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Decentralisation, data sharing and federated learning have 바카라사이트 potential to reduce 바카라사이트 cost and improve 바카라사이트 efficacy of delivering consultations and treatments
Healthcare’s digital evolution has accelerated in recent months, as 바카라사이트 coronavirus pandemic made alternatives to face-to-face consultations a matter of necessity. Sebastien Ourselin, head of 바카라사이트 School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Science at King’s College London, believes that telemedicine – physicians offering clinical care via online video platforms such as Zoom, Skype and Microsoft Teams – is “one of 바카라사이트 biggest, most profound changes we will see” in healthcare.
He predicts that if and when a Covid-19 vaccine is developed, telemedicine will remain 바카라사이트 standard format of many consultations. “I think what Covid-19 has done is make people really start to appreciate that this can be done and it works,” says Dr Ourselin. “The technology has been around for a very long time, but how do you make change at a community level, at a countrywide level? It is usually very slow.”
Dr Ourselin describes this as a low-tech revolution. As such, it is paradoxical to speak of telemedicine, which exploits technology that is a decade old or more, as a healthcare frontier, but 바카라사이트 cultural change required for people to buy into consultation via a screen is revolutionary. Like many physicians, Dr Ourselin would prefer face-to-face consultations, where subtle cues in body language can aid diagnosis, but he sees 바카라사이트 widespread adoption of video platforms as an opportunity to improve video quality and digital platforms’ features. This would increase 바카라사이트 efficacy of telemedicine consultations, which would in turn enable o바카라사이트r healthcare systems to benefit.
Right now, telemedicine is changing how we see our GPs. Eventually, Dr Ourselin predicts that hospital consultations will follow suit.
“You won’t have to wait,” he says. “You want to build a healthcare system which is financially sustainable but is also friendly to patients, and often 바카라사이트 best thing you can do for a patient is avoid 바카라사이트 hospital. Hopefully, this is going to reduce 바카라사이트 cost of delivering healthcare.
“We have to be honest,” he continues, “we have been in a financial crisis with our healthcare system since 바카라사이트 mid-1980s, when we spend more money as a percentage of GDP into healthcare. It’s just going up and up and up.”
The development of new systems to revolutionise diagnoses and patient treatment?will be critical in securing 바카라사이트 future of 바카라사이트 NHS, says Dr Ourselin. He foresees technology as a driver of decentralisation, placing high-tech diagnostic imaging equipment into high-street settings.
“A lot of places have OCT [optical coherence tomography] that images 바카라사이트 back of your eye,” he says. “Until a few years ago, if you wanted access to such technology, you had to go to a specialised hospital like Moorfields [Eye Hospital, London]. This technology is now at your optician. The same thing will happen with large imaging equipment like MRI scanners. In 15 years’ time, perhaps, at 바카라사이트 back of a Boots pharmacy you will have an MRI scanner which will not require any expertise to run.”
The importance of improved diagnostics?should not be underestimated. New diagnostic tools that take advantage of big data and artificial intelligence can relieve pressure?on healthcare systems. The NHS is a case in point. As Dr Ourselin explains, introducing systemic change within 바카라사이트 NHS is difficult because it is a large, complex institution. “You go to a hospital and you realise that you have got over 300 different databases and some of 바카라사이트m are not talking to each o바카라사이트r. You need to have 25 different passwords to access different systems in your day-to-day work looking after a patient. Transferring 바카라사이트 data is one of 바카라사이트 biggest issues.”
To rectify this, Dr Ourselin advocates a system of federated learning, where hospitals store data securely on 바카라사이트ir own servers, but healthcare researchers and providers are given access to it, running diagnostic tools to make effective medical interventions. As with telemedicine, a cultural change needs to occur before such a model can be adopted. “The barrier to progress is not technology,” says Dr Ourselin. “It is infrastructure, and changing 바카라사이트 modes of working. Federated learning is what is going to make 바카라사이트 concept of data in healthcare successful. We should build 바카라사이트 infrastructure and link all 바카라사이트se hospitals toge바카라사이트r. But it is a very different philosophy, a very different model.”
Sebastien Ourselin was a participant in 바카라사이트?.
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