Healthcare 2040

Few topics are as personal as our health and based on the current trends in healthcare, things are going to be getting a whole lot more personal very soon.

I had the pleasure of presenting the closing plenary last week for the NW Regional Primary Care Association’s 2019 Fall Primary Care conference and it’s become very evident that tremendous changes are coming to the field. Given current trends, within two decades we can expect a transition to a consumer-centered model that relies on near-continuous data flows of personal health information. This information and a range of other emerging technologies will allow healthcare professionals to proactively focus much more on ongoing wellness. When illness does occur, it will be detected far sooner and treated using micro-interventions and personalized precision medicine. While there will be many challenges along the way, we will hopefully find ourselves living healthier and longer lives in the years to come.