High tech & old

This week my new computer arrived after I was ageing for a few weeks. Most computers at WHO are small laptops that you can connect to a working station and disconnect when you have to travel. You even have two screens where you can split tasks. And you can install Skype and other useful tools. The help desk is in Kuala Lumpur as is most of WHO administrative support. But it works and I already phoned them late at night (at least for them).

So it is a good week to write a bit about technology and ageing. For example, this week I learnt more about the possibilities of big data / data mining to better treat old people. Up till now, treatment protocols are mostly based on the average patient. Of course there is no such thing as an average patient so decisions on treatment, placements in nursing homes and prioritization with waiting lines are often wrong. But if you use big cohort studies and try to match patients with similar patients in the past, you can better forecast what will happen to them. Due to the large data sets, there will always be a set of patients that had similar diseases and symtoms at any given point of time. As you know what happened to these other patients, you can better predict whether you are better off with home care or in a nursing home. Or doctors can forecast that given your present condition, how much will your ADL score change when you will get a certain intervention (ADL stands for activities of daily living). That will lead to better and more cost effective decisions and may also save a lot of money.

There are many other interesting applications of technology for the eldery. For example health mobile phone apps can monitor whether an old person is still active (moving around or communicating as usual). If not, the device will inform a care giver who can call or visit the immobile older person. A bit inpersonal maybe but very effective. EU research projects have mapped the opportunities for various high tech applications for the different diseases.

 A bit less age specific technology development, but worth mentioning is that this week the three global intergovernmental bodies dealing with health, intellectual property and trade have issued a study of the mix of policies needed to advance medical and health technologies and to ensure that they reach the people who need them. The book, “Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation: Intersections between Public Health, Intellectual Property and Trade,” was launched on 5 February 2013, by the heads of the three bodies — the World Health Organization (WHO), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and World Trade Organization (WTO).

The book covers a broad range of complex, yet linked, issues relating to public health and innovation in medical technologies, with the ultimate goal of accessibility — making medical advances available globally to all who are sick.

The book looks in some depth at the development of medical technologies, modern research and development, ways of providing incentives for innovation, and ways of dealing with market failures, in particular with new products for treating neglected diseases. I was involved in this proces some years ago when the topic was on the agenda of the World Health Assembly, leading to negotiations that lasted till deep in the night.

To read the two-page summary of the book, click here: www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/trilat_5feb13_e.html

So much about ageing and technology. Probably I will come back to this issue again, as there are so many developments in this field. It will also be a topic that will be addressed during our high level meeting.