The Next Data-Driven Healthtech Revolution

Increasing your healthspan (i.e. making 100 years old the new 60) will depend to a large degree on artificial intelligence.

And as in most applications of machine learning, healthcare AI systems are extremely data-hungry.

Fortunately, a slew of new sensors and data acquisition methods — including over 302 million wearables shipped in 2019 — are bursting onto the scene to meet the massive demand for medical data. 

From ubiquitous biosensors, to the mobile healthcare revolution, to the transformative power of the Health Nucleus and their 100+ program, converging exponential technologies are fundamentally transforming our approach to healthcare.

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

Today, I expand on how we’re acquiring the data to fuel today's artificial intelligence in healthcare.

In this blog, I’ll explore:

1. How the Health Nucleus is transforming “sick care” to healthcare.

2. Sensors, wearables and nanobots.

3. The advent of mobile health.

Let’s dive in.

(Note #1: If you like this blog, share it! | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Or send your friends and family to this link to subscribe!)

(Note #2: Want to gain first hand exposure to the breakthroughs covered in this blog? Consider joining my Abundance Platinum Longevity & Immunity Trip and meet with the top 30+ scientists, CEOs, labs and startups spearheading the next decade of longevity.)

Health Nucleus: Transforming ‘Sick Care’ to Healthcare

Much of today’s healthcare system is actually sick care. 

Most of us assume that we’re perfectly healthy, with nothing going on inside our bodies, until the day we travel to the hospital writhing in pain only to discover a serious or life-threatening condition. 

Chances are that your ailment didn’t materialize that morning; rather, it’s been growing or developing for some time. You simply weren’t aware of it.

At that point, once you’re diagnosed as “sick,” our medical system engages to take care of you. 

What if, instead of this retrospective and reactive approach, you were constantly monitored, so that you could know the moment anything was out of whack? 

Better yet, what if you more closely monitored those aspects of your body that your gene sequence predicted might cause you difficulty? Think: your heart, your kidney, your breasts. 

Such a system becomes personalized, predictive and possibly preventative. 

This is the mission of the Health Nucleus 100+ platform built by Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI).

While not continuous — that will come later, with the next generation of wearable and implantable sensors — the Health Nucleus 100+ is designed to ‘digitize’ you once per year to help you determine whether anything is going on inside your body that requires immediate attention.

The Health Nucleus visit provides you with the following tests during a half-day visit:

1. Whole genome sequencing (30x coverage)

2. Whole body (non-contrast) MRI

3. Brain magnetic resonance imaging/angiography (MRI/MRA)

4. Heart MRI

5. Coronary artery calcium scoring

6. Electrocardiogram

7. Echocardiogram

8. EKG Exam

9. Balance Tracker

10. Clinical laboratory tests

11. Dual X-ray absorptiometry for bone density

12. Metabolomics

13. Stool DNA test for colorectal cancer

14. Body composition

In late 2018, HLI published the results of the first 1,190 clients through the Health Nucleus.

The results were eye-opening — especially since these patients were all financially well-off, and already had access to the best doctors.

Following are the physiological and genomic findings in these clients who self-selected to undergo evaluation at HLI’s Health Nucleus. 

Physiological Findings [TG] 

• 2 percent had previously unknown tumors detected by MRI

• 2.5 percent had previously undetected aneurysms detected by MRI

• 8 percent had cardiac arrhythmia found on cardiac rhythm monitoring, not previously known

• 9 percent had moderate-severe coronary artery disease risk, not previously known

• 16 percent discovered previously unknown cardiac structure/function abnormalities

• 30 percent had elevated liver fat, not previously known 

Genomic Findings [TG]

• 24 percent of clients uncovered a rare (unknown) genetic mutation found on WGS

• 63 percent of clients had a rare genetic mutation with a corresponding phenotypic finding

In summary, HLI’s published results found that 14.4 percent of clients had significant findings that are actionable, requiring immediate or near-term follow-up and intervention.

Long-term value findings were found in 40 percent of the clients we screened.

Long-term clinical findings include discoveries that require medical attention or monitoring but are not immediately life-threatening.

The bottom line: most people truly don’t know their actual state of health.

