Background Articles and Concepts

In 2021, the Nature Journal stated that predictive genomics is the culmination of the Human Genome Project. Predictive genomics allows using genetic data to help predict common disease risks and drug responses.

There are three primary types of network architecture employed to coordinate the exchange of health information across entities.

This is Part 1 of the text dedicated to augmented reality (AR) technologies in healthcare. It will give the definition of AR, differ it from VR, provide a brief background from early 90s till today, tell what AR gives to healthcare, and present key numbers on the current state of the healthcare AR market.

When the same software may work at two different computers, we consider these computers to be compatible. Many think first of compatibility when interoperability is mentioned. However, interoperability means much more. Interoperability is a capacity of an IT system to work with another IT system with no restrictions.

With technological developments and advances in new biology, the use of digital identities is constantly evolving and a question remains over whether there will be a centralised or distributed system for digital identification in the future.

It is well known that treatments – for example the likes of chemotherapy drugs to treat various cancers – can be successful for some patients and not for others.

Whilst digitalisation is seen as imperative for health systems worldwide, there are undoubtedly some challenges that slow and limit its implementation. Though such challenges are various and many, they may be attributed to one of the four following categories.

The digitalization of healthcare has gained momentum in the recent decade, with the rise of innovations like the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), telehealth and AI-based medical tools. It is often assumed to represent positive progress, but what are the benefits of a well-deployed digital infrastructure?

Machine learning (ML) enables a computer to adapt to new circumstances and to detect and extrapolate patterns. Machine learning involves training an algorithm to perform tasks by learning from patterns in data rather than performing a task it is explicitly programmed to do.

AI adoption has huge potential to improve people’s health and healthcare but the road to adoption is marked by a number of challenges. Here, we look at how to address these challenges to adoption – and who is responsible.

While evidence of the potential benefits of AI applications in healthcare mounts, a number of challenges to widespread adoption and implementation of AI tools remain.

When looking at the AI solutions that are already available as well as the pipeline of ideas in healthcare-related AI, three phases of AI adoption in healthcare can be distinguished.

This is a brief review of global organisations organisations that operate in the area of digital health in Europe and of those European organisations with profile in digital health.

What is missing the in the European digital health infrastructure.

Non-fungible tokens arose to digital art, then the concept expanded to represent offline art, then anything unique. Our health data is unique as well.

Patient engagement is the practice where patients participate actively in their own treatments, and often in related research efforts with regards to their conditions prior and post the treatment.

On May 3d, the European Commission launched the European Health Data Space (EHDS), one of the central building blocks of a strong European Health Union.

The first medical robots emerged in the 1980s, they assisted in surgical operations and were known as ‘robotic arms’.

In contrast to commercial, or proprietary, software, open-source software may be used, changed, and distributed by anyone and for any purpose.

This text is based on the report “Blockchain Applications in the Healthcare Sector” by the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum, and represents its key takeaways in the section on the ethical aspects.

Interoperability brings clear benefits to healthcare, but also experiences challenges in deployment. This article covers both aspects. Benefits first, then challenges.

The text below identifies future impacts of interoperability on major healthcare stakeholders, touches on future standards in health data, discussed liberation of health data, and wider than now AI adoption in management of health data.

This article presents brief results of extensive research. It provides a brief introduction to the European understanding of digital healthcare, touches upon its history, the current status, and expected developments.

All animals (including humans) start life as a single cell. It is then the goal of the developmental biologist to work out how exactly that single cell becomes the trillions of cells in the animal body.

This is the second article in the series on Internet of Medical Things. It focuses on IoMT classifications by regulators and by functions, and touches upon the advantages of IoMT.

This is the third, concluding part in the series on Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). It covers the main challenges to wide IoMT adoption, as well as the main areas of IoMT adoption in healthcare.

In the text below we look at the definition of IoMT, the key market figures, and the key enablers.

The overview below compares the definitions of digital health in various countries, to identify international and national priorities set by these definitions.

This is the third, concluding publication in the series ‘Blockchain in Healthcare’

This is the second publication in the series ‘Blockchain in Healthcare’

Electronic health records (EHRs) have gone a long way from being just an electronic version of a patient’s chart on paper.

Most services and goods are easy to pay for. Once you see the price, you pay and get the item. It takes only a few seconds. Reimbursement for healthcare services is much more complicated.

Value-based healthcare (VBHC) is a framework for transforming health care systems by re-orienting them around achieving value for patients.

Secondary use of health data can help health systems to better understand and serve a population’s needs.

Tissue engineering, as the name suggests, is a science that develops synthetic biological substitutes capable of replacing diseased or damaged human tissue.

Nanobiology is the study of biological interactions at the nanoscale. In nanotechnology, the nanoscale refers to structures having a length scale of 1–100 nanometers (10-9), one of the most commonly used length scales.

Equality and equity are not synonyms. Equality involves considering individuals equally regardless of their circumstances, while equity involves adjusting the way individuals are considered based on their circumstances so that similar outcomes are achieved for everyone.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the 17 global goals set up by the United Nations in 2015 which provide a blueprint for peace and prosperity, for both people and planet, now and in the future.

Dive into current adoption areas of AR, discuss possible and plausible future adoptions, and touch upon the challenges to address.

The social determinants of health (SDoH) are factors that influence an individual’s health such as the conditions in the places and environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play and age that ultimately affect people’s health and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.

According to the WHO, universal health coverage (UHC) means that “all individuals and communities receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship.

Together, individuals, data and the health system can enable the urgent transition from sick care to preventive health.

During the 1990s the Global Forum for Health Research was set up by the WHO Ad Hoc Committee on Health Research for the purpose of correcting the 10/90 gap.

Leave no one behind (LNOB) is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Health in All Policies (HIAP) is an approach to policymaking that introduces health-related aspects into virtually any public policy.

The Humanome model is a personal health profile and a data repository.

Whilst the vast majority of health expenditure is currently dedicated to treatment and therapeutics, about 70% of health gains from known interventions could be achieved through prevention.

Drug pricing at the pharmacy counter bridges healthcare with one of the most ambiguous markets consumers face.