ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I discuss to what extent digital health tech has solutions for the wide set of public health challenges identified so far. Then, I briefly identify each of the technologies of the moment. A few of them, including synthetic biology (CRISPR-CaS, personalized medicine, mRNA vaccines, etc.), sensors, robots, and neutraceuticals, will be handled in separate chapters. This chapter hones-in on four specific technologies: AI, wearables, digital therapeutics, social media, and telemedicine. Each is highly software enabled-somewhat connected-and have the potential to increasingly interact in life-changing ways. I describe how each technology is embedded with a complex set of forces of disruption (sci-tech, business models, policy & regulation, social dynamics, and the environment). I assess what each technology is capable of today, and what it might achieve in the next 3-5 years, when applied to public health challenges. I include a brief ‘investor’s guide to each technology section. Case studies of startups who are applying tech innovation, fundamentally shaping healthcare disruption, follow in the next chapter.
