Speaking Truth to Power In classical Greece, "speaking truth to power" was known as parrhesia. The tactic is similar to satyagraha (literally, "truth-force") which Mahatma Gandhi used in seeking independence from British India. It is never out-of-fashion to speak Truth to Power. But as writer Noam Chomsky asserts: "power knows the truth already, and is busy concealing is.” It is the oppressed who need to hear the truth, not the oppressors. And who can argue with this? As 2020 marched along and COVID-19 continued to worsen, all of us ‘regular’ people knew the virus was spreading and getting worse and yet, those charged with prioritizing fact, science and public wellness, buried the truth...And many more Americans are dead and sick because of it. As the promise of 2021 opens, I’m hopeful that we will have more transparency and more “Truth-Force” in managing the pandemic. Selected Quote: Dr. Fauci described the “liberating feeling” of once again being able to “get up here and talk about what you know — what the evidence, what the science is — and know that’s it, let the science speak.” …see more

Every one wants to enjoy the holidays and who can blame us? It’s been a terrible year for infectious diseases (well, really only one...) and it’s wreaking havoc. Every single day, more than 150,000 of our beloved American friends and family members are getting infected. And every single day 1,200 friends and family members are dying. It’s sobering and it’s scary. But those of us that have the strength of body and mind can help reduce the fear, and help reduce the spread of this Killer (COVID-19) by showing their love and neighborliness by wearing a mask and keeping some distance—even during these times of gatherings. (After all, a mask is just a mask...just like a broken arm needs a cast, it’s just a cast...) This article gives some great tips about how to stay safe while gathering with our friends and family, and while sharing our love and togetherness, which we all need right now! …see more

Sloppy—and dangerous—Care is What Our Seniors are Getting. In recent years, the federal government has been ramping up the standards for nursing homes, but inspectors remain frustrated by the prevalence of sloppy or nonexistent handwashing. 4 in 10 nursing homes have been cited for an infection-control lapse. And these are at the ‘5 Star’ places. Workers are not washing their hands as they moved to the next patient, or failing to don masks, gloves and gowns when in the rooms of contagious patients in isolation. Why? Many of the nursing homes are privately owned or backed by for-profit owners who cut staff and pay low wages. So it’s hard to get well trained, dedicated staff. In my opinion nothing is more ugly than a country that abandons their responsibility for it’s aging citizenry. Ensuring patients are safely cared for in a dignified manner is all of our responsibility. As family members visiting nursing homes you should ask the aides if they’ve washed their hands prior to touching your loved one. Hand washing is the Number One best activity to prevent the spread of Infection so ask about it every single time anyone walks into a room. I’m dead serious. …see more

State / Federal rights versus Individual Rights: Which Right is the Supreme Right? This comes up time and time again in health care. Think: woman’s right to choose as one example) and here we go again with pediatric vaccines. At least eight states, including some that have experienced measles outbreaks this year, want to remove personal exemptions for the measles vaccine. And some states would remove the exemption for all vaccines. Like all personal choice issues, the broad question of ‘How far should the state reach to over-ride personal choice?’ is a thorny one. Vaccines, indoor smoking, women’s right to choose, are just a few examples of how State or Federal agencies reach into personal health policy. And at times—depending on the issue—you might want the government to stay away from having any influence on type of personal choice and one another medical topic you might want the government to have a heavy hand. We are a complex and inconsistent society. Selected Excerpt: ‘courts have repeatedly held that when a public health intervention is necessary to safeguard the public, individuals generally can be required to give up some personal liberty, particularly if that liberty is tied to a government benefit like school.’ …see more

Summer Is Here Which is A Very Dangerous Time For Young People. Young People: Please (please) stay save!..Have fun but ‘think!’ Selected Excerpt: “The total death rate for 10- to 19-year-olds in the United States soared 12% between 2013 and 2016, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This this rise in deaths is attributable to injury-related deaths, such as traffic accident fatalities, drug overdoses, homicides and suicides...” …see more

