Med Tech From the Stethoscope to Smart Healthcare

Medical technology or “Med Tech” if you're cool and trendy 😂 has come a very long way from the humble thermometer and stethoscope. Today, wearable devices can continuously monitor our health, surgeons can operate with robotic assistance, artificial intelligence can help analyse medical images, and healthcare technology is more community and home based than ever before. 

In this episode of the Tech Show with AskMrsWatson.com, I take a non-technical journey through the past, present and future of Med Tech. I look at some of the innovations that changed healthcare forever, explore the technology already being used today, and consider what could be coming next from AI-assisted diagnosis and personalised medicine to smart devices and healthcare delivered in new and innovative ways.

Along the way, we’ll also consider the other side of the equation: privacy, security, accessibility, human oversight and the importance of making sure technology supports healthcare professionals rather than simply replacing human interaction.

Whether you love technology, avoid it whenever possible, or simply wonder what healthcare might look like ten years from now, have a listen to me chat about this fascinating area where opportunities and challenges are front and centre for all of us.

If you want to know more about Kate visit AskMrsWatson.com, follow @askmrswatson on Instagram or follow The AskMrsWatson show on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AskMrsWatsonShow/. I'll also be on the TikyTok before too long as well so keep your eyes peeled!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Hello and welcome to the Tech Show. Now, this episode was originally going to feature a guest, but unfortunately they couldn't make it, so it's just you and me. I thought I'd take this opportunity to explore something that affects practically every single one of us at some point in our lives, and that's medical technology, or as is increasingly called by the cool kids, MedTech. Now when I say medical technology, what immediately springs to mind? Maybe a huge MRI scanner, a robotic surgeon, a smartwatch telling you that your heart rate is a bit higher than usual. Or perhaps some futuristic artificial intelligence diagnosing illnesses before a doctor has even seen you. But MedTech is actually much broader than that. A pair of glasses is medical technology, a hearing aid is medical technology, a thermometer is medical technology, taking all those boxes. So is an artificial hip, a pacemaker, an insulin pump, an ultrasound machine, and that little device your DP puts on your finger to measure the oxygen in your blood. Your SAT, I think they call it. So think about glasses. I don't have glasses wearer, and if I put on a pair of glasses, nobody thinks, wow, look at that incredible piece of medical technology. But that's exactly what they are. Human beings have essentially developed a wearable device that compensates for a limitation in the body's optical system. We invented it hundreds of years before anyone thought of calling things wearables, and that's going to be one of the themes of today's show. Because medical technology isn't something that suddenly appeared with artificial intelligence. We've been using technology to understand, repair, replace, and enhance our human body for centuries. What's changed is that what the technology can now do, and perhaps even more importantly, how quickly it's developing. So over the next few minutes or so, we're gonna travel backwards first. We'll look at some of the inventions that completely transform medicine, and then we'll come up to the present day and look at the technology being used in healthcare now. And then finally, we'll have a look forward. Our omnipresent friend, artificial intelligence, robotic surgery, wearable technology, digital health, personalised medicine, and even technology that connects directly to the human nervous system. Let's start somewhere much simpler. Let's go back to a world where if something was wrong inside your body, your doctor had remarkably few ways of actually seeing what was happening. You're listening to the tech show from AskMrsWatson.com. For most of human history, medicine had a fairly significant problem. The human body is largely a closed box. A doctor could look at you, they could listen to you, they could touch you, and they could ask where it hurt. But actually seeing what was happening inside you was another matter entirely historically. And that's why some apparently simple technologies were revolutionary. Take the stethoscope, for example. That was invented in the early 19th century by French physician René Lenec. I don't know if I've said that correctly, please correct me if I'm wrong. The first version wasn't the familiar instrument we know today. It was essentially a wooden tube. But suddenly a doctor could listen to what was happening inside someone's chest far more clearly. Then came increasingly reliable thermometers, microscopes that improved our understanding of cells and microorganisms, even. But one of the really extraordinary breakthroughs came in 1895. German physicist Willem Rondgen was experimenting with electrical equipment when he discovered a mysterious form of radiation. He called them X-rays. And suddenly we can effectively look inside a human living body without cutting it open. So think about how extraordinary that must have seemed. Within months, X-rays will be investigated for medical use. And from there, our ability to look inside ourselves became increasingly sophisticated. That led to ultrasound, CT scanning, MRI scanning, and increasingly detailed medical imaging. Today, a clinician can examine structures inside your body in extraordinary detail. But medical technology didn't just help us see the body, it began to help us repair and support it. And one of the best examples of that is the pacemaker. Now, early attempts at electrically stimulating the heart involved equipment that was very definitely not something you'd want to carry around with you. But in 1958, the first implantable pacemaker was placed into a patient. Unfortunately, the original device only lasted a few hours apparently before failing. However, things have definitely improved. Modern pacemakers can operate for years monitoring the heart and delivering tiny electrical impulses whenever they're needed. So let's just think about what that actually represents. We have created a machine