Dubai: The Digital Health Live event, the world’s first interactive digital health-care event, began yesterday at the Dubai World Trade Centre. The event will highlight prominent digital advancements in the health-care sector.
Eisa Al Maidour, Director-General of the Dubai Health Authority, toured the exhibition.
Among the innovations displayed was the intelligent fridge which, depending on the ingredients present, can recommend recipes, offer calorie information, suggest options according to dietary requirements and inform the user when there is a shortage of certain ingredients.
However, the need for human intervention was also referenced. Daniel Kraft, Faculty Chair of Medicine in Singularity University, emphasised the importance of digitalisation and the need for accessible data. However, it will not, he said, eliminate the role of a good clinician.
“If I can look at a patient and tell that they are sick, I don’t need an app or sensor or laboratory data, so we need to maintain the practice of medicine,” said Kraft.
‘A tool, not a replacement’
John Sculley, ex-CEO of Apple and PepsiCo, agreed that data and digitalisation do not dispense with the doctor’s role, but rather enhance it. Data, he said, serves as a tool, not a replacement for the doctor.
“Health care missed the personal computer revolution, it missed the internet revolution but it’s not going to miss the big data revolution because the big data revolution is going to be able to give doctors and patients the incredible ability to diagnose based on population data and looking at individual personalised data,” he said.
Maria Botros is a trainee at Gulf News.