Technology is usually portrayed as impersonal, inflexible, or even hostile. In fact, in many movies and books, humans fight the encroachment of technology or endeavor to teach advanced (often humanoid) technology to become more human.
In healthcare, health information technology has been decried as a destructor of the doctor-patient relationship. There’s no question that technology has helped to advance medical treatments such as better prosthetics, imaging and procedural equipment, monitors, and machines. However, whether it focuses on populations or on an illness, current technology is not always developed to address the personal, human level. Even the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics published a piece in early 2011 questioning whether health information technology dehumanized health care [1].
However, I am a firm believer that digital technology can be harnessed to personalize medicine, enhance the patient-doctor relationship, and broaden humanity in healthcare.
It is no longer novel to talk about big data and population health. In our increasingly digital world, we are accustomed to Google, Facebook, and Amazon gathering data about every facet of our lives. This huge amount of data in aggregate is valuable not only in monetary value for these companies, but also offers potential insight into population trends and behavior.
Imagine, though, if we could merge medical population data with individual data and profiles. Imagine if we could combine this further with data that is not traditionally captured in medical research. With the help of AI, this vast amount of information could be utilized to make predictions and recommendations for individuals.
Instead of making blanket statements about the effectiveness of certain drugs for the general population, we could guide people toward a drug that might be more effective for them based on their genetics, behavior, or diet. In Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War, Doctor Strange was able to look at all 14 million possible alternate futures in the Marvel Comics multiverse and use that insight to help guide the heroes. Similarly, technology that can run through the various permutations of the “data multiverse” could provide insight into multifactorial health issues and point to actions with the highest probability of success.
Furthermore, beyond medical endpoints, we can start looking at the overall well-being of people. Technology allows us to measure and account for previously unconsidered factors that contribute to health and recovery. This was the basis of a project I worked on called RecoverLight, where my team proposed “smart” hospital lighting that could monitor a patient’s vital signs and other data points continuously and adjust the patients’ lighting, ambient temperature, and other environmental factors to enhance recovery.
Using technology to try to enhance overall health is what inspired me to start my company Spritely. Initially, I was frustrated that the severity of my food allergy symptoms did not always correlate with my actions: what foods I ate, what lotions I used, my specific behaviors. The Spritely app would gather data on symptoms, profile, behavior, and medical data. It would analyze users’ data in the aggregate to shed light onto population patterns, but it would also give individual feedback and track personal trends. More importantly, with enough data, I hoped that it could utilize the allergy data multiverse to eventually give personalized predictive insight. I knew from personal experience that having that type of insight would help patients regain control over their health and empower them with actionable information.
Soon after incorporating my company, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Despite the fact that I knew she received the best of medical care, I watched as she struggled with managing her overall well-being. Just like my allergy symptoms, the side effects from chemotherapy and radiation were unpredictable and not always correlated with her behavior. This prompted me to pivot Spritely to focus on cancer patients.
While it is possible that technology could depersonalize medicine, if used well, it could actually bring humanity back to medicine. It can allow society to focus on the broader idea of wellness in addition to traditional medical treatment. Through technology we can take evidence-based medicine to the next level and bring the power of the data multiverse to the individual.
[1] James E Bailey, “Does Health Information Technology Dehumanize Health Care?,” AMA Journal of Ethics 13, no. 3 (January 2011): pp. 181-185, https://doi.org/10.1001/virtualmentor.2011.13.3.msoc1-1103, 1.