small enough to implant inside a human being that monitors part of the body's biological activity and intervenes when necessary. Now that sounds incredibly futuristic, yet pacemakers have been around for decades. Then we've got joint replacements, cochlear implants, dialysis machines, ventilators, defibulators, prosthetic limbs, all technologies that have either saved lives or dramatically improved people's quality of life. And there's another important shift happening throughout this story. Medical technology gradually moves from the hospital into the clinic and then eventually into our homes. And that's where things start becoming particularly interesting because some medical technology isn't sitting in a hospital at all. It's sitting on your wrist.com. If you've got a smartwatch or a fitness tracker, take a look at it. I'm thinking of getting one again, actually. Used to have one ages ago. Thinking of getting one again because I'm doing a sponsored better activity. More about that another time. But by wearing a smartwatch or a fitness tracker, you're potentially wearing a collection of sensors that would have seemed astonishing not that many years ago. Depending on the device, it might measure your heart rate, your movement, your sleep, your blood oxygen levels. Some devices can even produce an ECG. Some can detect patterns that might indicate an irregular heart rhythm. That's part of a much bigger transformation happening in MedTech. Healthcare traditionally works around snapshots. You feel unwell, you make an appointment, somebody measures something, could be your blood pressure, your pulse, your temperature, all three. Perhaps they run some tests, but that's only a snapshot of what was happening at that particular moment. Wearable technology introduces the possibility of something very different, continuous information. Instead of knowing what someone's heart rate was at quarter past ten on a Tuesday morning in a GP surgery, technology can potentially identify patterns across days, weeks, or months, and we've seen very similar developments with glucose monitoring. People living with diabetes can use continuous glucose monitors that provide information throughout the day without relying entirely on those repeated fingerprint tests. And I've got several people in my family that have diabetes, and uh yes, the little the little clicker and the sticks. Increasingly, those devices are all connected, and information can move from the sensor to the app, where appropriate, into healthcare systems. And then there's remote patient monitoring. Imagine someone recovering at home while their blood pressure, oxygen levels, or other measurements are being monitored remotely. Now that potentially means fewer hospital visits while still allowing healthcare professionals to identify when something might be changing. And then of course we've got robots. Robot assistic or robotic assisted surgery. Robotic assisted surgery allows surgeons to perform extremely precise movements using sophisticated surgical systems. It's worth clearing up what can be a common misconception here. When people hear robotic surgery, sometimes they imagine a robot deciding what operation to perform and then getting on with it. Generally that's not what's happening. The surgeon remains in control. The technology translates the surgeons' movements into extremely precise movements of surgical instruments. But alongside robotics and other technologies entered healthcare at extraordinary speed, and you know what I'm talking about, AI or artificial intelligence. AI systems are increasingly being explored and used to analyse medical images, identify patterns in data, support clinical decisions, streamline administrative work and assist with research. An AI system can potentially examine enormous numbers of images and look for patterns that might be difficult or time-consuming for humans to identify. But there is an important word in that sentence. And if you've listened to the podcast, you'll have heard me talk about and stress these kind of things before. That word was support. Because when you're dealing with people's health, an AI system producing an answer isn't the same as that answer automatically being correct. AI can make mistakes, data can be biased, systems can perform differently across different populations. Somebody still has to be accountable for decisions. Which means the future of medtech isn't just about what technology can do, it's also about what we decide it should do. And that's going to become a very big question as we move into the next generation of medical technology.com. So let's jump forward. What might medical technology look like over the next 10, 20, or 30 years? One of the biggest changes may be a move from reactive healthcare to predictive healthcare. At the moment, much of medicine begins once something goes wrong. You develop symptoms, you seek help, someone investigates, you receive a diagnosis, and the treatment begins. But if technology could spot the warning signs much earlier, how brilliant would that be? Imagine wearing wearable devices, monitoring subtle changes across multiple biological signals, such as your heart, your sleep, your movement, perhaps biochemical markers as well. An AI system noticing your normal pattern has changed, not enough for you to feel ill, but enough to suggest that something might be developing. So instead of you're ill, let's treat you, healthcare potentially becomes something appears to be changing, let's investigate it before you become ill. That's a profound shift. Also, we're already moving increasingly towards personalised medicine. Traditionally, treatments are often developed around what works for groups of people. So, you know, we've all been to the doctors and that's it's you know it's viral. Rest, drink fluids, here's some paracetamol. But as we know, human beings aren't identical. Our genetics differ, our lifestyles differ, our medical histories differ, our bodies respond differently. That combination of genetic information, medical records, imaging, biomarkers, and AI could increasingly allow treatments to be tailored right down to the individual. Then something else that's been with us for a while now: 3D printing. We're already able to print 3D print anatomical models and customized medical devices. Researchers are now exploring bioprinting. That is using cells and biological materials to create tissue-like structures. Whoa. So could we eventually print replacement