[Book review] Digital Healthcare: The Future of Medicine

Source: Young Physician

Recommended for the following people!

• Medical professionals and future medical professionals who have relatively more time to read

• People who want to have a general understanding of the field of digital healthcare

• Those curious about how the future of healthcare will change

• Stakeholders in the field of digital healthcare (venture investors, policy makers, etc.)

• High school and university students considering careers related to computer science, electronics, and healthcare

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This book is fascinating. It encapsulates the vast field of digital healthcare into a single volume. The book is a hardback and is quite thick. Without even considering the references, the content extends to 650 pages. However, after reading it, you will be amazed that such a massive amount of content could be contained within just 650 pages.

The book covers literally every topic within digital healthcare. It doesn’t just skim the surface; it dives deep into topics like wearables, smartphones, telemedicine, and digital therapeutics with real-world examples, discussing the current state and future of digital healthcare. It’s not just broad in scope, but also deep.

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Part 1: Digital Healthcare is Coming

The book is divided into four main parts. In the first part, “Digital Healthcare is Coming,”the author discusses the inevitable change that digital healthcare has already brought about. IT companies like Google are acquiring insurance companies and expanding into the healthcare sector, while innovative healthcare startups and their venture investors are growing in number.

P4 Medicine Components. Source: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

One of the key terms the book emphasizes is “data.” In an era where we can measure and manage vast amounts of data throughout a person’s life, the author discusses why data is crucial and how the so-called “P4 Medicine” becomes possible.

💡 What is P4 Medicine?

Part 2: How is Digital Healthcare Implemented

In the second part, “How is Digital Healthcare Implemented,” the author breaks down the realization of digital healthcare into three main stages.

In the first stage, data measurement, the author examines what data is collected and how it is collected in the field of digital healthcare. From genetic information at birth to everyday data measured by smartphones or wearable devices, and even the somewhat unfamiliar concept of digital phenotyping, the author explains these with specific examples of data collection in digital healthcare.

Apple Health Record Interface. Source: Apple Healthcare Website

In the second stage, data integration, the book addresses how to consolidate data collected through various methods. It introduces the concept of healthcare data platforms that can integrate various types of data through examples such as Apple Health Record and Validic, which were introduced in a previous post.

This naturally raises questions about what data integration can enable, which the author addresses by introducing Google’s Baseline Project, the U.S. government-led All-of-Us Project, and more.

In the final stage, data analysis, the book delves into methods to derive meaning from collected data. As we all know, merely collecting data is not enough. The key to the third stage is how to analyze vast amounts of data to use them effectively.

The author provides examples of the benefits we can gain from vast data, such as remote patient monitoring and telemedicine cases overseas.

Telemedicine is a highly controversial topic in our country. Source: Getty Images Bank

Let’s address a key point emphasized in the book: the distinction between telemedicine and telehealth. As the book stresses, these are not the same concepts, and telemedicine is rather a subset of telehealth. The book explains telemedicine as follows:

Let’s first distinguish between telehealth and telemedicine. Understand telemedicine as replacing a doctor’s in-office consultation with remote consultation via communication technology.

In other words, the image that commonly comes to mind with telehealth—receiving a consultation via video call—falls under telemedicine. Other kinds, such as remote patient monitoring or remote surgery, are telehealth but not telemedicine.

Currently, there’s a lack of proper discussion and clear definitions for these terms in our country due to various issues. Prior to delving into detailed matters, the book clearly defines these terms. Moreover, it elaborates on the various attempts in the field of remote patient monitoring and telemedicine by introducing cases like diabetes patient monitoring and companies like Teladoc.

Of course, the book doesn’t miss mentioning the inseparable partner of data analysis—artificial intelligence. The role of AI in digital healthcare is well introduced in the author’s previous work, ‘Medical Artificial Intelligence’, but interesting cases like IBM Watson and atrial fibrillation diagnosis via smartphones are also included in this book.

Part 3: New Waves and Challenges in Digital Healthcare

In the third part, “New Waves and Challenges in Digital Healthcare,” the book discusses the current state and issues of digital therapeutics, a hot topic in the overseas digital healthcare field, and wearable devices, which are lagging behind expectations.

This section of the book was particularly impressive. It not only introduces the hottest topics in the overseas digital healthcare field but also delves into the challenges inevitably faced in the field of digital healthcare and ways to overcome them through wearables with specific examples.

Although somewhat exaggerated, one can think of digital therapeutics as apps that replace drugs. Of course, they are not limited to app forms. They are a type of software treated as medical devices (SaMD). For a detailed explanation of SaMD, refer to Dr. Sooyong Shin’s article. Digital therapeutics use digital technology to not only diagnose and prevent diseases but also treat them like a drug.

Woebot, a counseling app for depression. I tried it and found it very cute and healing. Source: thephuketnews.com

The book doesn’t leave out wearable devices either. As it mentions, healthcare wearables are experiencing a dark age compared to initial expectations, producing sluggish results. Through various cases like Google Glass and the Apple Watch, the author analyzes success and failure factors and suggests ways to make wearables continuously engaging and useful for users.

I can’t introduce the entire content of the book, but the part about the economic utility of wearables was particularly impressive. For example, if an insurance policyholder wearing a wearable device runs a certain number of kilometers each day to prove “I’m living a healthy life,” the insurance company provides a financial incentive to the policyholder.

Since insurance companies benefit from policyholders maintaining their health, wearables benefit both the insurance company and the policyholder. It was especially interesting to learn that major U.S. insurance companies like John Hancock have actually adopted such models.

Honestly, I previously worked on a project called EpiWatch, an app that detects and alerts about seizures using the Apple Watch, and I’ve also worn a Fitbit for about a year for health management.

However, the EpiWatch project was halted for various complex reasons, and the Fitbit now remains merely as a small decoration in a corner of my room. It could be that I found the approximately 100 pages discussing the present and future of wearables particularly interesting because I have personally experienced the struggles in the healthcare wearables field.

“I’ll be back when the mood gets down again!” Wearables will return, no doubt about it—they are a core part of digital healthcare…

Thus, the third part of the book is a rich chapter encapsulating the potential and limitations of the digital healthcare field, and ways to overcome those limitations.

Part 4: The Path to the Future

The fourth part, “The Path to the Future,” presents how players in the digital healthcare field, including big businesses, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, startups, and government departments, should proceed to create the future. It discusses what needs to be considered to not just enter the digital healthcare field but to remain competitive within it, illustrated with specific examples.

The book concludes with ten proposals for the future of digital healthcare in Korea, based on the author’s insights. According to the author, this section is particularly beneficial for policymakers, focusing on how to foster an environment conducive to the growth of digital healthcare in Korea’s medical system and government institutions. Of course, it’s still enlightening for the general reader.

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The book is well-supplemented to ensure that even readers without prior knowledge can easily grasp its concepts. Therefore, it serves as an excellent introduction to the field of digital healthcare. The writing is clear and smooth, so there’s no need to be intimidated by the thickness of the book.

The book (left) and my driver’s license (right). The book is quite thick, but there’s no need to be intimidated.

This book would be valuable not only for medical professionals or industry experts but also for high school and university students or future medical professionals. I say this probably because I am a student myself. The privilege of students is that they can decide on a direction for their studies and focus on it to prepare for the changing future.

Overall، for those interested in the subject of digital healthcare, this book comes highly recommended without hesitation. Of course, if you are interested in this field, you likely won’t need this recommendation to pick up the book…