made up of 1800 drones that morph into various shapes before creating a vision of the globe in 3D.

And how about the robots? The Tokyo 2020 Robot Project ensured that the Tokyo 2020 Games were the most innovative ever with four different types of robots. Did you spot the Field Support Robot with automatic driving functionality that retrieved balls and other items in the Olympic Stadium?

I hope the gold medal winners didn’t feel fiddled when they found out that their “gold” medals were actually 98.8% silver. The "bronze" medals contain no actual bronze at all! But in good news, the metals used to make the Olympic medals were extracted from used electronic devices donated from across Japan.

Eli Lilly were an Olympic sponsor for the first time. They were challenged by pandemic conditions and postponement and working with the athletes in less-than-ideal remote situations. Their campaign is called ‘Health Above All’, and their narrative around the Olympics focussed on personal challenges and the human side of competitive sport, and added a mental health component to their corporate participation.

There are a gazillion people on the internet, but it doesn’t stop people feeling lonely…

This man couldn't get over his fiancée's death. So he turned her into a chatbot. It’s a fascinating story and seems to have helped him get over his grief to some extent. Having a passion project can be good for mental health.

However, the evidence keeps showing that humans really need to spend time together in person. This study found that virtual contact was actually worse than no contact at all for the over 60s. So on that note, I’m campaigning for Office Thursdays at AS&K!

There are currently apps being developed to tackle both anxiety and depression, such as this one, from Happify Health.

It would be a shame not to mention:

The new AI tool called AlphaFold, which has been developed by Google’s sister company DeepMind in London, which has predicted the structure of nearly the entire human proteome (the full complement of proteins expressed by an organism)
That the FDA are allowing Medtronic to use AI algorithms to detect atrial fibrillation and arrhythmia
MedRhythms’ are using a combination of music, sensors and artificial intelligence for a music-based stroke, Parkinson’s, MS treatment
According to data published in the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery, two of the patients in a Synchron brain-computer interface study were able to control their computer with their thoughts
Finally, this amazing Dad built a robotic exoskeleton to help his son walk

And of course I couldn’t sign out without bigging up Tom Daley’s amazing knitwork!

Image source: https://www.accessonline.com/articles/tom-daley-shows-off-impressive-cardigan-he-knitted-at-tokyo-olympics

#WordFromTheWeb

Author name and role

Katherine Vik ‒ Senior Digital Project Manager

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Blog tags

Digital