"One of the greatest cost drivers in healthcare is still hiding in plain sight. So began an article in Forbes last month by Hayden Bosworth, professor of medicine, psychiatry, and nursing at Duke University Medical Center, and Prescriptions for a Healthy America's Sloane Salzburg. The authors called for the issue to be a made "a national priority," and reported on the recommendations by a group of experts representing patients, physicians, pharmacies, and pharma companies on how to fix the problem. Bosworth and Sloane identified the need for improved information sharing between the clinical and pharmacy setting, better integration of healthcare systems, the leveraging of new and better technologies, and better incentives for healthcare providers, plans and drug manufacturers to improve patient adherence in federal healthcare programs. It is revealing that this call for action positions new and better technology as only part of the solution. In the field of digital health and patient adherence, one could be forgiven for thinking that the answers to the nonadherence problem lie in the advancing connectivity protocols and mobile solutions that incorporate medication reminders and encouragement, or enable the timing of medication access to be controlled. In the last few years, as Dr. Bill Byrom, senior director, product innovation, for the contract research organization ICON, points out, we have seen the emergence of: Such innovations continue apace, and their contribution to tackling nonadherence is vital. However, Bosworth reminds us that, while digital health is "definitely here, it's just part of the toolbox." He told Pharm Exec: "If people think of it as panacea that is going to solve everything, they will be consistently disappointed." Clare Moloney, Atlantis Healthcare's clinical strategy director, Europe, further explains: "There is still the thinking that if you put something in an app or on someone's phone, or if you put a device in someone's home, that it is going to be a magic fix.

David Moloney believes countries such as Ireland have a rare chance to embrace their edge in AI and deep learning, otherwise they risk being flattened by change. The news last year that Irish tech firm Movidius was being acquired by chip giant Intel sent shockwaves throughout the tech scene because it was the strongest signal yet that the world was moving inexorably in a different direction, at quantum speed. For Movidius co-founder David Moloney, who will be speaking at next week's Inspirefest, it is a statement of intent. Because Intel does everything at hyper scale. 'The genie is well and truly out of the bottle. Embrace AI or be flattened' – DAVID MOLONEY In 20 years, we have gone from computers being beige boxes on desks, to supercomputers in our pockets.

Irish chip maker Movidius has created the world's first deep learning USB stick that can add artificial intelligence (AI) to future products from self-driving cars to robots, and drones that will learn to think for themselves. Entitled the Fathom Neural Compute Stick, the device will sell for less than 100 and will allow powerful neural networks to be moved out of the cloud and deployed on new products like robots and drones. It is the latest breakthrough for the Dublin company, which has been winning major multi-million dollar deals with Google and drone maker DJI. 'With Fathom, every robot, big and small, can now have state-of-the-art vision capabilities' – DR YANN LECUN, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY "Any organisation can now add deep learning or machine intelligence to devices using the USB stick and create products that will be accessible to broader markets," Movidius co-founder David Moloney told Siliconrepublic.com. "We've already seen how the auto industry has been outflanked by Tesla ...