The self-driving clinic not only offers AI diagnostics but could transport high-risk patients to hospitals (Credit: Artefact Group)

Seattle-based design firm Artefact Group has revealed a comprehensive concept that would make the future of healthcare mobile. Integrating passive monitoring technologies in the home, a smartphone app, AI diagnostics and a self-driving clinic, the system combines a variety of innovations for a new spin on healthcare.

While many sectors of society are being dramatically disrupted by rapidly evolving digital innovations, the arena of healthcare seems to responding more slowly, with many hospitals still largely relying on paper to record patient data. Earlier in the year we saw a gadget-filed, subscription-based medical clinic open in San Francisco, and several fascinating advances are occurring in the field of artificial intelligence diagnostics, But the Aim concept envisions a fundamentally different healthcare approach than what we have been used to for the past 100 years.

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The system begins with a series of active testing and passive monitoring devices in the home, capturing data from several sources, such as the bathroom scale, toilet and medicine cabinet. The goal is to create an interconnected set of devices, including health-monitoring wearables, that can create a unified, patient-owned health record.

A constantly learning AI would then monitor a person's health data and flag unusual results. When needed, a self-driving mini clinic could navigate to your location for more comprehensive diagnostics, such as thermography, breath analysis, and respiration or cardiac rhythm.

Inside this mobile clinic, an AI could offer its diagnosis, and even deliver common pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics or contraceptives. If a health condition is flagged as serious or escalating, the Aim system would then connect the patient to an on-call specialist or even transport them directly to a hospital emergency room.

"The mission of Aim is to close the data, experience and logistical gaps between home and clinical environments," the designers say.

Despite being a slightly pie-in-the-sky concept right now, rapid advances in personal health monitoring and AI means it's not necessarily that far from being feasible, and much of the Aim system feels like it could be pragmatically implemented into our current healthcare processes without too much trouble. With the current burden on patients to get to doctors' clinics, which can sometimes be quite far away, an integrated monitoring system such as this could lighten the load for overworked healthcare workers.

AI-driven diagnostic tools are also set to inevitably become increasingly useful for low-risk patient monitoring, and a mobile autonomous clinic could significantly reduce the drain on current hospital resources by catching conditions early before they become serious enough to require a hospital admission.

Cost is of course a major consideration here and developing such a sophisticated system wouldn't be cheap, but as the costs of healthcare continue to skyrocket maybe some outside-the-box thinking such as this is should be encouraged. Much like the San Francisco Forward clinic, a cost-effective subscription-based system could possibly offer many who currently can't afford big health insurance premiums greater access to medical care.

Source: Artefact Group

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