tissues? Could we one day manufacture replacement organs using a patient's own cells? We're not at the point where you pop into the hospital and somebody prints you a new kidney while you wait. But that direction of travel is mind-blowing, isn't it? And then we can start to think about one of the most extraordinary areas, and again, this is with us now: brain computer interfaces. Scientists and technology companies are already developing systems that allow signals from the brain to interact with computers. So for somebody who's lost the ability to move or communicate, that potential for development of that technology is enormous. It's already possible to think about moving a cursor and the cursor moves. Thinking about selecting letters and words appear on a screen, or potentially allowing someone with paralysis to control assisted technology through neural signals. Then think about advanced prosthetics. Instead of an artificial limb being simply mechanical, a prosthetic hand that responds to signals from the nervous system, again, these already exist. And perhaps eventually provide meaningful sensory feedback in the other direction. So that point, the distinction between biology and technology is a little bit mind-bending, isn't it? Because if you think about it, medicine stops simply repairing the human body and potentially starts integrating technology into it. So for those of you that are three million years old like me, you'll remember the six million dollar woman and the six million dollar man. So that's what we're talking about here. But of course, all of these things create another enormous challenge, suite of challenges. The more connected our bodies become to technology, the more important things like cybersecurity, privacy, safety, and governance become. Because if your smartwatch knows your heart rhythm, your phone contains your health information, which it pretty much already does at the moment, and AI systems analysing your scan and an implanted device is helping regulate your body, again, it's already happening. Medical technology is also data technology, and that's some of the most sensitive information that we have.com. The big question then is how much technology do we want in our healthcare? Where does all of this brilliant stuff leave us? Medical technology has already achieved things that would have once sounded like science fiction. We can look inside the human body without surgery. We can replace joints, we can electrically regulate the heart, we can restore aspects of hearing, we can continuously monitor glucose, and surgeons can operate using robotic systems. And artificial intelligence can analyse medical information at scale no individual human possibly could. And we're still really relatively early in this story. So we need to consider how clever will medical technology become? And what relationship do we want to have with it? Because, like everything in life, there are trade-offs. Continuous health monitoring, amazing, could spot problems earlier. If we think about cancers and and and all those uh uh things that afflict and affect all of us, whether we've um had cancer or not. I think the stats now are one in two people are affected by cancer, aren't they? So what a difference early diagnosis could be there. But do we want to monitor ourselves continuously? Is it healthy to be constantly looking at our heart rate? AI could make healthcare so much more efficient. But where should the human be in the loop? The human professional, where should they be? And it needs to be clear that they remain responsible for the final decision. Personalized medicine could transform treatment, but it requires enormous quantities of very sensitive data and all the security issues that go with that. And environmental issues too. Connected medical devices could improve and save lives. But anything connected to a network also has to be secure. And then if we look at access, one of the risks with extraordinary medical innovation is that we create technologies that are capable of transforming lives, but only some people can access them. And that again is that ethical question and that accessibility question, which we face now when it comes to drugs that can be uh readily available in some parts of our planet and not in others. So the future of medtech isn't simply an engineering challenge, it's a social challenge, an ethical challenge, a privacy challenge, a cybersecurity challenge, and a regulatory challenge. Ultimately, I don't think it'll surprise you to know that I don't think the best future is one where technology replaces doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. It's one like in all other areas where technology gives them better tools, tools to help them see things earlier, understand things better, make better informed decisions, remove some of that repetitive administrative burden, and give healthcare professionals more time to do the thing technology still struggles massively with being human with another human being. And if you've watched Android on BBC iPlayer, it while it's very funny, it really demonstrates what it is to be human. And perhaps that's a whole thread running through this whole history of medical technology. From the first death scope to AI, the technology changes, but the objective hasn't. It's about helping us understand the human body, preventing suffering, treating illness, and helping people live longer and better lives. The tools are just becoming considerably more sophisticated. So next time your smartwatch, if you have one, tells you to stand up because you've been sitting down for too long. Oh, that feels like it's directed at me. Perhaps we shouldn't be quite so irritated. By wearing a smartwatch, you're wearing the latest chapter on a story of medical technology that's been unfolding for hundreds of years. So at the speed and scale that things develop, one can only imagine what we'll be wearing or have implanted 20 years from now. Well, that's all for me on this episode of the tech show. I hope you've enjoyed our meander through the past, the present, and the future of MedTech. If there's a particular piece of medical technology you think is going to transform healthcare over the next decade, I'd love to hear what you think. You can find me on all the socials, the Ask Mrs. Watson show, on Facebook, you can find me on that old TikTok, and you can find me online at askmrswatson.com. So until the next time, thanks for listening, and I'll see you soon.