Ozempic And Other Weight Loss Drugs Will Only Work With Digital Health – The Medical Futurist Newsletter

The miracle drug narrative is all wrong Last week we wrote about the ["miracle drug" hype]( around weight loss injections like Ozempic, discussing how sustainable weight loss won't come without a better diet and regular exercise - which can be majorly supported by digital health solutions. Just a day after our analysis went live, MyFitnessPal announced a new integration supporting GLP-1 medications, and rumors further suggest major wearable brands are working on similar tools. We are pleased to see our insights resonating within the industry and proud to have spotted this trend in advance. I hope you will find the newsletter useful! Best regards, Berci Bertalan Meskó, PhD The Medical Futurist [OZEMPIC AND OTHER WEIGHT LOSS DRUGS WILL ONLY WORK WITH DIGITAL HEALTH]( --------------------------------------------------------------- The “miracle drug” narrative surrounding Ozempic dangerously oversimplifies sustainable weight management, potentially leading to disappointment and weight regain when the medication is stopped. Ozempic and similar GLP-1 agonists should be viewed as tools within a more comprehensive weight management approach, not as a magic solution that guarantees lasting results without effort. [READ MORE]( WHY DO I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT? Even the FDA approval of Wegovy calls for its use in addition to a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity. [NUTRITION APP MYFITNESSPAL ANNOUNCES TOOLS FOR GLP-1 MEDICATION SUPPORT]( --------------------------------------------------------------- MyFitnessPal announced a new set of tools and content to support members taking GLP-1 medications by helping them maintain proper nutrition and consistency while experiencing weight loss. "Members enrolled in the GLP-1 plan will receive daily tips and encouragement on how to get the best out of sleeping and eating habits and learn the importance of nutrition during rapid weight loss. Members will also have access to exercise videos focused on maintaining muscle while taking GLP-1 medications." [READ MORE]( WHY DO I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT? Hopefully we see the beginning of a major trend here. [IMPORTANT UPDATE: A GUIDE TO THE FUTURE OF HOSPITALS]( --------------------------------------------------------------- We will have hospitals in 2040 too, but their roles will be different. Parallel to this transformation, the roles of healthcare personnel will also be different with AI, remote care transforming diagnostics and patient-doctor interactions. One of our most popular ebooks just got updated, if you already own it, click for the free update. If not, you can grab your copy, and dive into this fascinating topic. [GET IT HERE]( [PREDICTING ARRHYTHMIA 30 MINUTES BEFORE IT HAPPENS]( --------------------------------------------------------------- "This artificial intelligence model, called WARN (Warning of Atrial fibRillatioN), was trained and tested on 24h-recordings collected from 350 patients at Tongji Hospital (Wuhan, China) and gave early warnings, on average 30 minutes before the start of atrial fibrillation, with great accuracy. Compared to previous work on arrhythmia prediction, WARN is the first method to provide a warning far from onset." [READ MORE]( WHY IT'S IMPORTANT? The accuracy is around 80% and could pave the way for early warning systems built into wearable technologies, such as smartwatches. [RECORD FOR THE MOST 3D PRINTED CRANIOMAXILLOFACIAL IMPLANTS]( --------------------------------------------------------------- One of the biggest arguments against using 3D printed implants in surgery and orthopedics that I heard from surgeons was that it is not possible to produce enough of those implants to make them widely accessible for physicians to work with. Now biomedical 3D printing firm arcomedlab just broke the world record with the world’s largest case list of 3D printed craniomaxillofacial implants with 700 successful cases only throughout Latin America. [READ MORE]( WHY IT'S IMPORTANT? Maybe this is a sign that 3D-printed implants will go mainstream in the surgery community too. [THE OPEN MEDICAL-LLM LEADERBOARD: BENCHMARKING LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS IN HEALTHCARE]( --------------------------------------------------------------- We know by now that using large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT for healthcare purposes is tricky and potentially dangerous due to hallucinations and inefficiency. That's why the development of medical LLMs is crucial. The Open Medical-LLM Leaderboard shows that Google's MedPaLM uses the biggest amount of parameters (over 500 billion!) with the potential to become the most useful in the medical and healthcare domains. [READ MORE]( WHY DO I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT? Mistakes in medicine can cost lives. We need to see accurately how these models perform. [WHAT IF GENERATIVE AI TURNED TO BE A FLOP IN HEALTHCARE?]( --------------------------------------------------------------- If generative AI fails to demonstrate effectiveness and safety through clinical trials and empirical evidence, it risks exclusion from evidence-based medical practice. A failure of generative AI could erode public trust, provoke ethical concerns with deepfakes, and lead to stringent regulations or outright bans in medical settings, potentially stifling further innovation and investment in the field. [READ MORE]( WHY DO I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT? I don’t believe generative AI will be a flop in medicine (or elsewhere), but thinking about “what if” questions is rarely a waste of time, as it helps us prepare for the future. MORE NEWS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE --------------------------------------------------------------- ISSUED STATEMENT – [Kaiser nurses rail against AI use in hospitals at San Francisco protest]( CHANGING VIEWS – [Doctors are getting on board with genAI, survey shows]( GPT4>BING>BARD – [ChatGPT-4 outperforms human psychologists in test of social intelligence, study finds]( 400 COMPANIES – [World's Best Digital Health Companies 2024]( [color-forwardtofriend-48.png](mailto:berci@medicalfuturist.com) [color-facebook-48.png]( [color-youtube-48.png]( [color-linkedin-48.png]( [color-twitter-48.png]( [color-instagram-48.png]( © The Medical Futurist 2024 This email was sent to {EMAIL} [why did I get this?]( [unsubscribe from this list]( [update subscription preferences]( Medical Futurist · Budapest · Budapest, Pest 1118 · Hungary