The Global Future of Healthcare
Written by Amanda Maritan November 29th 2021
Healthcare is a group of markets that aim to take care of health, together with the prevention and treatment of diseases. During the last decades, healthcare has evolved a lot, mainly because as society develops we discover new technologies, diseases and our life’s expectations go up, making us look for ways to live longer and better. It was during the Technical-Scientific-Informational Revolution, for example, that HIV drugs emerged, as well the creation of new treatments, tools and resources to use in the health area. However, it is not news that the healthcare corner has been improved since the start of society and there still promises of a bigger future for this market.
According to a paper written by the Innovation Director of Sheba Medical Center (in Israel), Eyal Zimlichman, there are several changes planned for the future of medicine. One of the predictions is that through telemedicine, the patients will be able to stay at home whilst receiving ‘’hospital-level care’’, all thanks to advances in technology, consequently reducing hospitalizations and even costs.The plan is that hospitals provide most cares remotely, personalizing medicine at a lower cost, while surgeries be performed at community surgical centers. In addition, the healthcare market will be focusing on prevention of diseases with the help of AI (artificial intelligence) that will support health professionals to decide the best therapy for the patient, faster and more effectively.
About costs; while nowadays hospitals and clinics charge the patient by service, the promise for the future is that the patient will be charged according to the success of the treatment, focusing on quality instead of quantity, helping to decrease costs. In the R&D (research and development) area, from Deloitte’s point of view, the prediction for the next decade is that Pharma companies use AI to visualize and filter data and research that have been already done, and can contribute to future drug development, reducing time and costs in the creation of treatments and cures.
In the end, using technology in medicine will reduce chances of errors, increase the efficiency of health care, allowing advance in diagnosis and treatments. However, it is important to highlight that this progress in healthcare will not happen in the world equally and may not even reach several countries, especially the poorest ones. Yet, education will also be transformed, since med schools and already health professionals, will need to re-educate themselves to keep following not only the changes in medicine, but in technology, ensuring that this evolution be effective.
Works Cited
As 5 tendências de tecnologia na saúde para 2030, segundo a ARC. Pós PUCPR Digital Blog, May 2021. https://posdigital.pucpr.br/blog/tendencias-de-tecnologia-na-saude
Eyal Zimlichman, MD, MSc, Wendy Nicklin, BN, MSc(A), ICDD, Rajesh Aggarwal, MD, PhD, FRCS, FACS & David W. Bates, MD, MSc. Health Care 2030: The Coming Transformation, March 2021. https://catalyst.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/CAT.20.0569
Healthcare: o que podemos esperar deste segmento? Blog Bidu, June 2019. https://blog.bidu.com.br/o-que-e-healthcare/
Predicting the future of healthcare and life sciences in 2025. Deloitte Blog. https://www2.deloitte.com/ch/en/pages/life-sciences-and-healthcare/articles/predicting-the-future-of-healthcare-and-life-sciences-in-2025.html
The Biggest Ways Healthcare Has Changed In The Last Century. The Healthcare Guys, Feb 2016.https://www.healthcareguys.com/2016/02/25/biggest-ways-healthcare-changed-last-century/