Health technology can help save our healthcare system

Many people say that health technology will future-proof the Danish healthcare system. But many elements need to be taken into account, and it is a puzzle with many pieces. Health technology must be one of several important pieces of the puzzle to help a challenged healthcare system maintain the current level of service.

This is the opinion of Benjamin Schnack Rasmussen, associate professor and specialist in radiology at OUH and clinical head of research at the Centre for Clinical Artificial Intelligence (CAI-X), which researches the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and helps connect clinicians from the hospital with engineers and researchers at SDU and actors in the private business sector.

Health technology today

- Health technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT) hold enormous potential, but we must recognise that the technology also comes with significant challenges. The development is fast-paced, but the healthcare system is often not geared to implementing and integrating new solutions into clinical practice. This creates a gap between technological innovation and the specific possibilities for applying the solutions in healthcare today, explains Benjamin Schnack Rasmussen.

- In addition, the use of AI involves a number of ethical and legal issues. Who is responsible if the technology fails in a critical situation? And how do we ensure that the technology is used in a way that benefits patients without compromising safety?

CAI-X, CIMT and CCR – bridging the gap between healthcare and technology

In order to bridge the gap between the challenges and the opportunities to unlock the potential of the technology, several actors are working to develop and research solutions that will work in practice. CAI-X is a central hub for the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare. The centre connects clinicians from the Hospital with engineers and researchers from SDU and the private business sector to create health technology that can be applied in everyday clinical practices.

Another important centre in that development is the Centre for Innovative Medical Technology (CIMT). CIMT works to foster collaboration among clinicians, researchers and businesses to develop and implement new health technologies. The Centre’s projects range from developing new diagnostic tools to improving patient care through telemedicine and data analysis. CIMT has shown that close collaboration between healthcare and industry can create specific solutions that improve healthcare for both patients and clinicians.

The Centre for Clinical Robotics (CCR) also plays a key role in the development of robotics for the healthcare sector. CCR develops robotic technologies that can support surgeons in complex operations and facilitate clinicians’ workflows. These technologies can help reduce the risk of errors while optimising workflows in hospitals, and this is crucial in a healthcare system under increasing pressure and with fewer resources.

Pooling our resources to unleash the potential

As mentioned, technology cannot future-proof our healthcare system on its own. Education, organisational innovation, prevention and health promotion are other important pieces of the puzzle.

Benjamin Schnack Rasmussen believes that technology is one of the most important prerequisites, but the future of health technology depends on pooling our resources even more in larger structures where the different actors will be able to work more closely together.

- The collaboration among clinicians, engineers, researchers and private companies, as we see it at CAI-X, CIMT and CCR, has already proven effective. But the potential can truly be unleashed if we manage to strengthen the collaboration even more systematically, he says and continues:

- A MedTech centre in Odense, where the University and the Hospital will collaborate with companies under the same roof, will create a completely new framework for innovation and will contribute to the development of health technology. At the centre, private companies can test their technologies directly in a clinical environment and develop solutions that are much more closely adapted to the actual needs of hospitals. By bringing the right professionals together and pooling our resources, we can not only maintain the high level of Danish healthcare – we can also increase it.