Top 20 Digital Health Trends For The Near Future

Digital technology could help transform unsustainable healthcare systems, provide cheaper, faster, and more effective solutions for diseases – and could lead to healthier individuals living in healthier communities.In this book, we analyze the top 20 trends shaping the future of healthcare, and what they all look like in practice. In previous years, The Medical Futurist published annual e-books about digital health trends regarding potential developments that were worth keeping an eye on for that particular year. Based on our analyses and forecasts, these trends help give a bigger picture regarding the direction that the field was heading towards during that year; even though not all forecasts came to fruition.

This current e-book also shares our insights about noteworthy trends based on similar analyses. However, unlike our previous annual trends e-books, we do not restrict ourselves to a current year but look at the short-term future now, with the developments likely to happen in the next 2-5 years. Moreover, we don’t only focus on these insights but also help in providing context about those trends and relevant technologies in general.

In this book, we elaborate on 20 trends that we have been constantly monitoring and that we believe will have the most importance in shaping the digital health landscape in the near future:

Patient empowerment is the biggest milestone in the history of medicine
Lifestyle medicine is the redesign primary care has needed
Globalised healthcare brings precision medicine to life
Pharma companies & digital health: packaging a medication with a digital health service
Direct-to-consumer genetic testing has an edge in drug sensitivity
Nutrigenomics is the biggest promise of digital health
Food scanners are lagging behind
ECG devices have led the regulatory race for portable diagnostic devices
A.I.-guided portable ultrasound devices are the unicorns of digital health
The conscious health consumer of the future uses sensors and loses privacy
Virtual visits and chatbots represent the new primary care
Artificial Intelligence needs a prospective upgrade and the video game industry can help
Bioprinting: It is possible to bioprint living tissues but not organs
3D printing can customize treatments and supplement the medical supply chain
The automation race defines whether A.I. can outperform physicians
COVID-19 has catalyzed technological adoption, but not the cultural one
Mixed reality can transform virtual meetings and medical education
Virtual reality can help ease pain for patients in the hospital
Robots only roam rich hospitals and pharmacies
Digital health insurance companies will have no competitors
Each section contains an aspect that we wanted to highlight about that technology or trend based on our analyses by studying the field for years. We also walk you through that area with relevant descriptions and examples that we find interesting. Additionally, we include further reading suggestions at the end of every section which you can turn to so as to dive deeper into the subject.