IT giants in medicine

“Someday Apple greatest credit to humanity will be what it has done for medicine," said Tim Cook, CEO of the IT giant.

There are >54,000 health-related apps in the App Store.
▪️ Most of them are FDA approved.
▪️ Reference and information apps (such as Medscape) are used by doctors.
▪️ Apps measuring vital signs (such as Heart Rate) are used by patients.
▪️ The App Store has apps aimed at at-risk patients (for example, those who may develop melanoma due to an abundance of moles).

▪️ The special Research Kit platform from Apple enables doctors to find volunteers for clinical trials.
▪️ Yale University School of Medicine declined the use of paper textbooks in favor of Apple iPads.
▪️ Physicians working in remote areas use Apple devices as medical equipment (for example, they can connect a portable ophthalmoscope to the iPad and view retinal images on the screen).
▪️ The Apple Watch not only monitors its owner's vital signs but also alerts his/her doctor about abnormalities (e.g., blood pressure fluctuations). Apple Watch is officially used in some American clinics (Nebraska Medicine, Ochsner Health System, King's College Hospital).
▪️ Apple plans to create its own medical service working in a similar format (monitoring and alerting).

They are what, as explained by Bill Gates, the founder of the IT giant, saved lives in pandemic-stricken Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Vietnam.

Some technologies have been created specifically to fight COVID-19.

Below we have collected facts about those Microsoft digital products which were released relatively recently (including during the pandemic years) and seemed to us the most interesting.
▪️ The Cloud for Healthcare platform released by Microsoft in October 2020 (during the fight against COVID-19), emphasizes remote-format medicine.
▪️ Doctors can create a schedule and conduct virtual appointments using a special application Bookings, integrated in Cloud for Healthcare.
▪️ Besides, if necessary, doctors can communicate with each other.

▪️ On the other hand, patients can self-assess their health status by connecting to a chatbot (including a covid-bot).
▪️ If, during the “communication” with the patient, the chatbot detects alarming symptoms, it will automatically switch him/her over to the operator.
▪️ During the pandemic, Microsoft Teams was recognized as one of the best online conferencing platforms.
▪️ Microsoft offers to convert into virtual format not only meetings but also all documentation - it should be available not only in hard copy but also in hologram mode, for example.
▪️ The HoloLens2 mixed reality device developed by Microsoft enables doctors to view pictures or consult with colleagues virtually, in hologram mode.
▪️ Thanks to Nuance (the company that created artificial intelligence-based voice recognition technology acquired by Microsoft for $19.7 billion), doctors no longer take notes manually - they dictate them to a virtual assistant.
▪️ The Nuance technology is now used by the majority of hospitals in the U.S. - more than 90%.

“With eyes wide open, with the realization that this is not an easy task,” says Jeff Bezos, the retailer’s owner.
He says the health care system needs to change in a way that, on the one hand, makes it less costly and, on the other hand, improves the employees’ and their families’ lives.
Bezos is confident that “it's worth it”.

Here's what Amazon has already managed to do following its founding father's strategy:
▪️ Amazon has its own online pharmacy, Amazon Pharmacy
▪️ Amazon Pharmacy customers can buy not only regular over-the-counter drugs but also those that are strictly prescribed.
▪️ Those who suffer from chronic diseases and need constant medication can get them on an individual delivery schedule (through the PillPack service).
▪️Amazon tries to become part of the medical B2B ecosystem - linking goods (medications/equipment) to the customer (hospital/clinic).

▪️Despite the fact that large medical institutions are not yet willing to change their established supply chains, private medical centers and dental offices choose Amazon as an intermediary site.
▪️With Amazon's AWS Health platform, medical organizations are “digitizing” their operations (implementing ML and AI technologies, introducing electronic charts, etc.).
▪️All Amazon employees (1.1 million persons) are covered by health insurance.
▪️Amazon actively develops corporate telemedicine.
▪️While in 2019 the Amazon Care telemedicine platform served only the retailer's headquarters in Seattle, now it is already active in 8 cities. 20 cities (including New York, San Francisco, Miami and Chicago) will be covered by telemedicine by the end of the year.
▪️Many American clinics (e.g., Cedars-Sinai) use a voice assistant from Amazon Alexa. It actually takes over some of the duties of a nurse - reminds patients to take their medications, reads books, plays music, etc.