Patients fear needles, nurses struggle with finding veins, and we are all skeptical about robots doing a human’s job. But still, automation seems like the perfect solution. Check out my latest video in which I discuss the future of drawing blood (yes, it’s robots). I’m also excited because this is the very first video from our new series: ‘Future Bits - Short Analyses of Digital Health and A.I.’ As promised, we’re transforming the way we produce video content to help you all stay ahead of the curve in A.I. and digital health. I’ll be sharing shorter, snackable content within this series, reacting fast to digital health and A.I. news. I won’t be competing with large media outlets, but I’ll try to provide the necessary context as fast as possible for You. Let me know how you like it and how we could improve. Enjoy! #themedicalfuturist #digitalhealth #future #healthcare #medicine #technology #AI #artificialintelligence #deeplearning #machinelearning …see more

Period tracking apps are hugely popular. They also have a track record of shaky privacy settings. Menstruation app data could end up feeding into companies including insurers as well as Tech giants like Amazon and Google. The right way for companies would be to design their apps in a way to collect only the data that is essential for the app to function and store and process that data on users’ phones and not on a central service. #privacy #periodapps #menstruationappdata #themedicalfuturist #digitalhealth #future #healthcare #medicine #technology #health #healthy …see more

Learn to navigate in the world of digital health investments! In my newest e-book, I’m taking you through it step by step. Take a look into the content: 1: Digital Health By The Numbers 2: Why To Invest In Digital Health 3: Where To Invest? TOP 24 Trends And Technologies To Look Out For 4: Good Investments, Bad Investments: Tales From The Industry 5: The ‘The Medical Futurist’ method What's also included? - Top 100 Digital Health Companies Infographic - Top 24 Digital Health Technologies Infographic - Glossary of Digital Health Investment Terms Grab your virtual copy on the link! #investment #digitalhealthinvestment #venturecapital #startup #startupinvestment #themedicalfuturist #digitalhealth #future #healthcare #medicine #technology #book #reading #read #ebook …see more

Masks up, we took off last Friday with our Chief Empathy Officer. We set out to deliver the dinner packages to each The Medical Futurist Institute team member for our annual (this time virtual) feast before the winter holidays kick in. Because what do you need in such unprecedented times? A good plan, a very good re-plan, and a dream team to make it all work. Ladies and Gentleman, let me present you The Team behind The Medical Futurist: outstanding experts who share the same passion of bringing digital health and the future of healthcare to readers and followers worldwide. To be precise, to 2.1 million unique visitors on the website with 1.3 million video views on Youtube. Whether carefully curated articles or mind-blowing visual storytelling about a patient on Mars, they make sure day-by-day that The Medical Futurist delivers the highest quality content in digital health. I couldn’t thank them enough. #holidaydinner #teamwork #dreamteam #themedicalfuturistteam #themedicalfuturist #digitalhealth #future #healthcare #medicine #technology …see more

‘Webside’ instead of bedside: a new, digital way of communicating with patients. I keep highlighting the need for a cultural transformation in healthcare to catch up with the digital transformation (rapidly accelerated by COVID-19). Kaiser Permanente’s new curriculum is a wonderful example: instead of only teaching students the necessary bedside communication skills that each medical professional learns, they now integrate the “webside” manner. They want to prepare students for a clinical practice likely to be far more virtual than ever before, as there’ll be less bedside visits and shaking hands, and more virtual interactions. Still, communication and creating a connection with patients is such a key element of medicine, and since digital communication is something different, it needs to be learnt. Well done! Interested to learn more about how medical professions will need to prepare for the digital transformation? Grab your copy of my e-book “The Technological Future of Medical Specialties” https://lnkd.in/gF5gd62 #themedicalfuturist #digitalhealth #future #healthcare #medicine #technology …see more

I bet we all kind of wish now we could predict the future. Just a little bit better. Well, I say: More science, less crystal ball. 🙅‍♂️🔮 So instead of actually seeing the future, let’s get better at forecasting. Sharpen your skills and learn to prepare for the most likely probabilities, check out some tried and trusted methods by us! #themedicalfuturist #digitalhealth #future #healthcare #medicine #technology #fromchancetochoice #forecasting #morescience #lesscrystalball …see more

"Imagine there's a future After COVID-19..." I guess John Lennon's famous song would begin somehow like this these days. Well, with my friend Mark McMenemy , we did imagine our future life after the pandemic - this is what our newest podcast episode is about. To have a taste of our conversation, check out this sample - you can listen to the full version if you join our Patreon community! https://lnkd.in/gdRGz-d I'm also curious about you: how do you imagine life after COVID-19? #themedicalfuturist #digitalhealth #future #healthcare #medicine #technology #fromchancetochoice #Patreon #patreonexclusive #exclusivecontent #premiumcontent #community #digitalhealthcommunity #COVID19 #COVID_19 #coronavirus #podcast …see more

