Digital medicine offers a "rich resource" to empower healthcare professionals and patients alike, Eric Topol, M.D., writes in introducing a new reoccurring column on the topic in The Lancet.
In the column, Topol and his colleagues will explore topics such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and the medically connected smart home, he says.
Topol, a cardiologist who is the director of the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, has been a prominent voice in the push to digital innovation in healthcare.
The new column starts with a piece on how technology can improve treatment of hypertension.
The long-used blood pressure cuff, he writes, presents just a one-off measurement that might not tell the whole story. It presents one point in time, failing to capture how pressure can change within minutes against various stimuli, at night, or show patterns over time.
As consumer-grade wearables that are able to monitor blood pressure continuously become available, however, patients and their doctors can gain a more comprehensive understanding of environmental and behavioral influences on their blood pressure, according to Topol.
But measurements alone won’t overcome all the obstacles to effectively treating hypertension once it’s identified as a problem, he adds.
Smartphone apps, however, could help by aggregating data, providing visualizations, analytics and machine learning to dig into a person’s unique trends to better understand how factors such as activity, weight, nutrition and medication play into blood pressure management, he says.
To learn more:
- here's the introduction abstract
- read the blood pressure abstract