Healthcare fastforward

"The empires of the future
are the empires of the mind"
Winston Churchill, Speech at Harvard University

Predicting the future is a very difficult task. While trying to anticipate the future and reading a lot about it, I’ve come to think that we tend to overestimate the near future (let’s say the next 5 years), while we usually tend to underestimate the far future (20 years and ahead).

Here’s a list of trends I’ve been collecting from many different sources. This is not to endorse or support any particular technology or event taking place in the future, obviously, we simply don’t know what will happen. This is more to make people think about the wonderful challenges ahead. And yes, it gets very weird at the end.

2008-2010

• Electronic prescriptions reduce fraud and improve speed
• 24/7 blood chemistry monitoring
• Ultrasound or radio activated capsules
• Blood analysis chips
• Supermarkets used as major source of medical alerts
• Synthetic viruses
• Synthetic bacteria

2010-2012

• Instant electronic identification of pathogens
• Expert systems used extensively in GP surgeries
• Multimedia patient records
• Lifestyle monitoring and insurance linked to medical records
• Video tattoos
• Cyber-drugs (electronically activated drugs)
• Automated pain relief for soldiers
• Bacteria in toothpaste to attack plaque
• Antibacterial coatings on domestic appliances, phones etc,
• Flexible displays used for body monitoring and alerts
• Emotion alerts
• Rich world badly infected by third world disease
• Smart pill bottles remotely monitor medication taking and use alarms
• Diabetes cure via stem cell research
• Hotels offer some hospital services

2013-2015

• Devices roaming within blood vessels under own power
• Operations videoed and stored routinely as part of medical record
• Use of human's own tissues to grow replacement organs
• Direct electronic pleasure production
• Artificial senses, sensors directly stimulating nerves
• Smart membranes for remote control of drug injection
• Context sensitive cyber-drugs
• Electronic stimulation of brain sensations as recreational substitute for drugs
• Some implants seen as status symbols
• Gene-gel stimulation of re-growth of natural teeth on demand
• Retina regeneration using foetal retinal cell injection
• Tooth regeneration
• Domestic bacterial detection devices
• Plastic bones
• Emotion logging and recording
• Self certification for prescriptions using electronic diagnostics
• Visitor sanitising in hospitals
• Outpatients at home routinely- remote tele-medical consultations

2015-2020

• Genetic links of all 90% of diseases identified
• Individual's genome part of their medical record
• Synthetic organs by printing layers of cells
• Portable bactericidal devices
• Bactericidal saws incorporated onto materials in hospitals
• Sensory augmentation using sensory implants, nanoparticles etc
• Use of stem cells in brain after strokes or accidents
• Gene therapy generates new hair cells in humans
• Sensory implants allows direct sensing of electronic entities
• Biometrics and medical tests linked to benefits and disability allowance

2020-2040

• Nanotech based organism colonies
• Smart makeup
• Listing of individual's DNA for $1 (10M key base pairs)
• Brief human suspended animation
• Electronic memory enhancement
• Many new forms of plants and animals from genetic engineering
• Nanobots in toothpaste attack plaque
• Fully functioning artificial eyes
• Electronic brain implants
• Genetic, chemical and physiological bases of human behaviour understood
• Intelligence or memory enhancement by external means
• First Bionic Olympics
• DNA compression used to create optimal organisms
• Synthetic immune system

>2040

• Artificial peripheral nerves
• Sims game using real genetics
• Enhanced reality
• Artificial intelligence blends with our brains
• And borrowing one of my favourite quotes, “the empires of the mind”…

For those who really love forecasting the future, I recommend you to visit the BT technology Timeline. You will find some of the entries I am writing today in a more detailed perspective, plus many other trends from other industries as well.