'Compassionate Technology': Its Definition and Impact on the Healthcare Sector
In a shift from the classic image of technology as cold and impersonal, the concept of empathetic technology is gaining traction. This form of technology is designed to respond to our internal states, making decisions based on our feelings and needs. With smart devices rapidly becoming a fixture in our homes, the potential for them to do more than just play music or perform internet searches is vast.
Smart speakers could soon be diagnosing our health issues or identifying our emotional state. This development was a key topic at this year's Wired Health conference, where neuroscientist and technologist Poppy Crum, Ph.D., spoke about "Technology that knows what you're feeling."
Crum, who is the chief scientist at Dolby Laboratories in San Francisco, CA, and an adjunct professor at Stanford University in the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, explained that empathetic technology is about using our internal state to make decisions. She presented fascinating examples of neurophysiological "giveaways" that technology can now detect easily.
For instance, when we're overwhelmed by a cognitive load, our pupils dilate. Pupillometry research over the past few decades has shown that we can track multiple cognitive processes, such as memory, attention, or mental load, by examining the behavior and measuring the diameter of our pupils.
Similarly, skin conductance, or galvanic skin response, can predict a person's emotional response when watching a movie or a football match. The amount of sweat a person's skin secretes, as well as the changes in the electrical resistance of the skin, can indicate stress, excitement, engagement, frustration, and anger.
In addition, humans exhale chemicals like carbon dioxide and isoprene when they feel lonely or scared. In her TED talk, Crum tracked the carbon dioxide that audience members exhaled when watching suspenseful scenes from a thriller movie.
This marks the beginning of an era where technology will know more about us than we do – what Crum has dubbed the "era of the empath." This era also promises a deeper understanding of each other as consumer technology gathers more insights into our mental and physical wellness than many clinical visits.
The combination of machine learning, sensing technology, and the vast amounts of data they can gather offers significant opportunities for physicians. For example, by combining drug regimens with empathetic technology, doctors can create a closed feedback loop of data from the patient, allowing them to adjust treatments based on the patient's signals.
In another scenario, an orthopedic surgeon could gather more data about a patient's gait and knee usage before knee surgery, which could help tailor physical therapy rehabilitation post-surgery.
At Wired Health, Crum convinced her audience that artificial technology, coupled with AI, can vastly improve our lives, rather than hinder them. She believes that empathetic technology can make us better, not replace us. It can also assure us and our doctors that the interventions they prescribe are actually solving our problems.
In conclusion, empathetic technology, when applied to health care, can revolutionize diagnosis and management of both mental and physical health conditions. By anticipating needs, providing timely support, and personalizing care, these systems can improve patient outcomes, demonstrate an empathetic approach, and bridge the gap between human care and advanced technology.
- Empathetic technology, as discussed by Poppy Crum at the Wired Health conference, is designed to respond to our internal states, which could lead to smart speakers diagnosing our health issues or identifying our emotional state.
- In the era of empathetic technology, our personal health and wellness data, including mental and physical states, could be collected and analyzed by consumer technology, potentially offering a deeper understanding of ourselves than many clinical visits.
- With machine learning, sensing technology, and vast amounts of data, physicians could create closed feedback loops with patients, adjusting treatments based on the patient's signals, as exemplified by the combination of drug regimens and empathetic technology.
- In the healthcare sector, empathetic technology can revolutionize diagnosis and management of both mental and physical health conditions, by anticipating needs, providing timely support, and personalizing care, thereby improving patient outcomes.
- The deprecated notion of technology as cold and impersonal is being replaced, as technology advances into the realm of health and wellness, mental health, and personal health systems, demonstrating an empathetic approach and bridging the gap between human care and advanced technology.
