10 innovations with impact on your health in 2016.

A lot of predictions are made about 2016. I just wanted to share some of my thoughts on the change of health(care) this year, that are keeping my mind busy right now.

2016 will :

1. Flip the coin where you as a patient will create more data than your professionals.  All kinds of ‘gadgets’ that collect biometrical data as your heart rate, even EKG (body) temperature, steps, food-intake and  your biome will be available. Scanadu, Nima, OKU, ScIO, Me and companies like Theranos are working on this. I also think the internet of things quickly will evolve into the internet of everything. 
   Comes a moment where the ambulance based on your continuous measurements drives up to your house to prevent a heart-attack occurring.
   
   

    

2. It will be common to have ambient experiences. Besides the often refered Virtual Reality systems also wireless earbudds like my Dash will enter te market. They also take your heart rate, skin temperature, the location you are and also know where you looking at to advice you through Wikipedia search. With additional tactic feedback from a TeslaSuit the ambient experience will be confronting. Image the use of these combined in healthcare.
   Thinking of how it would be to have those in-ear all the time or even implanted versions.
   
   

    

3. Invoke a broader enrolment of clinics in supermarkets, becoming the hub for many -now hospital or GP bound- diagnostic routines. I expect up to 70% of all routine could be done elsewhere.
   Mostly being within a 5 minute reach they will grow into hubs for taking your blood pressure, weight, robots take your blood, urine and biome (gut-sample). Also i we will see hotels and step into care delivery on a luxury hotel level like vd Valk in the Netherlands. 
   
   

    

4. Spark the use of Blockchain technology in healthcare to become the leading infrastructure for EMR and EHR, replacing the majority of current ‘middle-man’ technology.
   At the moment @REshape we are exploring the actual use of blockchain to create a really personal health record related to our Hereismydata™ concept.

    

5. Will have lots of ethical discussions about Genome editing techniques like CRISPR, often named as the ‘word processor’ for genome editing. With this defects in DNA can be repaired and shows clear progression and acceleration in this field of editing the basics of life.  
   Interesting ethical discussions on the risk of creating 'monsters' and the risk of use only for the benefit of a few. The challenge is  to use it with care and caution.
   
   

    

6. Offer multiple examples of highly protocolled procedures to be replaced by algorithms (automated by computer-systems) based on deep learning and artificial intelligence.
   'What if' systems like IBM’s Watson or Wolfram Alpha could decrease 30% of GP’s work and cope with the growing healthcare demand.
   
   
7. Improve vizualisation systems that will help us understand how the human body works; like the Glass Brain .
   Imagine (near) realtime insights of your brain, heart and vascular system on your smartphone to be sent to your doctors office.
   
   

    

8. Evolve the use of Social media as a common research tool in medicine .
   Like Bas Bloem and his group did in a study analyzing Youtube video’s to discover a strange gait in Vladimir Putins walk. 
   
   

    

9. We will get used to voice commands like Siri, Google now or Alexa from Amazon that will enter our daily live.
   We’re testing the latter to switch lights on/off for patient-rooms, make to-do lists or notes by doctors and nurses and patients, decreasing the potential number of hygiene-risks.
   
   

    

10. The business model in health(care) will start to shift towards prevention and more control by patients and new entrants will change payment systems and away from 'in real person-only' healthcare. Paradigm-shift often are preluded by a phase of neglect. This is why i try to get some 'start-up' mentality into our own organisation in 2016
    

    I sometimes 'joke' expecting Apple to offer additional global healthcare insurance for $0.99 / month for digital health in 2 years from now.

    

Next to all kinds of other topics, these will impact the way your healthcare will be delivered to you. Those of you who follow my work for some time know that my main focus is patient empowerment. For the purpose of this post i did not address that aspect heavily in this post. You can read more about that in my other posts here on LinkedIn and follow me, to be updated when a new post comes online. I am curious to you comments and additions.