Keynote: The Rise of Cognitive Healthcare: Hurdles, Hopes and Breakthroughs

Healthcare is a foundational pillar of modern societies. Its evolution has closely followed the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The emergence of electronic healthcare (e-health) marked a significant milestone, leveraging ICTs to digitize and streamline healthcare delivery. This was followed by mobile healthcare (m-health), made possible by the proliferation of mobile devices and ubiquitous computing, enabling healthcare access anytime and anywhere. Subsequent advances in sensing technologies, wireless sensor networks, and the Internet of Things (IoT) led to the emergence of smart healthcare (s-health)-a paradigm founded on context-aware, adaptive environments designed to support personalized and responsive medical care. Today, transformative breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) are driving the rise of Cognitive Healthcare (c-health). This novel paradigm builds upon the foundations laid by e-health, m-health, and s-health, and introduces a more powerful, integrative approach. Cognitive Healthcare envisions human-machine collaboration, where AI systems, healthcare professionals, and patients learn from each other to create an intelligent, personalized, and proactive care-particularly relevant in addressing the complex demands of an ageing population. In this keynote, we will revisit the evolution of Smart Healthcare and explore how it has set the stage for the development of Cognitive Healthcare. We will examine the main opportunities that this emerging paradigm presents, as well as the technological and ethical challenges that may hinder its widespread adoption.