Will Technology Help Patients Make Better Decisions?
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
A physician’s new book foresees the future of medicine, in which the patients take control of data in the ‘Democratization’ of medicine.
Eric Topol, M.D., chief academic officer at Scripps Health in San Diego, has published a new book in which he argues medicine has reached what he calls its’ Gutenberg moment, comparing new technology in medicine to the way the printing press liberated knowledge from the control of an elite class.
InThe Patient Will See You Now: The Future of Medicine is in Your Hands, Topol predicts that in this new era, patients will control their data and be emancipated from a paternalistic medical regime in which “the doctor knows best.”
In reviews of the book, Sanjay Gupta, M.D., Chief Medical Correspondent for CNN, stated, “Dr. Eric Topol is uniquely positioned to map out a new era of democratized medicine – a time when each individual will not only have immediate access to all of their own medical data, but even generate much of it and play a principal role in their healthcare.”
And Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting For Stone, added, “We are seeing a sea-change in medicine, a time when the old paradigms no longer apply. As a physician and a scientist, Eric Topol has been both contributor and commentator to this revolution and therefore, one of the few people who can weave together and explain the stunning advances in seemingly unrelated fields. His personal voice, his ability to explain the most complex developments in science in a simple and engaging manner, and the clarity of his vision of the future make this compelling reading. I couldn’t put this book down and I learned so much. It has changed my perspective of what is to come.”
In the introduction to the book, Topol explains the democratization of healthcare refers to the reality of individuals possessing “all their own medical data and the computing power to process it in the context of their own world.” The fundamental power relationship between doctor and patient will shift, and the patient will now own the power.
In an interview with Health Data Management, Topol addressed some of the key ideas in his new work. When asked what role doctors will have in this new democratized medicine, Topol responded that it would be a “very alluring role,” in which physicians can move away from the diagnostics and monitoring to spend more time on the actual treatment of patients. “Doctors will be more instrumental there than ever,” he said. “Most of the routine diagnostics will be done by patients with their own devices and also with computer support, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.”
And perhaps one of Topol’s more controversial predictions is that there will be no more traditional hospital rooms in the future, since they will be replaced by technology available in the patient’s own bedroom. “Regular hospital rooms are gradually going to be on the wane,” he said, and home treatment “is far safer without the risk of infections and is far less expensive.”