Feldman expects “critical progress in data integration will bring about major improvements in healthcare,” including enabling patients “access to their complete longitudinal health records on their phones.”
While artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning can help create accurate summaries, it will depend on improvements in data management and integration, Feldman added.
AI holds the potential to assist with rapid diagnoses of breast cancers and heart disease, to assess surgical wounds and to help with drug discoveries. Cleveland Clinic in Ohio reports using AI to detect risk factors for sepsis.
“Most sophisticated medical AI applications rely on machine learning that uses historical patient data to recognize patterns,” Feldman said. “AI is only as good as its input data, and for many experts, concerning unknowns remain—including the potential for worsening risks to patients from pre-existing bias, plus liability risks for providers.”
Richard E. Anderson, MD, FACP, chairman and CEO of The Doctors Company and TDC Group recommended physicians ask about AI’s data set and what has been collected and from where.
“If AI suggests a path that’s different than the standard of care, and it turns out to be right, that’s great for the patient, and there’s no liability,” Anderson said. “But if it turns out to be wrong: Who’s liable for that? Is it the algorithm? The developer of the algorithm? The doctor who deviated from the recognized standard of care in order to follow the black box? And how do you sue a black box? All of these things remain to be to be worked out.”
From new vaccines to the first drugs of their kind for hard-to-treat disorders, 2023 has been a year full of medical breakthroughs.
They offer opportunities for people to protect themselves from diseases, slow down the effects of others and even incorporate artificial intelligence into cancer diagnoses.
Here are seven of the biggest innovations in the health and science space this year.
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New RSV vaccines and immunizations
For the first time ever, after years of setbacks, there are multiple vaccines and shots available for several different groups to prevent RSV.
For adults over age 60, who are at higher risk for serious complications from RSV because immune systems weaken with age, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved two vaccines.
“So much focus is placed on flu and now COVID. but, each year in the U.S., we see tens of thousands of older adults hospitalized from RSV, thousands die from RSV complications,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
“It still has significant public health consequences for those that are most vulnerable, and so now having a high efficacy vaccine is really a tremendous breakthrough for the last year and I think will have significant public health benefit for years to come,” he added.
The FDA also approved a maternal RSV vaccine, which is given to pregnant mothers in the third trimester between 32 weeks’ and 36 weeks’ gestation and is designed to pass antibodies to babies in the womb. It can provide protection from severe illness through the first six months of life.
Lastly, for babies under 8 months old, there are two monoclonal antibody shots available. Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins that mimic the body’s ability to fight off pathogens. They are different from vaccines, which stimulate the immune system.
1st CRISPR gene-editing technique to treat sickle cell
Earlier this month, the FDA approved two gene therapies to treat sickle cell disease (SCD), including the first CRISPR gene-editing therapy.
SCD is a genetic condition in which red blood cells have a crescent, or sickle, shape, causing them to be hard and sticky.
“It is a disease that really touches every organ in the body,” Dr. Sharl Azar, medical director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, told ABC News. “A quarter of our patients will have had a stroke by the time they’re in their 40s. Many of our patients will have had their first joint replacement by the time they’re in their 30s. Many others will have had their first heart attack in their 20s.”
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“If the disease goes unchecked, it can lead to blindness, it can lead to dialysis dependence and most of our patients may not see their 45th or 50th birthday,” he continued.
One of these therapies, Lyfgenia, uses a piece of a virus to deliver a gene for fetal hemoglobin, which prevents blood cells from sticking together and constricting blood flow, which is delivered back into the patient.
The other therapy, Casgevy, used CRISPR/Cas9 to genetically edit the stem cells to produce more fetal hemoglobin, which are then also put back into the patien
“From a scientific and medical standpoint, both of these therapies aim to do the same thing, they just do it in a slightly different way,” Azar said. “So, the important thing to emphasize here is that these are not a cure for sickle cell disease. The patients will still have sickle cell disease on the other side of the intervention. The hope is that they will just have a milder form of the disease, where they can see a lot less pain and hopefully fewer complications and hopefully even a longer life.”
Over-the-counter birth control pill
In July, the FDA approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill, meaning it can be sold without a prescription.
Called Opill by French drugmaker HRA Pharma and its parent company Perrigo, public health experts have said it will broaden birth control access for millions of people in the United States.
Opill is a progestin-only pill — sometimes called the “minipill”, meaning it doesn’t contain estrogen like combination birth control pills. Doctors say progestin-only pills pose fewer medical risks than combination pills.
The drug is expected to appear on shelves at convenience stores, grocery chains and online in early 2024.
