Popular podcasts, the mighty Meta, and amazing AI advances 

Welcome to the podcast revolution!  

Podcasts are nothing new, but during the pandemic they have been rising in popularity exponentially. Just look at this graph which shows the growth of ebook and podcast app Audible in 2021… 256% growth so far this year. That is a crazy statistic.  

Image source: appfigures.com

Here are some popular podcasts for those of us in MedComms. 

The Healthcare Comms Podcast aims to showcase people’s stories within the sector. They aim to bring to life the true wins, true failures and true successes of healthcare comms. Digital Health Today is a podcast about accelerating innovation and the implementation of health technology. There is also a good list of healthcare podcasts available here.  

Spotify are also expanding into the podcast and audiobook arena. They’ve announced the acquisition of Findaway, which is an audiobook services and distribution company, the purpose being to accelerate the addition of an audiobook catalogue onto the platform.  

Meta: PR monster or brave new world? 

At the end of October, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced Meta, as bringing together the company’s technologies under one new company brand. Meta’s focus will be to bring the metaverse to life. Put simply, the metaverse is where the physical and digital worlds come together. When I’m asked “what is the metaverse, anyway?” my answer so far is, everything and nothing - the metaverse is tough to explain as it hasn’t been built yet. It’s partly a dream for the future of the internet (a Web 3.0) and partly a combination of some current trends in online infrastructure, including the growth of gaming and real-time 3D worlds. This podcast covers the lack of a clear definition nicely.  

Will life in the Metaverse leave you legless?  

Ever wondered what life in the metaverse is like right now? The Wall Street Journal locked one of their journalists in a hotel room for 24 hours – and this great 7 minute video shows what it really is like. Turns out it has a high proportion of creepy guys, and distinct lack of legs! 

Last week, Microsoft also kicked-off its own metaverse master plan. The company said their first part of the metaverse will be Mesh for Teams (remember those holograms?), which will be available sometime next year. 

Meanwhile Niantic (the maker of Pokémon Go) launched a platform to build ‘real-world metaverse’ apps, with the aim of also wanting to be the future of AR glasses. Lightship is a software toolkit for building metaverse apps which is free for any developer to access.  

Meta has this week also unveiled a haptic glove prototype that lets you feel VR objects using air pockets, which reproduce sensations like grasping an object or running your hand along a surface. 

Never missing a trick, the country of Iceland also got in on the metaverse trend developing their very own Icelandverse. If you only have time to click on one link in this blog, make it this one!  

In other news, AI advances continue to find new applications…

• An NYU study finds that an ultrasound-analyzing AI improves breast cancer diagnoses by 37%.  
• Zebra Medical Vision gets FDA clearance for a new AI tool is able to analyze CT scans and that can categorize patients based on cardiac calcium detected and help clinicians detect patients with cardiovascular disease.  
• Bayer and Huma plan to develop a machine learning model that can distinguish between different forms of non-small-cell lung carcinoma in imaging data.  
• An Exscientia AI study spots which blood cancer therapies work and which don't. 
• Alphabet (Google) are aiming to become the next big thing in pharma, launching Isomorphic Laboratories, a new company that uses AI to discover new drugs. It will use the work done by DeepMind to build tools that can help identify new pharmaceuticals. It will focus on developing partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. 
• And Alexa is selling itself at large scale to healthcare providers. “Patients will be able to use their voice to control more functionality in the rooms, access more entertainment and information, and communicate even easier.” Amazon has also unveiled an Alexa-connected home air quality monitor. 

Plus so much other cool tech news in the last few weeks! 

• Research found that in pharma marketing, mobile is the top-performing device in terms of conversion and clicks. 
• Leo Pharma wants to reduce clinical trial costs and time by 25%, through a partnership with Veeva Systems.  
• A new study in JAMA shows that wearable tech may be the key to detecting the flu even before a patient begins to show symptoms.  
• This systematic review of studies found that digital interventions using wearables and apps don’t improve physical activity for people with a low socioeconomic status. 
• Milena Mitova, digital brand activation lead at Merck  & Co. has said that starting with just 40 marketing assets such as a webinar or brochure, she can get “close to 2,600 snackable pieces” of content that can be used in email, social posts or paid ads. 
• This article outlines the top 5 ways tech is helping combat heart disease in 2021. 
• And finally, Apple is reportedly evaluating whether AirPods can be used to check someone’s temperature, monitor their posture, and serve as some kind of hearing enhancement. 

That’s it for this month! 

#WordFromTheWeb

At AS&K, one of our key values is Being Curious ‒ asking what if, why not, could we? The Word From the Web blog series is one example of how we are horizon scanning and infusing the latest innovations throughout our medical communication services. Want to learn more about how AS&K can help you stay in front of the latest trends? Contact our Business Development Director, Alana Zdinak at alana.zdinak@asandk.com today!