FUTURES BAROMETER
HEALTH CARE MATTERS – YOUR TAKE ON THE FUTURE By Claire A. Nelson
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HUMAN FUTURES
INTRODUCTION The challenges of providing healthcare to all are difficult to solve. There have been many efforts in recent years to mitigate the problems and provide more efficient systems. However, most of such systems focus on a specific problem and do not deliver a holistic framework that solves the larger issue of providing high performance, affordable, secure, robust, scalable, and efficient healthcare applications. Industry 4.0 technologies like Deep Learning and AI can provide high performance systems; blockchain and encryption with public-private signature management can provide secure communication with high data integrity. The main challenge lies in the ability to integrate all these technologies to provide a single solution that caters to all the needs and requirements of the healthcare industry. Healthcare has been on the verge of transformation for years, if not decades. However, the COVID 19 pandemic has broken down longstanding barriers and accelerated digital health at a pace few could have imagined. Healthcare is moving toward a consumer-centered model where people can shop for care and share data with an endless array of apps and services. Those who are managing a chronic condition seem more eager to embrace new technology. SDG (3) on Health aspires to ensure health and wellbeing for all, including a commitment to end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other communicable diseases (including COVID?) by 2030. It also aims to achieve universal health coverage and provide access to safe and effective medicines and vaccines for all. Will we make it? According to the website Medical Technology Schools, many of the most interesting new technologies in medicine need to be used together. Attempts to do so already exist in companies like Forward and One Medical, which are using a concierge-like approach to primary care, putting technology to use in a way that providers get more quality time with their patients. The Covid-19 pandemic forced healthcare into the future, and, as a result, several promising medical technologies have been tested on a massive scale. The question now is how these technologies can be used in a
