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"The battle over algorithms in healthcare has come into full view since last fall. The debate only intensified in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which has disproportionately devastated Black and Latino communities. In October, Science published a study that found one hospital unintentionally directed more white patients than Black patients to a high-risk care management program because it used an algorithm to predict the patients' future healthcare costs as a key indicator of personal health. Optum, the company that sells the software product, told Mashable that the hospital used the tool incorrectly. "

""We believe a very large portion of healthcare spend is preventable," said John Kelly, IBM's SVP of solutions research, in an interview with Mashable. "Costs can improve dramatically through these technologies." Kelly is so confident in Watson Health Cloud that he thinks it can not only halt the growth of healthcare costs, but also reverse them."

"A company owned by Google has been given access to the healthcare data of up to 1.6 million patients from three hospitals run by a major London NHS trust. DeepMind, the tech giant's London-based company most famous for its innovative use of artificial intelligence, is being provided with the patient information as part of an agreement with the Royal Free NHS trust, which runs the Barnet, Chase Farm and Royal Free hospitals. It includes information about people who are HIV-positive as well as details of drug overdoses, abortions and patient data from the past five years, according to a report by the New Scientist."

""Personalised, preventative healthcare is mission critical to the future-fit healthcare service we want to build," said Hancock last week. "We must harness the latest technology and techniques to move away from the one-size-fits-all approach of the past."" - DO YOU AGREE?

"The app then measures 14 health parameters (Glucose, Protein, Urobilinogen, Calcium, Blood, Creatinine, pH, Ketone, Bilirubin, Specific Gravity, Nitrites, Leucocyte, Ascorbic Acid, Microalbumin) using routine urine analysis, provides day-to-day analytics, and, importantly, enables regular monitoring for early warning markers for more than 25 medical conditions, including complications of diabetes, pregnancy, kidney disease, and urinary tract infections. The whole idea is to spot risks early, and to address big problems before they become too big. This is important both for the home user, as well for the beneficiary of the low-cost clinic in the developing world. "

"Fear of data-mining of healthcare could be costing as many as 100,000 lives a year, according to Google's Larry Page. Speaking out in response to fears over his company's vast haul of personal information, Page made the case that not only is Google not going too far with collecting and analysing such information - it's not going far enough."

"The benefits of mobile technology in a healthcare setting have not, it's safe to say, gone unnoticed. A throng of companies are trying to turn the smartphone into an assortment of medical devices, from blood pressure cuffs to otoscopes. Such devices offer patients a chance to keep up with chronic conditions and send data to their doctors on occasion."

"Personal information of more than 243 million Brazilians was exposed for more than six months thanks to weakly encoded credentials stored in the source code of the Brazilian Ministry of Health's website. The data leak exposed both living and deceased Brazilians' medical records to possible unauthorized access. The incident was the second reported by Brazilian publication Estadão and among several others recently affecting South America's largest nation's healthcare system."

" AI has better 'bedside manner' than some doctors, study finds ChatGPT rated higher in quality and empathy of written advice, raising possibility of medical assistance role Hannah Devlin Science correspondent @hannahdev Fri 28 Apr 2023 16.01 BST ChatGPT appears to have a better 'bedside manner' than some doctors - at least when their written advice is rated for quality and empathy, a study has shown. The findings highlight the potential for AI assistants to play a role in medicine, according to the authors of the work, who suggest such agents could help draft doctors' communications with patients. "The opportunities for improving healthcare with AI are massive," said Dr John Ayers, of the University of California San Diego."

"As smart as they are, doctors can't compete with the volume of knowledge that a robot can retain. In an effort to join the best of both worlds - human experience with robotic data - a number of companies are developing telemedicine robots that not only allow doctors to reach out to patients miles or continents away, but can offer immediate information and advice that draws from volumes of medical research and case studies. In January the FDA approved the telepresence platform RP-Vita, developed by iRobot and InTouch Health. Now seven hospitals across North America have enlisted the services of RP-Vita, bringing us one step closer to robotics-augmented healthcare."

"As soon as 20 years from now, 45 percent of American jobs may be performed by computers, as many as 10 million self-driving cars will be on the roads, and robots-computerized machines-will infiltrate almost every arena of our daily lives, from healthcare to energy production."

"The ability to understand an individual's unique anatomic configuration from skin to bone can be a significant benefit to a surgeon, especially prior to a complex operation. Immersive VR will enable surgeons to explore their patient's virtual body-reconstructed from their CT or MRI data-and plan or even practice difficult surgeries prior to the actual procedure. "

New York healthcare provider, California's higher education system and the U.S. Department of Energy have become the latest targets of data bandits.

"FROM THE BOING BOING SHOP   FOLLOW US Twitter / Facebook / RSS Singhealth, a Singaporean public health service, suffered the worst breach in Singaporean history, losing control of 1.5 million peoples' data; included in the breach was prescription data on 160,000 people, including Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong."

"Robots, artificial intelligence and smart speakers will ease the burden on doctors and give them more time with patients, according to an NHS report on the pending technological "revolution" in healthcare. Developments in the ability to sequence individuals' genomes - the entirety of their genetic data - will also spur on advances, according to the review published on Monday."

"A Dutch surgeon formally disciplined for her medical negligence has won a legal action to remove Google search results about her case in a landmark "right to be forgotten" ruling. The doctor's registration on the register of healthcare professionals was initially suspended by a disciplinary panel because of her postoperative care of a patient. After an appeal, this was changed to a conditional suspension under which she was allowed to continue to practise."

"A whistleblower who works in Project Nightingale, the secret transfer of the personal medical data of up to 50 million Americans from one of the largest healthcare providers in the US to Google, has expressed anger to the Guardian that patients are being kept in the dark about the massive deal."

Interoperability in the healthcare system is the gateway to a successful healthcare information exchange. It has excellent benefits like it improves clinical decision-making and reduces time wasting. However, even though there are many attempts to implement the policy, interoperability still has barriers that stop it from success. There are still some third parties that use this for financial gains. Also, the people struggle with the technical and practical challenges of the protocol. Plus, privacy and trust are not truly gained in terms of the privacy and security of those data exchanges.