An application detects health through the phone’s camera

Between 2000 and 2020, life expectancy at birth for men increased from 75.9 to 79.6 years and that of women from 82.7 to 85.1. The more years of life, the more health problems. Diseases that used to die from, now become chronic. The consequence of this? Growing pressure on health services, something that has reached one of its peaks with the pandemic.

Telemedicine is therefore a growing sector. VDM Health is an emerging technology company born in 2016 in Barcelona, ​​​​​​Spain with the aim of increasing the efficiency of the medical activity through technology.

“We want, with a question, bridge between the doctor and the patient, to relieve the workload of the first and be able to make effective decisions, and, simultaneously, cover the needs of the second, from the first contact and diagnosis, to the treatment and follow-up of his health”, explains Jordi Ferrer, one of its founders.

This application is designed for all types of patients, but is particularly interesting for chronic patients and those who are more delicate or urgent (such as the example with which we started this article), since improves the interaction between patient and doctor.

To achieve this, use artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision and other advanced means of human-machine interaction. While working on this software, which we could already use within a year, the company is carrying out a project personalized medicine Advance.

How does it work

This system has an artificial intelligence engine that allows you to prescribe drugs with maximum accuracy based on patient data, cross-referenced with a drug data archive.

When the doctor prescribes a drug, he is registered in the program and studies if there are any adverse effects, contraindications, interactions with other drugs and even more favorable alternatives to improve the prescription. A first version of this software is already used by the health systems of Madrid and the Valencian Community.

Another of this startup’s applications analyzes patient clinical data and proposes dynamic plans for nutrition, physical exercise, emotional support and addiction control.

This is possible thanks to data processing with complex algorithms and advanced learning technologies, also supported by the phone’s camera: just by looking at our faces, it can detect stress levels, blood pressure, heart signs and even pressure markers sanguine. COVID-19. In 90 seconds, we will know our level of well-being.

In an evolution, this app will be part of a larger one which, thanks also to artificial intelligence, will emulate the doctor’s actions and actively support him in his decisions (regardless of his specialty).

In this way the professional will have precise and filtered information on the patient for when he has to visit him, in person or electronically, and will be able to save time, travel and speed up procedures offer a personalized service.

A few months ago, the company settled in DFactory, the industrial and technological cluster that the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona recently opened to encourage the collaboration of companies in sectors that are decisive for the transformation of Spanish industry. “Having arrived here is very beneficial for us because we are finding common working points in supercomputing or 3D printingsays Ferrer.

How to enter the system

In order to become part of this centre, an essential requirement is, as explained by Pere Navarro, state delegate to the Consorci, “to have a relationship with industry, be it direct manufacturing, or with related projects, such as those that work with artificial intelligence, robotics, sensors, 3D printing… We want to form a large community that it has to do with the new way of producing”.

Thanks to the companies that reside here, in a couple of years, VDM Health could use its software in a new generation of intelligent devices that coexist and communicate with patients, take care of their health conditions and promote healthy habits according to their wishes, in close collaboration with doctors and health professionals of all specialties.

“Imagine an intelligent mirror which, reflecting on it, tells us what our state of health is and warns us of possible problems”, concludes Ferrer. “Or an intelligent bed, which, when we lie down on it, helps us sleep”, she concludes.

With information from La Vanguardia