Medicine on the threshold of Renaissance

Innovations that will revolutionize medicine

Chief futurologist of Cisco Dave Evans (Dave Evans)
Published in translation from an unknown source on the Companion websiteI am not a doctor, but I use medical services from time to time.

In addition, I carefully observe what is happening around me, especially if it concerns my health.

The problems described in a recent study by the Doctors Foundation of the USA, in my opinion, have made the work of doctors less exciting than before. The emergence of new and changing existing regulatory requirements, the increasing number of prosecutions for medical errors, the rapid increase in costs and loads that doctors can barely cope with – all this places a heavy burden on doctors, medical staff and administrative workers who have come to the medical industry to get an interesting job and devote their lives to serving people.

The current situation creates problems for everyone who is somehow faced with modern healthcare. The growth and aging of the population in many countries of the world means that there should be more and more medical workers, but not less. At the same time, the doctors and medical staff are more satisfied with their situation, the more productive they work, the better they will be able to serve patients.

By 2025, the shortage of doctors in the United States will amount to 130 thousand people
(source: AAMC Center for Workforce Studies, 2011)

I have good news for healthcare professionals and for all of us: medicine is on the verge of a renaissance. The technologies of the Comprehensive Internet (Internet of Everything, IoE), robots, three-dimensional printing, portable devices, cloud computing, mobility and much more promise to open a new era in the development of medicine. In other words, a bright future awaits her.

I will give just a couple of examples to illustrate what radical changes await the healthcare system in the next decade:

• Scaling up medical experience to expand healthcare opportunities. One of the problems of modern medicine is that medical experience is concentrated in a particular medical institution, or even in the head of a single specialist. For example, a surgeon who has learned to masterfully perform the most complex operations and save people's lives can do it only in one place and only at a certain time. In the future, video technologies, robotics, sensors, gesture recognition systems and a comprehensive Internet will allow surgeons to perform operations in specially equipped remote rooms.

This means that the doctor, without leaving his workplace, will be able to perform complex operations in specially equipped operating rooms located anywhere in the world.

For example, Intuitive Surgical has dramatically increased the percentage of successful operations with the help of ultra-precise robots, but their use in remote mode is hindered by the lack of sensory feedback. In fact, is it possible to perform a complex operation if the surgeon does not feel the patient's blood pressure, his temperature and does not have a tactile connection with the operated person at all? Recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) The USA has approved a prototype of the first biomechanical prosthetic arm that gives its owner tactile sensations. The same technology, in principle, can be embedded in a surgeon's glove, giving him a sense of contact with a remote patient and creating a complete impression of personal presence in a remote operating room.

• The future of reconstructive surgery. The development of three-dimensional printing makes it possible to create cosmetically flawless, anatomically correct and fully functional human ears. Such ears are literally printed by injecting live cells (like ink in an inkjet printer) into a mold. In just three months, ear cartilages of the appropriate size and shape are formed in it. According to medical researchers and surgeons, soon this technology will be used to replace ears injured during childbirth or as a result of accidents. As for vision, the FDA recently approved the first ophthalmic prosthesis Argus II, partially restoring vision to people who have gone blind due to retinitis pigmentosa.  In addition, researchers from Duke University implanted special sensors in rats that allow them to see infrared rays, which usually remain invisible to both humans and rodents. Will this technology be able to restore sight to the blind? I believe he can.

Another area where technology has a significant impact on healthcare concerns medical institutions, hospitals and medical offices. At one time, the Internet democratized access to information, providing anyone with what was previously available only to a select few. The aforementioned technologies can make the same revolution in medicine.

New technologies not only improve medical care, but also change the physical structure of healthcare (hospitals, medical offices, etc.). For example, as the methods of delivery of medical services spread and localize, polyclinics and hospitals can become centers of medical competence that monitor the quality and safety of services and are responsible for the dissemination of best practices. There will be a situation when medical services will become universally available, and medical institutions will, as it were, go into the shadows.

Another important change is that healthcare will become a continuous process and will enter our daily lives (for now, it is a series of episodic events like visits to the doctor). For example, every morning, brushing our teeth in front of the mirror, we will undergo a cursory medical examination. With the help of virtual reality, intelligent surfaces, cloud computing, gesture recognition technology and new sensory capabilities, such as Eulerian Video Magnification (video magnification by the Eulerian method), it will be possible to literally read important information about the vital activity of the body – for example, to monitor the heartbeat. At the same time, information about your well-being will be transmitted to your personal doctor. With the help of advanced analytical methods and IBM Watson hardware and software running in the cloud, the doctor will get a complete picture of all the problems with your health.

Technology will play a critical role in the transformation of the healthcare system, but real, long-term changes in this area will be provided by caring, striving for excellence people. Today, as in the Renaissance, all the conditions for change – scientific, technical, physical, network and communication - already exist. We can only use all this skillfully to open a new era in the development of medicine.

You can also clearly see how medicine will change in the next decade (technology for monitoring blood flow, heartbeat, etc., which anyone can use), in the video of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology:

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru09.04.2013