Yuval Noah Harari warns that medical AI can “change what healthcare means”

MADRID, May 17th. (EUROPEAN PRESS) –

Historian and author of books such as ‘Sapiens’, Yuval Noah Harari, has warned that new medical technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) could “transform the meaning of healthcare”, implying a shift towards “new ideas not to cure the sick but to improve their health.” healthy”.

This was stated in the ‘Future Health Sanitas’ meeting, held this Wednesday in Madrid, where the impact of the health revolution with the application of new medical technologies and AI in the coming years was analyzed. In this sense, Harari has pointed out that “it is likely that in the 21st century humans will seek to give new life to body and mind from a technological point of view.”

However, historians have pointed out that this attempt to “improve or redesign humanity raises many political or philosophical questions related to equality.”

With this statement, Harari was referring to the idea that curing the sick or maintaining good or ‘standard’ health is still a matter of common concern for all people, but “improving their healthy health is still an elitist notion” which “sought to give certain individuals an advantage over others.” another”.

For this reason, historians want to remind the “dangers” of applying this new technology in the health sector. “The next generation of medicine will try to improve health and if we are not careful, humanity will be divided into a superhuman class and a low class homo sapiens. Economic inequality will turn into biological inequality,” he said. .

In this sense, Harari has decided that humans “must do everything in their power to prevent this from happening.” Another historian’s concern about this new paradigm is “the danger of using tools to make things worse, not better.” “Humans are very good at acquiring new powers but not good at using those powers wisely,” he warns.

To that end, Harari calls on scientists and entrepreneurs to “stop and reflect” because “the ability to biologically redesign humans changes the most fundamental norm in history.” In this way, he calls for greater use of human potential so that “every time it is invested in exploring AI, one euro or one more minute is invested in investigating the existing human body”.

“Before trying to repair our DNA, it would be better if we try to understand what we already have. It’s so much safer to tap into the potential we have, we have to rethink our mental programming. Man is nowhere near exploiting all of our potential”, has been punished.

MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IS THE FUTURE OF HEALTH

During these meetings, they also reflect on the impact mobile technology (or mobile health) has on health and health systems. In this regard, professor and scientist Robert Instepanian has pointed out that “mHealth is a very important transformative field” as mHealth applications “increase in abundance”.

“The future lies in progress, technology and the science behind these applications,” he said. In this sense, Instepanian describes the impact of this technology on diseases such as diabetes where “a lot of progress” would be seen. “One of the things that I hope will be influenced by AI is the prediction of the possibility of hypoglycemia before it occurs so that doctors are alert and the patient’s relatives are also alert so they can act,” he explained.

Regarding what to expect in the future from this new mobile technology, the scientist stated that, on the one hand, he expects “physicians who are very familiar with mobile health to improve patient and system health care in general” because after all, “it is about improving patient-centred care.” And, on the other hand, “enhancing prevention” through the use of mobile health.

NEW MOBILE HEALTH APP

The application of mobile technologies to healthcare to improve patient care, optimize waiting times, and ensure the prevention of not only future problems, but currently several ‘start-ups’ have undertaken various AI projects applied to healthcare via mobile applications.

This is the case for the company Tucuvi, which has developed an “autonomous and empathetic” AI system called ‘Lola’ to guarantee greater automation that enables improvement and optimization of patient care because “the demand for healthcare is much higher than the supply”, as the CEO explains. and the co-founder of Tucuvi, María González.

‘Lola’ talks with patients and gets information about their health condition, structures and prioritizes it and transfers it to professionals, so that “they can treat up to five more patients”, as explained by María González. The technology “has helped treat more than 100,000 patients in Spain, Portugal and the UK and has brought great patient satisfaction because they feel cared for and empathetic,” he explains.

Another novelty is the company Neuralogix, which launched AI with the aim of “preserving and preserving human health with a simple digital scan.” Through a selfie mobile application with the device’s own camera, this application can provide up to 30 health parameters such as heart rate, hypertension, stress, risk of diabetes, heart attack, stroke, etc.

“It only takes 30 seconds to get a graph of your medical history, actions and lifestyle changes can be recommended. All of this is in the hands of each of us”, says Neuralogix sales director for EMEA and Latam, Valerie Lary.

Finally, nutritionist and CEO of India, Javier Guerrero, has presented a new application that allows “nutrients to be applied in real time” so that “if the context or circumstances change, the nutrition can be changed in real time”. “Diet follows us and not the other way around,” he explains.

Stuart Martin

"Internet trailblazer. Troublemaker. Passionate alcohol lover. Beer advocate. Zombie ninja."

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