The Algorithm Will See You Now

EVOTION is from the Greek meaning “Good Ears”. The project is all about improving care for people with hearing loss, which affects 360 million people around the world, making it the 5th most common cause of disability. In our talk we’ll tell you about our study where we give patients state-of-the-art hearing aids and smartphones which connect to each other via Bluetooth. We use these to test their listening experience and test their hearing in different ways.

The collection and incorporation of real-life data into drug development and medical decision making has increasingly gained importance over the last decade. This concept is known as “Real World Evidence”. Using computers, advanced statistical tools are used to analyse this anonymised data to help answer important health and medical research questions. This data can then be used to inform healthcare professionals and help change policy.

The digitisation of health services has created a landscape where we are routinely collecting and processing information to improve the workings of our health system. A key component of that is delivering new knowledge to clinicians using electronic means - so called decision support systems. Two key challenges of those, that we shall discuss at the talk, are usability and trust.