My father was a great amateur photographer. Over
the years he had some amazing cameras and took some fabulous photos. For those
readers of a certain age, cameras were clever devices that captured images on
film, from which it was possible to create photos. My Dad had a little ‘dark
room’ and I spent many an hour watching the magic happen as he developed photos
from negatives in trays of special fluids and paper and hung them up to dry. For
most of us, those days are well and truly in the past. It was a time before
smartphones were able to turn us all into amazing photographers, or at least be
able to take a picture of anything we want at the press of a screen. My father
turned 90 last week, and today he enjoys seeing the photos sent to him by his
children, his grandchildren and even great grandchildren. Sadly, because he
lives in Wales, we were unable to celebrate his birthday in person. My new wife
J, in conversation with my brother Mark, had the great idea of collecting
birthday greetings from friends and family, putting them on a DVD and sending
it to my Dad. Mark, took this idea forward and ran with it. He did an absolutely fabulous
job and the finished DVD was a wonderful success.
However, my lovely wife J often tells me that I'm technologically inadequate. But, I still love her to bits and I’m grateful
she is there to rescue me on the many occasions when the technology seems to
let me down. She is the only person I know who had the patience to link my
car to the internet and turn it into a smart car (although I’m still not sure I understand what this means).
How we use digital technology has
increasingly become the way we live our lives. In lockdown, Zoom and Teams
meetings allowed us to keep on meeting with each other virtually. Doctors’
appointments moved from the surgery to the sitting room, and goodness Amazon must
have made some money with the huge rise in online shopping. Last week I
received two separate emails extolling the many reasons why I should buy the
new iPhone 12. It appears to be the key to unlocking the digital universe, see
here. Now I can think of many other things I would rather spend £900 on than a
new phone. I’m still using an iPhone 8 and it suits me well. It does everything
I need, including being able to download the (so-called) NHS Covid-19 App.
Apparently, if you do own an iPhone 12, you can also now do so as well.
And that app. You would have had
to have been locked in a monastery to miss the huge public outcry over the NHS test
and trace app. Some claimed it was world-beating, (not me), and to say it had a
rocky start would be an understatement. Last week the CEO of NHSX, Matthew
Gould, admitted that they had ‘taken a punt’ in developing the app given they
knew that Apple and Google were also working on their own programmes. Now I
don’t know about you, but who do you really think was likely to have the expertise and resources to develop such an app, NHSX or
Apple and/or Google?
Although this is an important
question that will have to be addressed in what will inevitably be a public inquiry, it’s important to note and share far and wide, that the app can be
downloaded from the Google Play Store, the Apple App Store and the NHS Covid-19app website. However, last week we also
learnt that there are other equally important Covid-19 apps. The one that
caught my attention last week (although my attention to be truthful was on
other things for much of last week) was an app called Compass. This is an app
that reduces the serious harm (and possible death) caused by the
hospital-acquired conditions of acute kidney injury (AKI) and pneumonia (HAP). The
app allows clinical staff to assess every patient’s individual risk of
developing these conditions while in hospital. This would help ensure that the right
treatment is put in place to reduce the risk and possible death. The app is predicated
upon the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This allows for a much quicker analysis
of the risk to an individual by evaluating a range of factors and comorbidities
that it would take extremely skilled and experienced doctors to be able to do. The
AI draws upon a dataset made up of 140 million patients from across 46
countries!
Why Covid-19? Well NICE guidelines issued in May of this year noted the detrimental impact that AKI had
on patients who were Covid-19 positive. Likewise, a study undertaken at the
University Hospital Southampton carried out during phase one of the pandemic
found AKI present in 31% of Covid-19 positive hospital patients, and that AKI
was associated with 27% of those patients admitted into ICU. Their findings also
showed that 44% of Covid-19 positive patients with AKI died compared to 19% of
those without AKI. Patients over the age of 60 years are at a higher risk of
both these conditions, and these are the group most impacted through the pandemic.
Whilst the article discussed reducing avoidable deaths, saving the NHS money (around £7 million in the
direct cost of these conditions) I reflected on what the app might mean in the context of how we use technology. Using new technology to predict who might
be at risk of health challenging conditions and providing early interventions has
to be a better way of using scarce public money than building more hospitals. As
the Dutch philosopher Erasmus noted way back in 1500, prevention is better than
cure. The Compass app is a great example of how we can combine our growing
knowledge of how to treat Covid-19 with our ability to harness digital
technology to do just this. And it can all be done from the comfort of our smartphone.
My tip for staying safe when
using smartphone-based technology during the pandemic is to clean your phone
often and carefully. We have known for many years now that our mobile phones
can carry 10 times more bacteria than most toilet seats. So, as we enter a second national lockdown, make sure you give your phone a
wipe on a regular basis. It won’t help you take better pictures, but it will help keep you safe,
and that is what is really important!
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