The Knowledge to Decide

Amazon is eyeing the healthcare sector. It has rolled out a line of private label, over-the-counter medicines along with medical supplies for hospitals, doctors and dentists. Whether it is selling prescription or generic drugs, Amazon seems poised to disrupt the healthcare industry. However, Amazon faces its own share of hurdles. It will need licenses from each state to be able to sell medical supplies.  Medical practitioners may prefer to stay loyal existing sales channels. Waiting 24 to 48 hours for a pain or cold medicine means that customers may still run to the nearest pharmacy. Will Amazon disrupt the healthcare industry? For more information, click here.

Despite the trend towards digitalized healthcare, there are many healthcare systems dependent upon paper records. This often results in issues with record retrieval and security. This is where DeepMind, Google’s artificial intelligence subsidiary, is stepping in for a pilot project with a hospital under the British National Health Service (NHS). This platform aims to simplify the process of sharing patient data by sharing accurate information about the patient’s medical condition. Moreover, alerts will be provided to staff when patient’s results suggest a high risk, along with data and recommendations on the next course of action. The platform aims to reduce staff response time to deliver timely treatment, which could in turn, save lives. Will real-time alerts from digitalized healthcare save lives? https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/spirethoughts/google-pushes-paperless-healthcare/

In what some have dubbed the Third Industrial Revolution, 3D printing is now allowing consumers to be masters of their own manufactured durable goods. But Asian countries will need to work a lot harder to avoid becoming laggards in this transformative new field. What is 3D printing? 3D printing refers to the process of making a three-dimensional solid object of virtually any shape from a digital model using powder, molten plastic or metals. It first slices a 3D computer model into layers, then builds the object one layer at a time using the 3D printer. The quality of the end-product is dependent on various factors, such as the base material, thinness of the layers, mechanics of the printer as well as the amount of preparation taken into consideration for the 3D computer model. Also known as additive manufacturing, 3D printing seeks to distinguish itself from “subtractive manufacturing”. The latter involves the cutting down and pairing-off materials to attach them together

The movement to digitize healthcare information promises to deliver massive gains in efficiency, effectiveness and patient access to personal data. The next steps in this revolution involve making health data accessible via mobile devices and applying big data analytics. Can healthcare IT really revolutionize the age-old healthcare industry? Medical records have traditionally been stored at hospitals and medical centers in the form of paper or analogue film explaining the old joke about doctor’s handwriting. Remarkably, a large share of medical records across the world is still stored in this way, especially in developing economies. But for decades now, a quiet revolution has been underway to make medical information digital, portable across different medical institutions, amenable to big data analytics and accessible to the patient. This revolution is now nearing the tipping point when big changes may become visible. Nowadays, leading healthcare providers in develop