Written By: Robert J. Szczerba
Enormous technological changes in medicine and healthcare are heading our way. These trends have a variety of stakeholders: patients, medical professionals, researchers, medical students, and consumers. They are important because of the impact they will likely have on all of us at one time or another. To get an overview of the trends in healthcare technology, we turned to Dr. Bertalan Meskó, medical futurist and author of The Guide to the Future of Medicine: Technology and the Human Touch. In it, he identifies several areas that he believes will shape the future of medicine and healthcare for decades to come.
Meskó’s predictions easily fall into two categories. The first group of trends, descried below, involve concepts already underway today, or those that will likely have an impact on us in the near future. (Part 2 of this article discusses a second group of tech trends that are still several years away or in much earlier stages of development).
Gamifying health
Games are ubiquitous on our computers and phones, and increasing numbers of them are designed to have a positive impact beyond simply killing time. Combining fun and games into healthcare apps can motivate the patient and collect data needed to make informed decisions on daily activities that contribute to one’s health. “An estimated 50% of patients with chronic diseases do not follow the prescribed treatment,” says Meskó. “Gamified health tracking creates an environment that keeps the patient from straying from the appropriate therapy path.”
Empowered patients
