In 2020 with the nearly overnight adoption of telemedicine we experienced a variant what 20th century media theorist Marshall McLuhan called the transitional moment. It basically suggests that when we are faced with a new media we tend to use it in a way that reiterates the old media. The early use of YouTube, for example, mimicked television. It took years before ... Continue Reading about Telemedicine and Our Transitional Moment
Google Health Studies – Connecting Research with People
Let’s face it, if you’re doing a clinical study recruiting research subjects is a bear. To make it easier, Google today introduced Google Health Studies, a tool to match the potential study participants with researchers. Their new (Android) app provides a platform for researchers to reach a large population for recruitment while giving the public the chance to ... Continue Reading about Google Health Studies – Connecting Research with People
AlphaFold and the Future of Physicians
DeepMind’s deep-learning system AlphaFold last week cracked one of biology’s critical challenges: predicting the shape of proteins. As background for the less chemically inclined, a protein is made from a chain of amino acids that folds itself up in a tangled mass. The nooks and crannies of the 3-dimensional structure determines what the protein does and how it ... Continue Reading about AlphaFold and the Future of Physicians
COVID Vaccine – 4 Lessons from Speedy Development
The development of a COVID vaccine is one of the most closely watched human experiments in modern medical history. A defining moment shaped by global coordination, federal and private funding and will. I've been thinking how this has played out. Here are a few thoughts on what we might take from the speedy creation of the COVID vaccine. What has been ... Continue Reading about COVID Vaccine – 4 Lessons from Speedy Development
Apple Watch Series 6 – Why Watch Your Blood Oxygen?
This week apple released the Apple Watch Series 6. The premier feature is the pulse oximetry sensor on its underbelly that measures peripheral blood oxygen saturation (SpO2). I love Apple products. In fact, in the past I’ve suggested that if Apple released an Apple Hat I would buy it. Despite my blind love for all things Apple I began to wonder this week why we ... Continue Reading about Apple Watch Series 6 – Why Watch Your Blood Oxygen?
Should Patients Consent for Use of Artificial Intelligence?
Check out this StatNews piece addressing the question: should patients consent for use of artificial intelligence in the clinic setting? It builds the case for an emerging crisis in healthcare where patients are the victims of a failure to disclose the use of AI in the clinical setting. The concerns expressed reflect the a false dichotomy of man or machine. We ... Continue Reading about Should Patients Consent for Use of Artificial Intelligence?