The fast high octane driving action of Formula One (F1) and healthcare, how can these two sectors be interlinked or working together in our world of technology advancements in both medical and technology fields? If we only based it on looking on paper figures and stories alone, and not in-depth into them, sports racing technology in F1 doesn’t have a perfect 1.0 correlation with the healthcare industry.
Yes, F1 sports racing have sports athletes in peak physical and mental condition, through body monitoring through sensors. The F1 drivers are always taken care of in the healthcare segment, ensuring their peak condition to compete in a very competitive, dangerous yet controlled sporting environment. In this segment, healthcare provisions and standards play a very integral part to the F1 sports racing industry.
Therefore, the current technology used in F1 can be applied in our healthcare industry, in our everyday life, in medical institutions such as hospitals and clinics, for everybody who needs the medical services. Beyond the F1 sports industry, it’s about how F1 technology can be transferred across to the healthcare industry in general, how and where to apply them, that can a wide area to discuss and work on from both sides of the F1 and healthcare practitioners.
At a recent SGInnovate Forum titled “F1 Technology and the Impact on Healthcare” that I attended, there were interesting presentations and discussions by the speakers present during the panel discussion.
Moderator
Steve Leonard, Founding CEO, SGInnovate
Panelists
– Dr Adam Hill, Chief Medical Officer, McLaren Applied Technologies
– Assoc Prof Low Cheng Ooi, Chief Medical Informatics Officer, MOH Singapore
– Mr Chua Chee Yong, Director Planning Group, Integrated Health Information Systems Pte Ltd (IHIS), Head IT Strategy and Planning, MOH Singapore
– Dr Sophia Chew, Cardiac Anaesthetist, Singapore General Hospital
During the forum event, there were interesting presentations and topics brought up by the audience during the panel discussion. While I am unable to share everything here in my article, I was able to connect the dots across supposedly very different industries and practices.
My prior professional experience in financial advisory (having to learn a bit on medical terms, conditions and medical related matters because of the areas in life insurance and medical insurance), my personal interest in F1 because I am a fan of motorsports, being a patient myself (from getting operated on my injuries and having to follow up with my specialist doctor yearly for now) and finally a technology enthusiast that consumes different forms of data and information on the internet/social media.
With my wide areas of experiences and interests, I didn’t get too lost during the panel discussion, considering that I am not a professional in the medical, IT or data analytics industries.
The professional expertise from the Formula One industries, analysing and collecting data and information from the racing drivers, weather conditions, racing conditions, thereafter, producing crucial and important information for future racing competitions. All these are very useful and this particular expertise can be transferred across into the medical field and applied there. It is much easier for a B2B approach (Business to Business) transfer of expertise and technology than a B2C approach (Business to Consumer) who may not be able to understand the complexity and technicality of the entire process.
However, we human beings, face aging, illness, body wear and tear over time. While the human race may not see it that closely related at this current juncture in time, maybe in the future, medical records of patients can be stored confidentially and safely, the patient’s medical records can be accessed by the patient themselves or when they visit other doctors in other medical institutions. How long will this take? Your guess is as good as mine.
During the panel discussion, one of the guests brought up a question on health insurance, in relation to the forum discussion topic. On this topic, with my prior professional experience in the financial advisory industry, I can understand and relate to this particular question posed. I am not going to write it down in detail here, it can be a lengthy discussion and can be an article long in content. For health insurance premiums to change, if insurance companies have access to more customers health information and data, there could be a possibility. However, there are a lot more factors to consider before this could even be a possibility in the future.
F1 Technology and Healthcare might not seem like the best partnership on paper, yet the expertise and technology behind F1 can be transferred and applied in the healthcare industry. This is a great example of how technology can impact and improve our life, although it is not so obvious and easy to understand, from the end consumer perspective.
If you are keen to listen to the SGInnovate Forum “F1 Technology and the Impact on Healthcare”, you can visit their Facebook Page and view their video!