Infographic:Future of Healthcare

This industry track is open for any business who would like to learn about the forces shaping the evolution of healthcare, and to understand what opportunities exist for their business in this exciting market. Healthcare systems today have to address a host of different challenges posed by medical and scientific advancement. Developments in the field of genetics, information technologies, and nanotechnology are enforcing a more individualized approach to healthcare – often outside the hospital setting, while we have already seen the rise of user-centric healthcare and increasing patient empowerment. Concepts such as ‘the average patient’ are now viewed as outdated. And standards within modern medical systems are measured by different parameters, including: patient access to the best-available treatments and to non-institutionalized care; compliance with treatments; and, even – patient choice.

Many agree that there is uncertainly ahead, but one thing is for sure: Technology will continue to expand and will continue to have a great impact on healthcare - The Leading Physicians of the World

For companies active in healthcare this is a highly volatile and rapidly changing environment to operate in, but only few have started thinking proactively about what the future might look like. Many are too constrained by their standing assumptions of how the industry has operated in the past, or they have a rather narrow perspective. The Healthcare Industry Track will discuss many ambitious ideas about possible developments in the field of healthcare. These glimpses into the future of healthcare, provided by leading health, technology and innovation experts, project a fascinating new world that could become very real within the next few years.

The vision for the future is one where, for instance, a GP uses their tablet ultrasound to make a movie of a patient’s beating heart. When irregularities are noted, the GP shares this immediately with a cardiologist to diagnose the patient and set up a care plan there and then. There’s no need to make an appointment in weeks or months – the issue can be dealt with in real-time. This is what we have become accustomed to when booking flights, doing our finances or shopping online.

It’s a world where someone with a chronic condition has all their vital data streamed to their care team who will probably know before the patient does that someone needs to step in to provide support or treatment.

Patients will still need specialists with expert knowledge, but the patient and specialist don’t need to be in the same space at the same time. A network of connected care means several experts can look at the case simultaneously. This would enable the early diagnosis of health issues by constant monitoring before they become more serious.

This will be normal practice within 10 years. The idea of maintaining people’s well being rather than reacting to an episode makes sense. It will be hard changing a system that is hard-wired to be more reactive, but that’s how it will be in the future.

With the growth of wearable technology and remote monitoring, in addition to conventional patient records, there will be greater emphasis on gathering and analyzing large amounts of data. This will support more personalized medicine where treatment will be individually tailored to the patient.