Digital medicine guru Dr Steven Steinhubl delivers keynote on transformative changes that are shaping healthcare globally
Portea Medical recently organised MedConnect, a thought-leadership platform for the medical community in Bangalore. It was attended by over 50 leading medical practitioners.
Dr Steven Steinhubl, Director of Digital Medicine at Scripps Translational Science Institute, USA led discussions on the role of technology in healthcare. In his keynote address on Digital Technology and the Transformation of Healthcare, Dr Steinhubl showcased cutting-edge thinking in digital health globally and presented a roadmap for the future of healthcare, encompassing how consumer-led tech development was transforming the healthcare industry.
“Worldwide, it is clear that we need to totally disrupt the way healthcare is provided. Digital medicine allows us to usher in this change by integrating multiple streams of data that come with digitization, including real-world patient data, to provide much more patient-centric and convenient care at significantly lower costs and with improved outcomes,” said Dr Steinhubl.
“Digital medicine can offer more individualised care (Precision Medicine), which takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person. Genomics is another aspect which receives minimal focus today but can play a great role in digitising healthcare,” he added.
Pointing to the role played by smartphones, artificial intelligence and novel wireless sensors, he noted the remarkable capabilities are available today to care for the patient outside the formal healthcare setting.
Meena Ganesh, MD & CEO, Portea Medical said, “The digital revolution in clearly starting to make inroads into clinical healthcare. Technology is a powerful complement in assisting clinicians and care-givers bring better care and support for patients as we are seeing everyday in the work we do. Health data, Machine Learning and AI have the ability to streamline the optimal delivery of health.”
“The future will belong to those healthcare organisations that are champions of today’s healthcare consumer needs and are enabling new systems that effectively leverage digital medicine and completely transforming how health is managed,” said Dr Udaya Maiya, Medical Director, Portea Medical.
Reportedly, Portea MedConnect witnessed participation from the leadership and medical faculty of more than 50 hospitals including Columbia Asia, HCG, Apollo, Narayana Hrudalaya, Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Hospital, Sagar Hospital, South City Hospital, MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospital etc.
Presentations by Dr Steinhubl and Ganesh were followed by an interactive Q&A session. Participants at MedConnect were aligned in their views that the trend of m-health (mobile health) was increasingly being adopted in India and held out potentially huge advantages for the entire healthcare system.