Innovating with intelligent medicine

Digital technology is the vanguard of a revolution in healthcare, with medical devices and artificial intelligence increasingly driving personalised services, writes Jason Walsh

Brian Jordan, head of innovation and industry solutions, Cisco Ireland

When we think about wearable devices or artificial intelligence (AI), naturally we tend to think about consumer applications such as fitness trackers or smart speakers. An entire other world is out there, though, and driving significant change in how healthcare is delivered.

Brian Jordan, head of innovation and industry solutions at Cisco Ireland, said that the potential for health wearables to deliver data right from the patient or patient’s home has opened up a range of possibilities in care.

It starts with sensors.

“Sensors exist to measure blood pressure, heart rates, heart rhythms, blood sugar levels, temperature, oxygen levels and many more.”

This means outpatients no longer have to rely on repeat visits to a GP’s surgery or hospital to monitor condition and recovery progress.

“Mobile networks and the internet enable this data to be continually collected and sent in real time to hospital systems,” he said.

The data will be looked over by medical and paramedical professionals, of course, but there is also the opportunity for machine intervention thanks to AI.

“Health applications enabled with artificial intelligence monitor this data, understand through machine learning what is normal and looks for anomalies in the data to help predict medical events that may occur in the near future.”

After all, said Jordan, AI is fundamentally about recognition.

“Artificial intelligence is a technology that uses digital data as an input and can use that data to comprehend, learn, predict and act,” he said.

Ireland is not being left behind, said Jordan. The Health Services Executive (HSE) is trialling a range of devices and services.

“The HSE has many innovation pilots active that are delivering smart home care for diabetic patients, heart conditions, sleep apnea, epilepsy and many more conditions,” he said.

The wearables feature specialised sensors that focus on key symptoms to monitor and AI is used to comprehend and act on the data.

“Professor Martin Curley is the director of digital transformation in the HSE and is to be commended for driving the vision for applying digital technology to deliver better patient experiences and outcomes. He has established a number of living labs countrywide to enable the piloting of innovative digital solutions which will help to accelerate the availability of solutions that can be deployed.

“In acute settings, AI is now a key component of most robotic systems and the HSE are trialling,” he said.

The potential for improved healthcare with AI and wearables is enormous, but the requirement for patient safety and confidentiality remains.

Jordan said that EU directives are in place that govern implantable smart devices, wearables, device safety, data privacy and network security.

Naturally, solution providers must design the solution in line with all applicable regulations.

“Cisco enables many of these solution providers with network solutions coupled with extensive cyber security solutions. AI techniques within these cyber solutions enable abnormal behaviour detection on the networks and prevention of intrusion attempts to steal patient data,” he said.

“Another concern relates to the vast amounts of data that will be collected and available for data mining and analysis. Analysis can help improve the level of care delivered, but this type of data should always have patient consent prior to being analysed.”

As with other personal information, the legislation is in place and will continue to be updated.

“In many cases, the data can be anonymised and this technique is a GDPR design consideration for the solution,” he said.