Digital Health Technology In Australia
I’ve taken the opportunity to reflect on my understanding of digital health technology adoption in Australia, and how it’s currently shaping their future with regard to healthcare providers. I would like to thank everyone who made this blog possible! While researching, I asked my colleagues at work if they thought we should have started a blog to cover some relevant stuff — I was not prepared for what came next (no pun intended). I hope you find it useful. Thanks, everyone!
A brief introduction to DHA tech
Digital health (DHA) refers to all technologies or applications that are used in healthcare data collection and analysis. The term originated in 1999 in the United States. This includes any platform where patients can access healthcare services anywhere, anytime, through a smartphone, tablet, laptop, web browser, connected medical devices, or even through other channels like social media. But these aren’t the only ones that are called “digital”. There are several others too. Let me provide a few examples of the many different kinds of DHA features and tools that are widely used across the world.
Analytics / Data analytics:
There are two main types of data analyzed by DHA technologies: one is from the patient records themselves, and another is the summary reports generated by various healthcare systems. For instance, when people seek out information about their own health from a government website, these kinds of data have huge potential. However, there is also more generalized data that can be analyzed in ways ranging from analyzing lab data to identifying the amount of sugar in an individual blood sample to determine whether you have heart disease. Another example would be identifying what type of treatment you are currently receiving or what age group of your children is receiving medication. A lot of work is done in order to generate good quality insight from the medical information, and the data is then analyzed based on its relevance.
DHA is also used by governments and large organizations to analyze specific populations. Such as the Australian census, for example. By aggregating such information, data scientists can make more granular predictions about the population using statistical models. One example would be predicting that someone can get sicker due to a particular lifestyle.
Many technologies are also being used for cancer screening and diagnosis. These include machine learning algorithms for spotting small changes in a test result and detecting early signs of disease, plus a variety of radiographic imaging techniques to improve detection. You can learn more about how this technology could be used here.
Other application areas
Social networks, chat rooms, and video calls are just some of the many other aspects of digital health which can be found to date. Some of these areas are becoming increasingly important in current times due to the increase in cybercrimes. That is partially why Google released Veracity, their AI system which uses deep learning to analyze millions of real-world messages and help users take back control. Whilst our focus this time has been on digital applications. So let us now discuss some common ones that are present in the everyday lives of Australians.
Google Apps & Notifications for smartphones
Google apps on your mobile are a great way to easily install new software and updates to your phone without needing to download anything from the internet. They are free on both Android and iOS, but some may be a little bit more expensive. Additionally, you can add them to your home screen instead of searching for apps that are most suitable for you.
This is the first app that comes to mind when I think of digital health. It allows you to set reminders to play a game, check email, and update contact info on Facebook and other websites. This is so easy because both Apple and Android have already built-in app support for this feature, whilst the same will be available for Windows 10 coming soon!
The latest version is 1.3, so it's fast and simple enough for you to install almost every application you wish for.
Apple Fitness & iPhone Watch
Apple fitness and watch are one of the oldest apps that have remained active on the iPhone since 2012. And with 1 million installs, it is still the go-to option for getting fit, having a more accurate picture of what your body is doing in a gym, or simply having better insights into how well you are eating. Or perhaps for more detailed monitoring, these can be paired to the watch, allowing easy tracking of your activity and how it affects body composition. As mentioned before, this can easily be installed on the watch itself. Plus, you can connect them to your Apple TV through Bluetooth connectivity. An always-on display, as well. Apple fitness has come up quite handy for students and even professionals as well, offering a wide range of classes from yoga and Pilates to running and strength training, or anything else you can imagine.
Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger is one of the most popular communication platforms around. Many social and business apps allow integration. Facebook is no exception, as well. WhatsApp has become very popular recently, with over three billion users and counting — this means that Facebook receives a vast share of mobile traffic. As a result, this provides Facebook Messenger with the ability to see how much conversation people are having and how active they are. Once you register for a Facebook account, you can start using Messenger for free. If you want to use WhatsApp for business purposes, to send emails or hold meetings with customers, all you need to do is sign up for an invite in their official Facebook Group account. Then you can communicate with your contacts on Messenger for free.
You can also activate your Instagram profile and create a personal page. Furthermore, you can easily import pictures with the click of a button, choose photos over text as your background image, or just pick a photo of your dog’s face as your wallpaper. There is even an option to change your colors, and choose your custom fonts! If you want to add other stickers, you can easily do so with the swipe command. Lastly, you can also set up notifications to remind you when they are going to be delivered.
One thing I am missing is how messaging works today. Instead of typing out a message, voice calls work really well. We would also love to hear about how businesses look to integrate mobile apps and chatbots into their existing infrastructure. Do you know what your thoughts are? Send me an article!
Chatbots vs Messaging
Chatbots are already fairly popular these days, especially among younger demographics. From being able to solve complex queries to complete certain tasks via a pre-written script, a chatbot can make life easier for many businesses, from finding directions to filling forms and answering FAQs to completing mundane tasks. With the growing popularity of virtual assistants, however, many companies are looking into making their employees more productive and efficient or providing a quick answer to urgent matters. Chatbots are also gaining traction among brands who also don’t want to deal with hiring a human employee.
Chatbots can be integrated with different platforms, including Facebook Messenger and Skype for Business. Companies are trying to make their bot even smarter by adding skills like natural language processing, decision management, and business process automation. It has already become commonplace to say that bots will eventually outgrow humans, and by incorporating artificial intelligence into their processes, they will soon resemble human employees more than ever.
One interesting aspect of chatbots is that they can be trained on their job. Most bots use a predefined dataset to train their knowledge base, so a company does not need to hire anyone to teach the bot anything new. Therefore, once someone becomes successful with a given skill set, they can continue to teach the bot, providing the same sort of assistance they provided by human staff. This makes the bot more efficient at performing the task, rather than relying solely on a person to help out. More importantly, your regular customer service person will likely become less important, especially if they are no longer managing a large organization. Bots are slowly replacing human agents.
Messaging allows your company to operate efficiently and effectively. It gives you instant access to your customers and keeps track of contact details, or keeps tabs on your team, particularly during peak periods. Thus, messaging helps you stay connected with each other and your clients. Being able to interact with your business, without actually reaching out to a human to physically respond means that businesses can move quickly. To summarise, messaging is a powerful tool, especially when coupled with chatbots.
One key component that goes beyond messaging is cloud computing. Cloud computing and virtualization is essential in enabling cloud computing to become accessible to smaller businesses. Through cloud computing, servers are located in multiple locations, allowing you to save money while you manage fewer physical servers. Similarly, cloud computing allows your workforce to gain increased flexibility with your IT resources, whilst keeping costs low.
Cloud computing can also help you gain more efficiency from how companies handle their storage space. Depending on the size of your business, you will probably be dealing with multiple clientele — not just regular customers, but also international customers as well. Storage is a difficult element to optimize, so you may find yourself spending more money on storage space compared to what was originally budgeted for. Fortunately, data and hosting solutions can give you a solution. According to Cisco Systems, cloud solutions can be accessed from nearly any geographical location, and can easily deploy content, servers, and other components when needed.
IoT/Internet of Things
IoT as the buzzword describes Internet-enabled objects or things that can be controlled remotely. IoT includes any device or hardware system which can be connected to a network, as well as internet protocols that enable communications between these devices. Devices that are designed to be connected to a network for a number of reasons come under this category. Examples would be the sensors built into your computer and phones, the cameras on YouTube videos, or the cameras on your drones. All you need to do is use the correct technology.
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