The 8 incredible frontiers of tomorrows medicine / ABC WA Regional Drive
In 2007 I spoke about a near future, somewhere around 2015, when humans would evolve to become HomoCyborgs and one of the consequence of this new technology tethering would be to open a digital door into our bodies that would allow us to 24/7 peer deep inside ourselves to constantly monitor our health and wellness.
One of the consequences of having this real time evidence of our impending immortality is that inevitably our innate self preservation and human survival needs would kick in, forcing us to move away from an approach where we waited for our body to break down and then repaired it, to a future state where we would actively attempt to delay or prevent it from ever breaking down.
This afternoon’s chat with ABC WA regional drive show host Stan, follows on from this theme to explore how far we’ve come on this wellness journey and the impacts changing culture, technology, smart phones, apps and more are having on us and our wellness.
We explored a number of health monitoring apps including Healthymize which has developed a fully automated, cloud-hosted, artificial intelligence-based app technology to monitor voice patterns in patients affected by a range of health problems, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart failure and mental diseases.
We went to chat about CB’s 8 key areas of medical marvels that will over the next few years irrevocable change the shape, scope and practice of medicine including:
Intelligent drug design: Automating drug design and compound selection
Skin-as-a-platform: Dermal/Transdermal drug delivery and monitoring devices
Blockchain-enabled hospitals: Distributed networks advancing security and data sharing
CAR-T Therapies: Re-engineering T cells to better attack cancer
RNA Therapies: Filling in therapeutic gaps with RNA-based medicines
Anti-Aging Therapies: Preventing, halting, or reversing the aging process
Bio-Printing: Early-stage startups building organ printing machines
Neurotechnology: Enhancing human capabilities by integrating with the nervous system
Hand-held diagnostics: Condensing lab-grade diagnostics into hand-held devices
and then explored the notion that health care and wellness, like everything else on this planet, is becoming fractured and decentralised.
In this new wellness landscape we are moving away from the centrality of governments and large institutions being solely responsible for providing all aspects of health monitoring and care to a decentralised model where the individual returns to the centre, she or he builds an ecosystem of health care and allied professionals around them and then shares their historical curated information blended with real-time insights with each provider as and when they need it.
This evolving wellness landscape requires much thought, cultural change, ethical debate, governmental consideration and human intervention, but it is one of our most worthy and noble crusades, so take a listen now and then add your voice and thoughts to the future of your health and well-being (7 mins 5 secs).
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What are the most significant frontiers in medicine right now?
Genomic medicine is enabling personalised treatment based on individual genetic profiles. Regenerative medicine is producing replacement tissues and organs. AI is outperforming specialists in specific diagnostic tasks. Wearables are creating continuous health monitoring. Each of these is not a future possibility — they are in clinical use now.
Q: How will AI change the doctor-patient relationship?
AI will handle an increasing proportion of diagnostic pattern recognition — the part of medicine that involves comparing a patient’s profile against large datasets to identify likely conditions. This frees clinicians for the parts of medicine that are irreducibly human: judgment, communication, and the therapeutic relationship itself.
Q: What does this mean for health systems and funding?
The Ripple Effects™ are profound. Prevention becomes more cost-effective when genomic risk factors are identifiable early. Early intervention becomes more precise. But health systems designed around acute care and episodic treatment are poorly structured to deliver the continuous, data-driven, preventive model that medicine is moving toward.
Q: Can Morris Misel speak about healthcare futures and medical technology at your event?
Yes. For keynotes on health, medicine, and the future of care, visit morrismisel.com/event-organisers.
In 2007 I spoke about a near future, somewhere around 2015, when humans would evolve to become HomoCyborgs and one of the consequence of this new technology tethering would be to open a digital door into our bodies that would allow us to 24/7 peer deep inside ourselves to constan.
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