Healthy future: How MedTech is changing the world

CanNegev shelters four start-ups and is Israel’s first medical cannabis technology incubator. — © AFP

A new survey looks at how technology can continue to advance within healthcare and how society is seeking to harness the developmental potential.

DrFirst’s Future of Healthcare survey release outlines the expectations of the U.S. population around technology for remote care. This includes the finding that one-third (31 percent) who reported a desire for access to health services for humans who are traveling in space, on the moon, or even after landing on Mars.

Many people have goals for how healthcare will be delivered in the future. This is in the context of the Metaverse opening people’s minds to endless digital po enabling a seamless convergence of physical and virtual communities for people to work, play, transact or socialize. Processes to transform how healthcare, and other services. services are received. The possibility offer includes enabling a seamless convergence of physical and virtual communities for people to work, play, transact or socialize.

As an example of futurist considerations, the new study reveals that over two-thirds of U.S. citizens expect routine care to be provided remotely with mobile technology within the next three decades. This is according to research administered by iPrescribe, the mobile e-prescribing app by health technology pioneer, DrFirst.

The survey of included 1,023 consumers and the results were studied to reveal predictions about the future of healthcare services available by 2053 and what services participants hope will be routinely accessible.

Headline data shows how consumer expectations centre around technology for remote care, including:

Routine care provided via remote and mobile technology (64 percent)
Surgery performed remotely anywhere in the world via robotics (41 percent)
Sensors that can be implanted in patients’ bodies to send real-time health data to doctors (37 percent)

The survey also reveals what healthcare consumers most hope to see in the future, with a wish list focusing on convenience, as well as advances in remote or mobile technology, including:

24-hour turnaround on all test results (53 percent)
At-home physician visits (47 percent)
At-home blood tests (42 percent)
Drone drop-off or pick-up services for blood tests, medications, and more (39 percent)
At-home radiologic diagnostics, such as mammograms, x-rays, and ultrasounds (37 percent)
Real-time sharing of fitness-tracking data with physicians (34 percent)

“Many healthcare organizations are already offering house calls or considering doing so,” Colin Banas, MD, tells Digital Journal: “With this level of industry interest by CVS and others, your doctor could be making house calls sooner than you think, with full capability to do blood tests and other diagnostic screenings in a few years, not decades.”