10 years providing gentle clinical care to patients around the world.

19 years learning in schools across the US. 

100s of lives touched through medicine. 

Each of these have culminated to this point in my career & led me to the innovative forefront of this thrilling new journey in HealthTech!

Healthcare has always been incredibly dynamic and uniquely central to the human experience. This is what made healthcare so enticing to me to begin with. 

 

These days in particular, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) gaining significant traction, we’re experiencing an even greater revolution in the way we diagnose, treat, and manage diseases. This makes healthcare even more exciting than before!

Coming from a background in clinical medicine, I’ve realized that as with any new topic, I first need to develop a foundational understanding of what AI & ML are. Then we can consider their profound implications in healthcare.

 

Here’s what I’ve found – 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is quite literally what it sounds like. 

It’s a machine-simulated form of human intelligence. This simulation allows machines to perform tasks that usually require human intelligence. Tasks like understanding natural language (i.e. human language [English, Mandarin, etc.] used to communicate between people), recognizing patterns, and solving problems.

Some popular subfields within AI are Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP).

 

Machine Learning (ML), as mentioned earlier, is a subset of AI. 

It particularly focuses on the development of algorithms that enable computers to continually learn & improve performance on a specific task. The most important part – all this happens without explicit programming… 

It’s like teaching kids, in a way.

At first you have to tell the kids exactly what needs to be done. Every morning, they have to be told to make their bed, brush their teeth, comb their hair, etc. Eventually, they learn to do it themselves without being told because they’ve been told enough times. They’ve gathered enough datapoints and gained enough experience. And they’ve gotten better at it too since they’ve done it so many times. Basically, they use data to identify patterns and make predictions/decisions on what must be done. 

That’s basically what ML is – machines learning how to do things without being told each time what to do.

Along with figuring out these two big buzz words lately, I’ve also been navigating the similarities & differences among HealthTech, Digital Health, MedTech, and BioTech. Here’s what I’ve understood so far- 

HealthTech (Healthcare Technology):

Encompasses any technology designed to improve healthcare delivery & outcomes. 

Digital Health:

This is a subset of HealthTech. Primarily deals with digital tools for improving healthcare…This can encompass telemedicine (UPMC Telehealth), wearable devices (WHOOP), and health management apps (MyFitnessPal). 

This one’s cool to me because of the global experiences I’ve had in healthcare. In those cases, I’ve gone to different countries to provide care + conduct research. It required my physical presence in those places. Digital health, however, is global by nature – it brings the whole world together. Even in the most remote areas, like the valleys of Cochabamba in Bolivia where I helped set up a maternal & child health literacy program, most people had mobile phones. It would take a clinician in that area 2 hours to reach a patient and provide care, but a telehealth platform would provide that same expertise within seconds. Absolutely life-changing.

Basically, digital health is truly at the center of future healthcare solutions, and has a massive market & potential to save lives!

BioTech (Biotechnology):

This one is more rooted in the traditional biological sciences. This is where those big name companies like Moderna, BioNTech, and Novavax belong. BioTech uses biological processes or organisms to develop technologies for the purpose of improving health. This is where we’ll find more of the genetic engineering, gene therapy, biopharm development, and novel molecular therapies. 

MedTech (Medical Technology):

Then we have MedTech – this is where the medical devices & equipment come in. Everything from diagnostic equipment to prosthetics fall into this category.

So, in summary, while HealthTech, Digital Health, BioTech, and MedTech are all essential components of the healthcare ecosystem, each of them have a unique focus:

• HealthTech harnesses technology to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes.
• Digital Health emphasizes digital tools and platforms for health and wellness.
• BioTech centers on biologically-based innovations for treatments and therapies.
• MedTech focuses on medical devices and equipment to enhance patient care.

I have now covered the basics of technology in healthcare…Different domains in healthcare-related technologies + introduction of AI/ML to the arena. As I continue my journey in HealthTech, I will be posting more of my insights on a variety of topics – companies I find exciting, new information I learn, opportunities I identify for growth in the industry, and thought pieces in general.

Stay tuned!