The Era Of Humanology

Healthcare is changing. For many, the dominant feature is change itself. From advanced analytics to optimizing convenience, the care path is no longer defined by a simple trip to the healthcare provider. For some, that road is more complicated by choice, technology, and ambiguity. Yet for others, it’s a true transformation that spans a continuum from logistics to life-saving care.

It’s happening now. And healthcare is at the center of this revolution of care driven by technology, the empowered consumer, and dimensionalized  by retail to drive both services and the creation of a new and more optimal user experience. The many and varied digital health tools that are available today—blood glucose monitoring to advanced analytics—can add an expanded dimension to the utility and convenience that redefine fundamental aspects of care.

Technology with a human touch.

Technological advances are providing unparalleled opportunities for medicine and digital health, giving rise to new capabilities which are making it possible to deliver personalized medicine and preventive care at unprecedented levels. Wearable devices such as fitness trackers can provide real-time data about users’ health, allowing doctors to monitor their progress or identify potential issues before they become serious problems. Together, devices with AI-based insights become greater than the sum of the parts and make drive essential clinical utility

Further, the power of technology, including advanced analytics and artificial intelligence, will enable clinical stakeholders to operate at expanded levels of competence. The roles of the nurse, pharmacist, and other HCPs will expand to tackle pressing human issues including fatigue and burnout.

Humanity with a technology edge.

At the heart of this transformation is the user experience, or perhaps better articulated as a human experience. By making technology more user-friendly and intuitive, healthcare providers can make it easier for patients to access the care they need and to understand the information they are provided with. This can help to reduce anxiety and improve overall satisfaction with the healthcare experience. Additionally, this can help to reduce errors and improve the accuracy and reliability of medical information, which can ultimately lead to better outcomes for patients. By using devices such as wearables and telemedicine, patients can get the care they need without having to leave home. Additionally, designing healthcare facilities with a focus on comfort and accessibility can also help make the experience more human-centered. And by providing compassionate, personalized care and support, we can ensure that each person is treated with dignity and respect.

Today, there’s an interesting example of emerging technology call GPT-3 (short for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3”).  GPT-3 works by training a large neural network on a dataset of human-generated text, such as books, articles, and websites. The neural network is designed to predict the next word in a sequence of words, given the context of the previous words. As the model is trained, it “learns” the patterns and structures of the language and can generate new text that follows those patterns.

There are several potential applications for GPT-3 in the field of medicine. For example, the model could be used to generate medical reports, summarizing patient information and test results for physicians and other medical professionals. Additionally, GPT-3 could potentially be used to improve natural language processing (NLP) systems for electronic health records (EHRs), allowing physicians and other HCPs to more easily search and analyze patient data. NLP systems that can understand and extract information and could help improve the efficiency and accuracy of medical decision-making. And perhaps most remarkable is the ease of use of these platforms.

The convergence of these areas of innovation—human and technological—is leading to fundamental changes in the way healthcare is delivered, with the potential for transformative effects on patient outcomes and cost savings. The cooperative engagement of man and machine is becoming less a “force fit” and more a “create dance” that celebrates this new relationship.