One way to think of Health 3.0 is as a conglomeration of several technologies:
- Big Data
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- The Internet of Things (IoTs)
- The Semantic Web
- Block Chain
For Physicians Big Data is reasonably easy to conceptualize. We are use to thinking in terms of medical studies with thousands of participants, or meta-analyses with data sets of tens of thousands, so the conceptual movement towards data sets of millions or billions is reasonable.
With AI, conceptualization is a little harder; for example, the most significant practical innovation in Narrow AI came via deep learning via back propagation. ( If you don’t know what back propagation is then you are a little stuck in understanding narrow AI); But hey, we have all seen R2D2 in Star Wars, so at least we have an intuitive understanding of Broad AI, pr AI approaching human intelligence.
The IoTs technologies also aren’t too hard to get a handle on either. We are use to working with machines in the OR and the ICU, so it doesn’t take much for physicians or healthcare executives to see the benefits of a set of medical devices interconnected with each other.
The Semantic Web is at a higher level of conceptualization because it requires some background in Ontology and Topology. However, even here, if we are familiar with PubMed and it’s use of the MeSH system, we can begin to understand how networks of information can be organized and searched in terms of meaning rather than just information.
However, Blockchain is a whole different beast and I believe the paucity of healthcare research noted in my chart above stems not from a lack of potential but a lack of conceptual understanding about what it fundamentally is.
An what is it? A decentralized, fully distributed database technology without any superimposed administrative structure, allowing for information to be exchanged seamlessly between two parties with nearly unbreakable encryption, but with complete tracking. Transactional trust is driven by the structure itself, not trust in such things as passwords and firewalls. 5
A theoretical example of Blockchain in Healthcare? Think Bitcoin for EHR, in which HIPPA would be irrelevant!
Anyway, Blockchain applications for healthcare are in the somewhat distant future, but on the upside, with only 26 articles published so far, there may be a chance to finally “keep up on the literature “ on a subject – at least before it takes off!