Your Medical Information

Your medical record is indeed your medical record even though it may be currently stored in your doctor’s office or the hospital’s record room. You need to have ready access to that information and need to be able to pass it on to any healthcare provider you choose, securely.

The Electronic Medical Record - Part Two

"The electronic medical record will arrive over the next decade, but inparts and pieces. It will become your medical record, not the doctor's or hospital's. Your record may be on a a chip in your pocket or instantly available from the internet."

Electronic Medical Records

Full digitization of medical information – which will still take 5 to ten years or more to achieve - will allow access to medical information at any time, at any place, and in so doing will greatly improve the quality and safety of medical care—your medical care. Digitization will assist continuity of care by providing the right information at the right time to allow for the correct choices in care. Telemedicine and distance medicine will prevail.

Robotics

Robotics will become as important in surgery as industrial robots have become to manufacturing. They can overcome certain obstacles or barriers, such as accessibility to certain tissues (small incisions), distance (telesurgery), dexterity (the six degrees of freedom or a wristlike motion), speed and they do not get tired. They offer the potential to transcend certain human limitations to increase consistency and quality.

Imaging and Simulation in the OR

Tomorrow's operating rooms will be highly dependent upon breathtakingly superb images that will allow the surgeon to know - in advance - what to expect during a specific individual's surgery. And simulators will be universally used by trainees before ever being allowed into the OR. The measure will be competence, not just numbers of cases done. Better surgery and better training.

Less Invasive Surgery

As medicine advances, there will be less need for surgery and the surgery done will be much less invasive. Some procedures traditionally done in the operating room will now be done in the radiology department using catheters rather than scalpels, in shorter time frames and will less recuperation time needed.

Play Now

The Operating Room of the Future

The OR of the Future has four major megatrends. Fewer procedure will need to be done. Many procedures will be done outside the OR. The OR will have much more functionality. The OR will depend on new technologies such as simulators, image guidance and robotic assistance.

Nanomedicine

Nanomedicine - Ever more small devices are being created now with sizes so small that they cannot be seen with a microscope -- but they can help in diagnosis and treatment in ways never before available. For example, a nanodevice an find a tumor cell, attach to it, show where it is on an image and then deliver a drug to destroy it.

Play Now

Devices

Smaller and more powerful devices with very long battery life have been created to help control the heart beat, improve heart pumping, decrease the number of epileptic seizures and even decrease depression for those not well treated by drugs. Soon there will be insulin pumps that can sense the body's blood sugar level and inject just the right amount of insulin -- and many more to come.

Imaging

What we used to call "X-rays" are dramatically changing with superb anatomic images that show some of the smallest details of our organs and the ability to "see" actual function within tissues and cells. And they are not just used for diagnosis anymore but for actual therapy of problems formerly treated in the operating room. With all of the information in digital format, images can be viewed at anytime, at anyplace and by any (authorized) person.

Vaccines

Expect new vaccines to prevent not only infections but also to prevent and treat many chronic diseases like multiple sclerosis, coronary artery disease, and Alzheimer’s. And their will be vaccines designed specifically for an individual – custom tailoring again – to treat residual cancer.

The Promise of Stem Cells

Let’s get away from all the hype and look at what stem cells might actually do - such as help regenerate the damage to the heart after a heart attack or create new pancreas islet cells to replace those lost to type 1 diabetes.

Genomics and Targeted Drug Therapy

The genomics revolution will mean a whole new approach to drug development and therapy. Drugs will be designed for a specific target, will have fewer side effects, will be much safer. They will be prescribed specifically for your problem with an understanding that your body will respond and not suffer adversely.

The Era of Genomics

Medicine is rapidly changing – for the better. A major megatrend is that you can expect to have much more personalized medical care – tailored just for you - in the years to come. Genomics for example will allow your doctor to predict what diseases will occur in your future and then prescribe a plan of action to prevent you from developing them.

Megatrends in Medicine

The medical megatrends coming over the next five to fifteen years include drugs with specific targets to attack with fewer side effects, X-rays that take previously undreamed of pictures of our anatomy and even image your cells metabolic function, operations done with less invasive techniques and some done by robots, and devices that can control heart rhythm or even pump for it.

Prediction and Prevention

Genomics will improve your doctor’s ability to diagnose disease and plan a specific approach just for you – personalized or custom tailored medicine. Your physician will also be able to predict if your cancer is likely to recur after treatment and, if so, what the best approach to cure will be.