The ability to take a fully digital deep dive into your health status at least once per year will enable you to detect disease at Stage 0 or Stage 1, when it is most curable.

Sensors, Wearables and Nanobots

Wearables, connected devices and quantified self apps will allow us to continuously collect enormous amounts of useful health information.

Wearables like the Quanttus wristband and Vital Connect can transmit your electrocardiogram data, vital signs, posture and stress levels anywhere on the planet.

In April 2017, we were proud to grant $2.5 million in prize money to the winning team in the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE, Final Frontier Medical Devices (now Basil Leaf Technologies).

Using a group of noninvasive sensors that collect data on vital signs, body chemistry and biological functions, Final Frontier integrates this data in their powerful, AI-based DxtER diagnostic engine for rapid, high-precision assessments.

Their engine combines learnings from clinical emergency medicine and data analysis from actual patients.

Google is developing a full range of internal and external sensors (e.g. smart contact lenses) that can monitor the wearer’s vitals, ranging from blood sugar levels to blood chemistry.

Apple’s Series 5 Apple Watch includes an FDA-approved mobile, on-the-fly ECG, as well as glucose tracking for diabetes, sleep tracking, noise tracking, and BPM tracking. The sensing healthcare market is now a key part of Apple’s future plans.

IoT sensors are also entering the world of prescription drugs, where companies like Abilify MyCite now produce pills with onboard sensors.

This new class of digital pills can now communicate medication data to a user-controlled app, to which doctors may be granted access for remote monitoring.

Perhaps what is most impressive about the next generation of wearables and implantables is the sheer density of sensors, processing, networking and battery capability that we can now cheaply and compactly integrate.

Take the second-generation OURA ring, for example, which focuses on sleep measurement and management.

The OURA ring looks like a slightly thick wedding band, yet contains an impressive array of sensors and capabilities, including:

• 2 infrared LED

• 1 infrared sensor

• 3 temperature sensors

• 1 accelerometer

• a 6-axis gyro

• a curved battery with a 7-day life

• the memory, processing and transmission capability required to connect with your smartphone

Disrupting Medical Imaging Hardware

In 2018, we saw lab breakthroughs that will drive the cost of an ultrasound sensor to below $100, in a packaging smaller than most bandages, powered by a smartphone.

Dramatically disrupting ultrasound is just the beginning.

Last year, at Abundance 360, legendary inventor Dr. Mary Lou Jepsen shared her latest Moonshot during our Success to Significance module.

She explored how her company OpenWater plans to disrupt current medical imaging technology. Its stated vision:

“...changing how we read and write our bodies and brains — [leveraging] important inventions in opto-electronic and holographic systems, using red and benign near-infrared light, which penetrate our flesh and bones. The goal is to use these technologies to build better, faster and cheaper solutions in healthcare — for strokes, cancer and many diseases, all working non-invasively — without opening the body or brain.”

If you’d like to hear more from Mary Lou Jepsen at A360, you can access her keynote when you sign up for Abundance Digital.

Nanobots & Nanonetworks

While wearables have long been able to track and transmit our steps, heart rate and other health data, smart nanobots and ingestible sensors will soon be able to monitor countless new parameters and even help diagnose disease.

Some of the most exciting breakthroughs in smart nanotechnology from the past year include:

• Researchers from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) demonstrated artificial microrobots that can swim and navigate through different fluids, independent of additional sensors, electronics or power transmission.

• Researchers at the University of Chicago proposed specific arrangements of DNA-based molecular logic gates to capture the information contained in the temporal portion of our cells’ communication mechanisms. Accessing the otherwise-lost time-dependent information of these cellular signals is akin to knowing the tune of a song, rather than solely the lyrics.

• MIT researchers built micron-scale robots able to sense, record, and store information about their environment. These tiny robots, about 100 micrometers in diameter (approximately the size of a human egg cell), can also carry out preprogrammed computational tasks.

• Engineers at University of California, San Diego developed ultrasound-powered nanorobots that swim efficiently through your blood, removing harmful bacteria and the toxins they produce. 

But it doesn’t stop there. 

As nanosensor and nano-networking capabilities develop, these tiny bots may soon communicate with each other, enabling the targeted delivery of drugs and autonomous corrective action.

