Extract
Insights into the future for cardiology
Imagine a smartphone app that can predict worsening heart failure simply from the sound of a voice. Or a device that warns a patient that blood pressure or glucose level is dangerously low whilst walking down the street. How about a computer that can help a physician diagnose a medical complaint by combing through more than a million textbooks, medical journals, and other data within seconds?
Just a few years ago, all this was in the realm of science fiction. Now it is becoming commonplace in the world of medicine and offers huge potential in the field of cardiology. From digital medical records to big data and self-monitoring on smartphones, laptops, and other devices, e-health is dramatically changing healthcare and how both doctors and their patients deal with all kinds of medical conditions.
Professor Tony Young, who is in charge of clinical innovation for the National Health Service in the UK, says it is the most radical change seen in medicine in years. He says the focus is shifting from acute illness to managing chronic conditions and giving patients greater tools for prevention and self-management. ‘We have to move away from a sick-care model, or a patient-centred model, to a people-centred model,’ says Prof. Young. ‘We need healthy people and our patients are at the heart of how we redesign this.’
