The Democratizing Forces that will shape the Future of Healthcare.

Patient-centred healthcare, social media and the internet: the perfect storm? -- Rozenblum and Bates -- BMJ Quality and Safety

This is article is a great read and explains to a certain extent the forces that will shape the future of healthcare - determined by patients and consumers  - a truly democratic future whether doctors or managers or politicians like it or not!

The Future of Healthcare is the Smartphone.

There are divergent views of how, going forwards (uugh!!) healthcare will evolve. There is an obvious tension in the debate - on the one hand, science, research and development lead to a ever increasing number of expensive treatments to enable us to  live longer and on the other hand  the world is running out of money so that these new treatments cannot be universally available. This is happening as more societies  come to accept the wisdom  and the humanity of universally available healthcare. In the UK, recent  centralising reforms to the NHS suggest authorities feel that changes and developments should come or be imposed from the top. There is an alternative and more exciting view - and that the smartphone - that very personalised (or personalising) connected computer carried by an increasing proportion of the world's population will define the future of healthcare. The future will be defined by the grassroots - the base of the pyramid and not by the apex - and because this development is based on digital technology, it will undoubtedly happen at a pace that will surprise all.
He thinks so and he wrote a book about it.
He thinks so because he once tweeted that the future of healthcare will come out of the barrel of a smartphone and he is (and looks like) a sage.
Here are 2 movies, one from the recent Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas where an increasing number of personalised health related devices are being shown. The second is a promo from a startup that wants to define the future.

Eric Topol, Muir Gray and RyanAir.

Eric Topol and Muir Gray are visionaries and have seen the way health care will evolve over the next few years. Muir Gray once tweeted that the future of healthcare will come out of the barrel of a smartphone. Eric Topol is a very clever cardiologist who works at the influential Scripps Institute in La Jolla, San Diego. He has recently published a book on the personalisation and the digitisation of medicine. Muir and Eric come from different traditions, the first, public health and the National Health Service in the UK and Eric from hi tech hospital based academic cardiology in the United States. Both nonetheless understand the basic rules that will govern healthcare in the future.

This video, demonstrating how an iPhone can be used to record an ECG, is just a small example of the future. I wish I'd had one during my recent Ryanair flight!

 

 

SMART PHONES - THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE

SHVD: Very-low-dose Therapy In Anticoagulation Of Patients With Mechanical Heart Valve Replacement Supported By Telemedicine
I have recently read that there are now funds to encourage start up companies in silicon valley to develop smartphone apps to use with devices that patients can use to monitor their own health.