Groundhog Day. Every year when I return from CES, the first question is, “What was the coolest thing you saw?” And this year the answer is less about what I saw and more about what I heard. Because CES is more than the micro-thin OLED TVs and the robots that fetch drinks and smart toothbrushes or even Spicerr, an AI powered spice dispenser (yes, it’s a thing and it’s valid). It’s also about the conference sessions and then exploring the show floor with an expanded perspective and understanding of why smart homes designed for the elderly are so important. Or how AI interfaces will change the way municipalities interact with citizens, or how healthcare will evolve in coming years. And, so, with that introduction, some table setting questions:
- What if we viewed healthcare as a transition from restorative care to preventative care? Or, stated differently, as a transition from reactive care to ongoing management that relies on data gathering and analyses to ultimately reduce sick care and replace it with small doses of health care on an ongoing basis?
- What if we deployed AI to detect indicators of fall risks and captured those warnings, say, 30 days earlier than currently available? The average cost of a fall injury among the elderly is $100,000, not including follow-on impacts to quality of life afterward. Women often suffer greater incidences of UTIs after falls while men who use walkers have been found to experience greater incidences of upper respiratory issues. What if caregivers and families had an opportunity to implement preventative measures a month before an indicated fall? (For even shorter-term interactions, Virtusense analyzes movement and can alert caregivers 30-60 seconds before a patient exits his/her bed.)
healthcare access in provider
shortage areas.
I spoke with a friend who attended CES this year and we agreed, nothing really blew our socks off. But we also agreed that the scope of technology that is incorporating AI confirms that AI is here to stay. Not that we doubted it, but more along the lines of, “Get used to it. Don’t fear it. Learn it, manage it, let it help us make life better.”
And we mentioned this a few days ago – technological capabilities inspire our ability to imagine.
An example: Many diabetes patients use a CGM (continuous glucose monitor), a small subcutaneous sensor, to measure sugar levels. But the data collections are getting better, and the ability to process and analyze a range of inputs including sleep, diet and exercise can help doctors create tailored care solutions for individual patients, paving the way to better health management and avoiding detours to sick care. And combining large scale data collections enables researchers and physicians to spot patterns and unravel early indicators that can inform general treatment practices. Epidemiology thrives. What seemed impossible now rests comfortably within the art of the possible. Likewise, we discussed agriculture and the ability of farmers and producers to rely on larger and more nuanced data sets to create specialized plans for different fields, including tailored sowing, chemical and irrigation strategies. AI contextualizes and personalizes data and collapses the time in which that information can be analyzed and in which resultant tailored solutions can be proposed.
These are overarching conversations. And the show floor offered examples.
There were numerous health data gathering rings, from Oura to RingConn, which measures heart and respiratory rates as well as sleep apnea indicators. For elder care, Aerosense relies on a suite of sensors that detect everything from environmental factors (smoke, CO2, gas) to bed-exit alerts. The underlying technology is not particularly new; rather, the use case and form in which it is implemented (and the aims toward which it is directed) is an iterative step forward for leveraging technology for meaningful care.
fall injuries, and can measure vitals after a fall.
Shinobi offers a flooring system that not only reduces fall injuries (it is a multilayer system that feels like a typical laminate when walking yet absorbs impact under pressure) but can also be outfitted to capture a person’s vitals after a fall. And mechanical exoskeletons. And VR gaming. And even telehealth kiosks like OnMed that provide users in health care provider shortage areas access to chest/lung exams, e-prescriptions, specialist referrals and other medical resources (for more on new modalities for rural telehealth, including XR platforms, see this recent Smart Rural Community paper).
And this leads us back to the theme of the three days in Vegas: AI is no longer a buzzword or promise of future capability, and the tech with which it is paired is increasingly part of common core applications across a range of activities from health care to retail management to civic administration to education and business development. AI isn't “on the way” – it’s arrived, with great promise for managed integration into our daily lives.