modern technology advanced by pandemic

[JohnRoberts]

I already see a number of technologies getting adopted faster because of pandemic conditions.

My short list just as a beginning point for discussion.

#1 teleconferencing: My small town clinic doctor closed the clinic and only sees patient via web teleconference. I am not sure how they will draw blood for my annual check up in several months, over the web. 

#2 FarUVc: This technology is apparently not ready for primetime but i remain optimistic about wider use of short wavelength (207-222nm) UV light. Reportedly this is harmless to humans while toasting microbes. I can imagine a lot of applications for this (like inside airplanes, workplaces, etc, etc, etc.)

#3 Robot meat processing: There are already federal regulations restricting the amount of bone chips and spare parts allowed in processed meat. I would be willing to relax that some for safer and more robust food supply chain.  They already use robots for heart surgery, surely they can carve meat, maybe even automated.

I suspect there are more technologies I am not even thinking about. Tag you're it.

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

and,,,

#4 remote temperature sensing: reportedly they can detect more than just temperature (like BP, heart rate, etc). This slips into privacy issues about health information.

#5 contact tracing: smart phone apps are ready to shred our last vestige of privacy.


etc

JR

 

[PRR]

> how they will draw blood for my annual check up

1) They can FedEx a needle to you with a return label.

2) I don't have to go to a hospital or doctor for a blood draw. Aside from hospital and doctor offices, there is a walk-in cash clinic, and a joint which did nothing but lab-tests. Actual testing for all but dip-strips is really done in one lab in the city, so same test, just a choice where you give your precious body fluids. In warmer weather you might be able to get it done drive-by.

 

[JohnRoberts]

> how they will draw blood for my annual check up

1) They can FedEx a needle to you with a return label.

pass..... the medical need for blood workup is to confirm my thyroid medication efficacy but dosage has not changed for years so I could probably get my script renewed over the phone.

2) I don't have to go to a hospital or doctor for a blood draw. Aside from hospital and doctor offices, there is a walk-in cash clinic, and a joint which did nothing but lab-tests. Actual testing for all but dip-strips is really done in one lab in the city, so same test, just a choice where you give your precious body fluids. In warmer weather you might be able to get it done drive-by.

My local clinic is in walking (limping) distance about 100 yards away....

A walk-in blood draw (lab corp) was around 20 miles away last time I used them.  That is where my local clinic sends their blood tests for processing.

Walmart gives flu shots and the like, but doesn't do blood draws (yet). 

JR

PS: Sorry I didn't mean to make this about me, I expect this pandemic to be an inflection point for multiple nascent technologies.

 

[JohnRoberts]

The pandemic has finally nudged me closer to cashless in store purchases... for third week in a row I bought groceries with my CC instead of paying cash (because my local bank branch is still closed so my walking around money is getting scarce).
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I remain cautious about facial recognition technology but it seems Walmart could easily capture my head shot from the self check out video (honesty?) camera to create a full customer profile, CC and all, from my face.  Minority report like stores pushing ads personalized for individual customers here we come. Some may embrace that, I find it creepy and makes me uncomfortable.

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

It's been a while but slow news week so I checked out the status of the solid state far UVc...

https://www.nsnanotech.com/resources

It looks like they already have a consumer personal far UVc light blaster. Not ready for prime time yet $199 and not even in production yet, but using a novel solid state light source, instead of excimer lasers.

I remain optimistic that solid state will scale up for lower cost mass production.

There are still some rumors about human safety exposed to far UVc (shorter wavelength than UVc) light but AFAIK there rat studies at Columbia University are still showing no harm. 

This is not going to scale up fast enough to help us this pandemic, but I expect a safer future from wider use of this technology to disinfect public spaces, homes, etc.

JR

 

[ruffrecords]

> how they will draw blood for my annual check up

1) They can FedEx a needle to you with a return label.

2) I don't have to go to a hospital or doctor for a blood draw. Aside from hospital and doctor offices, there is a walk-in cash clinic, and a joint which did nothing but lab-tests. Actual testing for all but dip-strips is really done in one lab in the city, so same test, just a choice where you give your precious body fluids. In warmer weather you might be able to get it done drive-by.

The UK opened its first drive-in vaccination centre a couple of days ago. This may be no biggy if you live in the US but in the UK the only drive-ins we have a McDonalds and Burger King.

We have had drive in Covid test stations for a while so it is only a short step to extending this to blood tests and then who knows what - drive-by laser eye surgery???

Cheers

Ian