The health and technology sectors intersected in fresh ways in 2024, marking a transformation largely driven by the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI).
From headphones that double as hearing aids to the use of AI voice assistance on the House floor, last year built upon the tech advancements from the COVID-19 pandemic while opening the door to the new possibilities of the digital health space.
Here are the highlights of digital health in 2024:
Use of artificial intelligence
AI, especially the use of generative AI, is largely cited by the health care community as having the biggest impact on the industry in 2024.
“2024 really opened up our eyes — I’m talking both on the clinician side and the consumer side — to the incredible potential of gen AI tools,” René Quashie, the vice president of digital health for the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) told The Hill.
Quashie pointed to medical professionals’ increased use of AI-generated scribes during patient visits as being one of the most significant advancements last year.
Typically using a phone microphone, ambient AI scribes use machine learning and natural language processing to summarize conversations into an easy-to-read note following a patient visit.
These scribes usually do not record audio, but can save most physicians an average of one hour a day at their computers, according to the American Medical Association. The tool takes away the burden of note-taking during an appointment and allows clinicians to be more engaged with patients.
While tech’s integration in health care can sometimes cause skepticism, the use of AI is increasingly embraced by the medical community.
AI was ranked as the most exciting emerging technology for the health care industry for the fourth year in a row, according to a study of executives by the Center for Connected Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
AI outside of traditional medical settings
AI for health is even making progress on Capitol Hill.
Former Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.), who was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), made headlines last year after she used an AI text-to-speech app to deliver remarks on the House floor.
The model was able to replicate what Wexton’s voice sounded like before the PSP diagnosis, which now impacts the volume and clarity of her voice.
The Virginia Democrat, who retired at the start of this month, said last year she hopes the use of the model shows “creative ways we can empower people facing the kinds of health and accessibility challenges I have and demonstrate our abilities don’t define us.”
Meanwhile, leading technology companies like Microsoft harnessed AI to improve user experiences for those with health challenges.
In one project last year, Microsoft teamed up with the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands to show how the company’s AI service, Copilot, can adapt existing art museum descriptions to give those who have no or limited vision a better chance to understand and interpret the art pieces.
The descriptions go beyond the typical details like the title, date and inspiration of the art and can describe the “literal and emotional” elements of a piece. AI, for example, can tell the consumer how dark or light one color can be in a painting and describe what a piece shows.
In a collaboration with Be My Eyes, Microsoft announced this month it will use disability representative data to train its AI models to be more inclusive of the hundreds of millions of individuals with blind or low vision. Be My Eyes is a company that connects people who are blind or have low vision with sighted volunteers and companies.
AI developers have faced mounting scrutiny over how they train machine learning models, which can sometimes show biases against specific groups or individuals depending on the information used in training.
A boom in wearable devices
2024 saw an “explosion” of wearable devices like “smart” watches, glasses and headphones, Quashie said.
“They’re providing not just real time data, but also providing trends for consumers,” Quashie said. “It’s much more sort of actionable data that consumers are getting compared to the wearables from just even ten years ago.”
Apple made large steps in this field last year, as seen with its new AirPods Pro model, which now serves as a “clinical grade” hearing device.
The newest version of the popular headphones offer a hearing test and can serve as a professional grade hearing aid for iPhone and iPad users in what the company claims is the world’s first software-enabled hearing aid feature.
If users test for mild to moderate hearing loss, they are directed to set up the hearing aid feature that is adjusted to their needs.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quickly approved the feature in September and Apple said users will “start hearing more clearly immediately” after taking the test.
Apple’s latest smartwatch models also amped up their health components in 2024
Its new sleep apnea feature, rolled out this fall for Apple Watch Series 9 or 10, monitors users’ breathing disturbances while they are sleeping and alerts them if it detects a possibility of the sleeping disorder.
The smartwatches also alert users to high heart rates or irregular rhythms suggesting atrial fibrillation.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, dived deeper into the digital health space with its new Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
Through a partnership with Be My Eyes, users can more easily connect blind or low vision users with sighted volunteers with a voice command of “Hey Meta, Call a Volunteer on Be My Eyes.” A volunteer will be able to see through the lens of Meta’s smart glasses and give the user a real-time description through the glasses’ open-ear speakers.
The service, which is free and available 24/7 with the glasses, is the first of what’s expected to be a larger partnership between Meta and Be My Eyes.
Digital therapeutics
Digital therapeutics, defined as software-based devices often used in mental health spaces, experienced major growth last year and offered a promising future to expand into other care sectors.
This type of technology includes self-care apps to treat mental health challenges like anxiety, depression and substance and opioid use disorders.
“These really sort of started to explode during the pandemic, the FDA cleared a bunch of these, but we’ve seen some sluggish adoption in the market,” Quashie said. “These devices are getting more sophisticated.”
This is part of a larger movement to get technology into homes to allow for more accessible treatment from the comfort of one’s own space, Quashie noted.
Under new Medicare rules that will begin in January, clinicians will now be able to bill Medicare for the apps authorized by the FDA.
The availability of commercially available prescription digital therapeutics has grown five-fold since 2021, according to IQVIA’s Digital Health Trends 2024 report.
What could come next
While 2024 made progress on some digital health projects, there is still more ground to cover in the new year.
Experts emphasized the need to ensure all populations have access to digital tools, ranging from wearable devices to AI powered systems or digital therapeutics.
“If you live in a more urban environment, you’re more likely to touch on technology in a much more significant way than rural folks,” Quashie said. “Higher income, higher education, likely to touch technology more than others.”
Some companies sought to expand digital therapeutics beyond mental health treatment last year, 2025 will be a test to see how many of these get the greenlight, experts said.
Pfizer, for instance, has a new digital application for migraine management.
