As connectivity improves and access to information becomes easier, patients will become more active in their own healthcare. Thus, as patients learn more about their personal situation, they will want to be part of the decision when it comes to how they will be treated.
More importantly, patients will have a more accurate picture of their personal situation as they will be in contact with their doctor, who will provide personalized information due to real-time monitoring. As a result, WebMD will no longer be the primary care physician for many. Patients will also be less likely to “develop” exotic health conditions after attempting to self-diagnose.
Data collection and analysis will lead to incredible progress. For example, we are able to collect more data on the brain than ever. The more data we have, the better able we will be to innovate across the board.
More interestingly, data from different sectors in the healthcare system will converge and can be used to create cross-sector innovations.
Medical research will also experience incredible advancement due to all this new data. Collaboration is becoming the name of the game. This, along with the ability to collect and analyze huge quantities of data, means that medical research will advance at a much faster rate than before.