Miroslav Světlák: "Each of us will deal with end of life, regardless of the cause."
He says that a machine, or rather the much talked about artificial intelligence, can never replace human contact. Yet doc. PhDr. Miroslav Světlák, Ph.D., Head of the Institute of Medical Psychology and Psychosomatics at the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University, received the Czech DIGI@MED Award, awarded annually by the biotechnology company Roche for innovative digital and mobile solutions in the field of healthcare. The judges of the competition praised MOU's Mind Care app, which he and his team developed with the ambition of bringing mental health support principles literally to people's homes through eight-week therapy programmes. At the current stage, only patients at the Masaryk Cancer Institute are able to use the app, but the authors' goals go beyond a single diagnosis. Although the words of Associate Professor Světlák convey concepts such as humanity and empathy, he also sees enormous potential in eHealth, or the use of information technology in healthcare, which can ultimately benefit both healthcare professionals and patients. How to fulfil it? What kind of psychological care do doctors provide to cancer patients? To what extent can computerisation relieve overstretched medical staff? And is it even possible to relax with a mobile phone in hand?