Focal theme
Digital Health – An Ayurveda Perspective
Over the past few years, the world has increasingly turned binary. In other words, almost everything is now turning “digital’, especially “health”.
Applying urgency to the speed of change, the COVID-19 pandemic has helped further accelerate the ongoing digital transformation in healthcare. Patient-facing technologies, such as online symptom checks, patient portals, remote patient monitoring tools, and telemedicine, are among the most signifi cant COVID-19 technologies.
The term “digital health” refers to the vast, multidisciplinary fi eld that encompasses concepts from the intersection between technology and healthcare.
By combining software, hardware, and services, digital health brings digital transformation to the healthcare industry. Digital health encompasses wearable technology, telehealth and telemedicine, mobile health (mHealth) apps, electronic health records (EHRs), electronic medical records (EMRs), and most importantly, personalized medicine (PM). PM is a core domain of Ayurveda and thus warrants a diligent exchange of knowledge between Ayurveda health care and digital technology. Patients, healthcare professionals, researchers, regulators, policy enablers, application developers, and producers and distributors of medical equipment are among the stakeholders in the subject of digital health.
It is not a novel idea to use information and communications technology to deliver digital health interventions that enhance quality of life and prevent illness. However, digital health platforms, health systems, and related technology continue to gain importance and evolve in response to global concerns about aging, child illness and mortality, epidemics and pandemics, high costs, and the impact of poverty and racial discrimination on access to healthcare.
DH is more than just technologies and tools; it also perceives interoperable data, artifi cial intelligence (AI), machine learning and open, secure platforms as pivotal to the way forward for a more consumer-focused, prevention-oriented care.
Significant improvements in digital healthcare are still being brought about by advances in AI, big data, robotics, and machine learning. Additionally, changes in the fi eld of digital healthcare are bringing forth advancements in remotely monitored devices and apps, robotic caregivers, and consumable sensors.
It is being anticipated that AI will facilitate signifi cant scientifi c advancements, hastening the development of novel anti-disease treatments. AI-powered digital therapies and tailored advice will help users to avert health problems before they arise; in a sense, the raison d’être of Ayurveda. AI-generated insights will impact treatment and diagnosis decisions, resulting in safer and more effi cient therapies. Furthermore, supply chain and intelligent manufacturing technologies will guarantee that patients receive the appropriate interventions and therapies at the precise time they need them. Digital health innovations can combine medicine and the internet of things, mHealth and IoT, medicine and augmented reality (AR), and blockchain and EMRs.
Since its inception, WAC has kept its fi ngers on the pulse of the times as evidenced by the focal themes of the previous nine WACs. Digital Health is an all-encompassing concept in the present era and thus merits being the focal theme for the tenth WAC, prophetically denoted by the binary digits-10.