The future of healthcare

Artificial intelligence (AI) for healthcare

AI, the beating heart of tomorrow, touches every organisation in healthcare. Self-learning systems analyse, connect, and create anything imaginable. This presents opportunities as well as threats. How do we prepare for this technological revolution that demands new skills and a proactive approach to ethics and safety?

Digital prevention

Prevention is the future of healthcare. Besides blood pressure monitors, expect to see wearables that monitor your heart rate, respiration, and temperature, bracelets that combat sleep apnoea, and gadgets that identify skin cancer. Preventative healthcare will help us keep an eye on warning signs and enable us to take charge, prevent serious health problems, and significantly reduce healthcare costs.

Digitale care

Digital healthcare tech can improve patient monitoring and help reduce physicians' workload. Digital care comes in all shapes and sizes. Think surgical robots that assist human surgeons, pharmacy robots that collect and dispense medication, IV-robots that prepare and deliver IV mixtures, exoskeletons that help with rehabilitation, and telemedicine robots that enable physicians to connect with their patients remotely.

Digitale cure

Recent years have brought some mind blowing developments when it comes to healing and technology. Think nanorobots that can be used to repair damaged cells, perform targeted drug delivery, or monitor diabetes in the body. Or bioprinters that can print personalised medication and even entire organs for transplantation. And neurotechnology can help patients with neurodegenerative diseases to regain some mobility.

Artificial intelligence

AI plays an important role in helping medical professionals reach diagnoses and formulate treatment plans. Already used in the early detection of diseases like cancer and heart disease, it’s only a matter of time before AI enables us to diagnose chronic conditions faster. And soon, it will also allow us to prescribe treatment before a disease has even manifested itself.

Augmented humans

The future of humans is linked to advanced medical tech that will enable us to repair, replace, or enhance almost every part of the body. In the future, we’ll be able to connect our brains to machines and augment our mental and physical abilities. We’ll likely have infallible memory, new senses, and body extensions in objects located far away.

Hospitals and care homes of the future

As healthcare costs continue to skyrocket, hospitals and care homes are looking for ways to leverage technology to minimise in-patient services and improve patient care and efficiency. Think smart, centralised virtual centres or micro-hospitals that offer digital patient experience and on-demand interaction. But also robots and automated systems that enable caregivers to spend more time with their patients.

Ethics

In many ways, people are no longer separate from technology. It is, therefore, important to keep an eye on the moral side of technological developments, consider the implications for the world of tomorrow, and ensure we take important ethical considerations into account. We need to determine our boundaries and voice our opinions about how people and machines should work together.

New skills and jobs

As hospitals increasingly implement advanced technologies, the roles and functions of healthcare staff will be significantly impacted. Healthcare staff will need to develop digital skills to navigate an increasingly data-rich environment. They will also need to focus on continuous learning through online courses and VR/AR simulations. New specialist fields will emerge, including digital medicine, genomics, AI, and surgical robotics.

Future leaderschip

The future of work requires a new type of manager, who challenges the status quo and is willing to abandon entrenched ‘best practices’. There will be a move to flatter hierarchies as millennials are great team players and see traditional hierarchies as outdated. The managers of the future will offer employees opportunities to develop new skills and explore new positions.

Company of the future

The organisation of the future is hyper connected. It closely monitors new developments and collaborates with start-ups, scientists, and universities. It uses smart algorithms to analyse the world and employs a flexible workforce capable of rapidly developing new education concepts. The organisation of the future requires accessible, inspiring leaders who are not afraid to veer off the beaten track.