Health Futures
Health enhancement and longevity will merge in the 21st century. Everyone wants to live longer with the vitality of a young person. And they will be given choices that no humans every have faced in the history of civilization.
Already we enhance ourselves. We use braces to straighten teeth, contact lens to see better, hearing aids, and pharma drugs to enhance sex, mobility and modify our minds. What could be next given the fusion of nanotech, IT and genomics? Preventive medicine that predicts disease before it occurs.
Personalized health care designed for our specific human and health enhancement needs will transform health care. New options that will affect lifestyle, prolong life, and restrict aging are before us.
DNA, engineered for personalized medicine, will be used to create organs on-demand for a world wide market of individuals looking for new options in life and performance extension.
Health informatics, the IT systems used to enhance the information delivery of health care, is still in primitive stages. Sharing consumer health information over the Net will become an important aspect of controlling costs and enhancing the efficiency of health care service delivery.
Telemedicine, using the broadband Net to connect care givers and health care consumers will open up new markets for health care. The fusion of IT, the Net, biotech and communications will transform health care.
What are the new business models that these Health Futures will offer the health care enterprise of the 21st century?