Читать книгу The Future of Health - Roberto Ascione - Страница 9

We have gone from carrying with us very heavy and very expensive laptops with minimal computing power by today's standards, to using handheld computers, smartphones, tablets, and wearables. The process continues with the miniaturization and low cost of these devices reaching a point at which they are even ingestible. The widespread dissemination of these instruments among the public makes it possible to gather a quantity of information that was previously impossible. And this information, as it accumulates and we learn how to process it and act consequentially, begins to take on an ever-higher value from the standpoint of health care. We are, therefore, witnessing a widespread use of tracking instruments, created in the wellness or sports world, that are finding new applications in other areas. Indeed, ever-more-powerful algorithms analyze vast amounts of data, and correlations between this data and the most common pathologies are being discovered. On this basis, a new category of markers, called digital biomarkers, has been created. These are beginning to be examined in exactly the same way that normal blood tests are examined. In other words, researchers begin to monitor signals that may be related to particular disorders and then validate them with the idea of having markers that can be used to identify particular pathologies digitally in the future. For example, for attention disorders and Alzheimer's disease, applications of this type already exist and are currently undergoing clinical trials. Of course, in order to transform a normal process, we must identify a digital marker that is actually valid and scientifically sustainable. For example, there is a trial that is examining whether a certain type of continuous electrocardiogram (ECG), made with very low-cost sensors that could be incorporated into T-shirts, is predictive of major cardiac events, such as heart attacks. Let's imagine that this becomes possible and that, in the next few years, the sensors are so inexpensive that any T-shirt can make this kind of prediction. As a result, the management of a critical health event such as a heart attack (which requires immediate intervention in the place where it occurs) could be achieved with a routine operation such as an angioplasty.

Such sensors would be able to signal the likelihood of developing a certain pathology, and thus prompt the individual to schedule a specialist visit. This would completely change the management and treatment of a pathology as we imagine it today. Important transformations are taking place regarding the management of the personal data of each one of us: just think of the latest versions of the iOS and Android operating systems, in which real computerized medical records dedicated to the consumer/patient have been introduced. The symptom journal is a feature already embedded in operating systems that allows users to collect a large amount of information in a structured and processable way. A considerable number of clinical trials already have access to a much larger database than before. This data has been generated by participants thanks to the presence of these integrated applications in most smartphones.