Co-PI: Smart Healthcare – Accessibility, Quality and Affordability, 2023-2027

The 21st century is the digital century. According to a Nature Medicine article in 2020, four digital technologies have played critical roles in human’s global fight against the COVID pandemic, namely NIDs. Internet of Things, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Blockchain. They offer the greatest opportunities to address challenges in many facets of the modern world.The one that is relevant to every one of us is smart healthcare, which refers to the digitalization of a healthcare system to deliver intelligent healthcare that is easily accessible, of high quality, and affordable. Smart healthcare is achieved through adopting digital technologies, including but not limited to the four mentioned above. The urgency of smart healthcare is speeding up due to several issues, including the aging population around the world, ever-increasing demand for higher quality healthcare, wider prevalence of chronic diseases, rising healthcare cost, unequitable access to medical resources, and more and more intense doctor-patient relationship. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly worsened the situation and elevated the impetus to accelerate the development and transition into smart healthcare. The overarching goal of this proposal on smart healthcare is to enhance equitable access to healthcare, improve the healthcare system efficiency and quality, and make healthcare more affordable.