Over decades, science-fiction movies and TV shows have often presented futuristic visions of medicine, some of which have recently started to come to fruition. For example, as far back as the early 1960s, animated series The Jetsons depicted a doctor’s consultation with a young patient via video link – not unlike the telemedicine that we experience today.
It is difficult to picture what healthcare will look like in another six decades, but it is almost certain that we are currently at a tipping point, with the rapid emergence of technological advances, their affordability and democratisation set to redefine healthcare as we know it.
The expansion of healthcare ’beyond the walls’ of the hospital is undeniable. This trend appears to have only just begun, driven by demographic and social changes, and the increased availability and integration of data from wearables, environmental sensors and medical devices. The need to rethink business models and care pathways for various diseases in response to current demands and workforce requirements has also played a part.
How far will this go? It is hard to imagine that surgery might one day be conducted from a patient's home – technologically feasible, perhaps, but hardly efficient or likely to improve outcomes or patient convenience. Similarly, it is challenging to envision having a mobile operating theatre at home today with the necessary requirements before, during and after surgery, while maintaining some semblance of normal daily life.
However, it is likely that the concept of the hospital will transition in certain services to what is called ’Hospital at Home’. The hospital as we know it today will largely become a place for the acute management of high- and medium-complexity cases – not isolated, but connected in a physical-virtual care network allowing for seamless longitudinal monitoring of patients.
Some may find it surprising, even shocking, to refer to a patient as a consumer. However, the demands that patients place on today’s services are not just about curing an illness, delaying progression or alleviating specific pain. They also concern the experiences that we all demand when consuming a service: a good atmosphere, sufficient (and understandable) information, and feeling like a unique and valued client/patient.
Concepts emerging from user design practices, patient feedback and entertainment-related industries are being applied to make patient journeys through health services less anxious and frictionless. Examples include MRI machines and waiting areas specifically designed for children, and this is just the beginning. Immersive technologies, such as virtual reality, are likely to become commonplace in the hospital setting, both for the patient and for the health professional performing assisted surgery. We can already see examples in use, such as VR tools to empathise with what a specific patient is experiencing . As immersive devices of the latest generation become affordable and scalable, we will surely see them as regular equipment in a hospital, as we now see an ultrasound machine, for example.
The portability of medical information will also become part of the future of healthcare provision. Such services will enable access to information for both the patient and their care team at any time, day or night, creating a hyper-personalised, integrated and proactive view.
The combined healthcare sectors of England, the United States, Australia and Canada emit around 748 million tonnes of CO2 annually – the equivalent of being the seventh largest country for emissions worldwide. Among those making efforts to address the issue is NHS England, which launched its Greener NHS programme in October 2020, becoming the world’s first health service to commit to reaching carbon net zero.
Practices such as selecting suppliers that have the least environmental impact and the proper treatment of waste will become core competencies of health centres and a vital element of the proper functioning of their systems. Demonstrating comprehensive sustainability management will surely become a central part of hospital certifications.
Technology being developed today – particularly environmental sensors, voice-to-text, portability of health data, interoperability and multimodal language models – will redefine many of the elements that currently take up time and cause frustration for healthcare professionals. Such innovations will free up more time for patient care, research and teaching tasks. Examples of these technologies, are already being introduced. These include DAX Copilot by Nuance, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to document patient encounters accurately and efficiently,
The integration of AI within hospitals is still very limited. It is one thing is to assist with medical diagnosis related to radiology or pathology, but quite another for AI tools to be integrated into the daily care processes of the care team. Such integration may be several years away due to multimodal aspects, the need to regulate and validate algorithms and, not least, assessing risk and ensuring responsible use of such tools.
In the short term, we can envisage how these tools will mostly be used to bring about operational efficiencies. These include automating the management of supplies, creating dynamic diagnosis-related group (DRG) models with predictive data insights, and the proliferation of uses for already validated cases in computer vision (eg radiology, pathology).
We are the visionary creators behind some of the world’s most innovative technologies. As a global services company, we lead transformation through technology and AI. Our dedicated Healthcare and Life Sciences division is committed to empowering providers, payers and institutions by creating a smarter, more efficient healthcare system with patient-centric digital solutions, streamlined operations, and data-driven decision-making.
Through our areas of expertise – Digital Care Delivery Models, Digital Transformation Framework, Health Data Management, Efficient Health Operations, AI for Care Delivery, Value-Based Enablers & DRG Products – and Globant’s studio network, we are dedicated to reinventing the healthcare industry for better outcomes. Together, we transform challenges into opportunities, pushing healthcare towards a promising and sustainable future.
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