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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2016 | Volume
: 2
| Issue : 4 | Page : 170 |
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Spreading the value of digital medicine around the world
Denise Silber
President of Basil Strategies, Board Member of Patient Empowerment Foundation, France
| Date of Web Publication | 3-Mar-2017 |
Correspondence Address:
Denise Silber
Basil Strategies 1, Rue Jacques Offenbach, Paris
France
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/digm.digm_48_16
How to cite this article:
Silber D. Spreading the value of digital medicine around the world. Digit Med 2016;2:170 |
Dear Editor,
Today, achieving international collaboration in digital medicine is more critical than ever as we enter an era of new game-changing platforms. Connected objects and sensors will lead us to preventative medicine; virtual reality will take us to digital therapeutics [1] and second-generation medical education.[2] The algorithms of artificial intelligence facilitate the development of precision medicine.
However, while we learn almost daily about new digital tools and solutions for professionals and patients, their uptake is, for the vast majority of tools, quite slow. This pattern of eHealth hype and stagnation has been amply studied by the Gartner Group. The challenges began with the earliest digital tools, such as telemedicine and electronic health records. Even today, these two essential building blocks of digital medicine operate only exceptionally around the world. Moreover, every healthcare stakeholder has felt frustrated. Academic professionals typically have had to choose between recognition in their discipline and working on eHealth. Patients have had to go it alone, almost forbidden to discuss their interest in new technologies with their providers, alone to seek out patients like themselves, and alone to fight their way toward a seat at the table. Governments have been hesitant to certify eHealth innovations from websites, applications of algorithms, and insurers to finance them. Hence, unfortunately, many high-potential applications have typically remained at the pilot level well beyond a reasonable time frame.
We cannot afford to miss out on these opportunities! However, what should we do? It is urgent to expand communication across professions, stakeholder groups, and geographic boundaries and thus wish to salute the creation of both the International Society of Digital Medicine (ISDM) and its European chapter. Exposure by interested stakeholders to respected, academic publications such as the Digital Medicine journal with contents that cross geographical and disciplinary boundaries will undoubtedly accelerate collaboration and ultimately promote the integration of digital tools.
As an eHealth expert, evangelist, and entrepreneur and as the trustee of the Patient Empowerment Foundation, I seek to encourage the sharing of digital tools that reinforce patient empowerment and the patient-provider experience.
I hope to submit articles and reviews over the coming months to share with other European and Global ISDM members and wish to take this opportunity to wish both ISDM and the European chapter of ISDM every success.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Ortiz-Catalan M, Guðmundsdóttir RA, Kristoffersen MB, Zepeda-Echavarria A, Caine-Winterberger K, Kulbacka-Ortiz K, et al. Phantom motor execution facilitated by machine learning and augmented reality as treatment for phantom limb pain: A single group, clinical trial in patients with chronic intractable phantom limb pain. Lancet 2016;388:2885-94.  |
| 2. | Thomsen AS, Smith P, Subhi Y, Cour M, Tang L, Saleh GM, et al. High correlation between performance on a virtual-reality simulator and real-life cataract surgery. Acta Ophthalmol 2016. |
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