Mobile Health

The OURA ring and the Series 5 Apple Watch are just the tip of the spear when it comes to our future of mobile health. This field, predicted to become a $115 billion market by 2024, puts an on-demand virtual doctor in your back pocket. 

Step aside, WebMD. 

In true exponential technology fashion, mobile device penetration has increased dramatically, while image recognition error rates and sensor costs have sharply declined.

As a result, AI-powered medical chatbots are flooding the market; diagnostic apps can identify anything from a rash to diabetic retinopathy; and with the advent of global connectivity, mHealth platforms enable real-time health data collection, transmission and remote diagnosis by medical professionals. 

Already available to residents of the UK, Canada, the US, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia, Babylon Health offers immediate medical advice through AI-powered chatbots and video consultations with doctors via its app.

Babylon now aims to build up its Artificial Intelligence for advanced diagnostics and even prescription. Other apps, like Woebot, take on mental health, using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in communications with patients suffering from depression.

In addition to phone apps and add-ons that test for fertility or autism, the now-FDA-approved Clarius L7 Linear Array Ultrasound Scanner can connect directly to iOS and Android devices and perform wireless ultrasounds at a moment’s notice.

Next, Healthy.io, an Israeli startup, uses your smartphone and computer vision to analyze traditional urine test strips — all you need to do is take a few photos. The platform additionally offers wound analysis, leveraging computer vision algorithms that effectively turn your smartphone camera into a wound management tool.

With mHealth platforms like ClickMedix, which connects remotely located patients to medical providers through real-time health data collection and transmission, what’s to stop us from delivering needed treatments through drone delivery or robotic telesurgery? 

Welcome to the age of smartphone-as-a-medical-device. 

Conclusion

With these DIY data collection and diagnostic tools, we save on transportation costs (time and money), and time bottlenecks.

No longer will you need to wait for your urine or blood results to go through the current information chain: samples sent to the lab, analyzed by a technician, results interpreted by your doctor, and only then relayed to you.

Just like the “sage-on-the-stage” issue with today’s education system, healthcare has a “doctor-on-the-dais” problem.

Current medical procedures are too complicated and expensive for a layperson to perform and analyze on their own.

The coming abundance of healthcare data promises to transform how we approach healthcare, putting the power of exponential technologies in the patient’s hands and revolutionizing how we live.

Join Me

(1) Platinum Longevity & Immunity Trip: This August 19-23, 2020 and September 16-20, 2020, I'm taking two groups of VIP entrepreneurs and investors on what I call my “Platinum Longevity & Immunity Trip” to San Francisco & San Diego.

Each trip will be a 5-Star (luxury) deep dive to meet 20+ companies and 30+ scientists/physicians and entrepreneurs who are leading the charge against age-related diseases and extending the human healthspan. We will also be visiting the top labs and scientists developing the diagnostics, anti-virals, vaccines and therapeutics fighting COVID-19.

Both trips are identical (with only 24 participants per trip). I will spend all 5-days with you as your private guide and provocateur. Through this personalized, action-packed program, my mission is to give you first-hand exposure to the major players, scientists, companies and treatments in the longevity and vitality arena. All your questions answered. Early access to cutting-edge treatments and products. And a behind-the scenes view of tomorrow’s longevity revolution.

Both trips are nearly sold out.

(2) Join FutureLoop: Over the past 2 years, I’ve built a machine-learning algorithm that scrapes the world’s news, science journals and social feeds every day to understand how exponential technologies are impacting specific topics & industries. It’s called FutureLoop.

Last month, I launched "FutureLoop Pandemic Special Edition," a daily comprehensive update on the impact of exponential technologies (AI, Robotics, Drones, Cellular Medicine, CRISPR, Networks & Sensors) on the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you participate, FutureLoop will update you every day on the latest breakthroughs in detection, prevention & cure of the COVID-19. This product is still in Beta, but it’s powerful, high-quality info, and it's free.

Your mindset is your most important tool during this pandemic. Making sure you are consuming the right information is critical to maintaining that mindset. FutureLoop offers "Data-Driven Optimism."

You can subscribe here. It’s free, fun + fast (20 seconds).