For me, tech company NVIDIA has long been an interesting resource from artificial intelligence and molecular dynamics, medical imaging to data analytics. As the platform becomes increasingly active in the fight against COVID-19, offering technology and expertise on multiple levels, I had a chat with Kimberly Powell, Vice President of Healthcare at NVIDIA about the company’s take and vision on A.I. in healthcare. She mentioned these efforts: * Providing a free 90-day license to Parabricks to any researcher in the worldwide effort to fight the novel coronavirus. Parabricks uses GPUs to accelerate by as much as 50x the analysis of genomic sequencing data. * Teams of expert data scientists have joined a challenge to forecast infection spread and fatalities in regions around the world. Others are creating a model to run natural language queries and summarize the mountain of COVID-19 papers. * NVIDIA Inception is teaming with 160 healthcare startups that are now turning their focus to COVID-19. NVIDIA is lending its expertise, computing resources, and funding to accelerate the work that includes medical imaging models for COVID-19, no-contact body temperature measurement systems, molecular compound discovery algorithms, and UV robots for disinfection. #coronavirus #covid19 …see more

This day is dedicated to raising awareness on how to prevent deafness and hearing loss and to promoting ear and hearing care across the world. For World Hearing Day, let's see how promising the future is for hearing! #themedicalfuturist #digitalhealth #future #healthcare #medicine #technology #fromchancetochoice #hearing #worldhearingday …see more

The Nr.1 question I'm asked after my keynotes and on social media these times is which genetic tests I recommend. I have two, equally unsatisfying short answers: 1. It depends. 2. There is not a single one I could recommend. You can read the longer and more satisfying answer in our related article: #themedicalfuturist #digitalhealth #future #healthcare #medicine #technology #fromchancetochoice #genomics …see more

The SleepOn Go2Sleep sleep-tracking ring is likable, comfortable to sleep with, and definitely good in the bed. But is it trustworthy? Before engagement, read our review about it, which we just published in The Medical Futurist magazine: #sleep #digitalhealth …see more

About 235 million people suffer from asthma worldwide, and nearly 250,000 people die prematurely each year due to the condition - not speaking of other respiratory diseases like COPD, lung cancer, chronic bronchitis and several other, possibly lethal conditions. Though air pollution and smoking are just raising these numbers, they might not continue growing in the near future: machine learning and artificial intelligence can improve diagnosing and treating respiratory diseases. Here you can find some good examples: #themedicalfuturist #artificialintelligence #machinelearning #lung #respiratorycare #asthma #COPD #fromchancetochoice #digitalhealth #AI …see more

Medical chatbots, FDA-approved A.I. algorithms in medicine, genomics on the blockchain, digital tattoos... These topics emerge daily in discourses about digital health. You can still be a futurist if you read this e-book, 'Top Trends in Digital Health in 2019' - where you can prepare from all these and several other current trends. Get it on Leanpub: https://lnkd.in/gEipqMQ #themedicalfuturist #digitalhealth #future #healthcare #medicine #technology #book #reading #read #ebook …see more

While my keynotes are based on studies and real-life stories, people ask me why I have three narratives. I believe in the notion that I have to be able to package abstract thoughts, futuristic visions and troubling ideas in a way that people can digest them. That's why I have three narratives to choose from for every keynote I give and why I will add one more this autumn. I hope you see any of these and I meet you somewhere along my speaker tour. https://lnkd.in/g4NEsEY #themedicalfuturist #digitalhealth #future #healthcare #medicine #technology #fromchancetochoice #speaker #keynote #speakerlife …see more

Check out our guide about anticipating change in the world of pharma due to digital health technologies: https://lnkd.in/eamtU2F Table of Contents - Patients will have more say in pharma - Digital health “around the pill” - Artificial Intelligence will reshape pharma - 3D printing drugs - Precision medicine: pharmacogenomics and nutrigenomics - The future of clinical trials - Robotics in pharma - New realities will change how we look at pharma - Nanotechnology appears in pharma - The future of the pharmaceutical supply chains - The future of health insurance - The future of pharmacies - In dire need of new FDA and drug regulations #themedicalfuturist #digitalhealth #future #healthcare #medicine #technology #book #reading #read #ebook …see more