Author: blog_admin

The Future of Health

No doubt one of the most exciting domains in the coming decades is health. There are a few reasons for that:vitruvian_220_220

First, research and development in health, while naturally slow, is making significant progress in several evolutionary and revolutionary ares. Medical Genetics, Evolutionary Medicine and Regenerative Medicine are just a few game-changing examples. It is fascinating to read about those development, lets alone experience them as they come to fruition.

Second, technology advancements in computing, vision, mechanics and communication that we see and will continue to see in many other domains will be used in health. These advancements are happening much faster compared to pure medical advancements hence a lot of these are incremental rather that revolutionary. Nevertheless, the results and use cases can be revolutionary regardless. Advancements in technologies inside the body (such as endoscopy) or Wearables outside the body are steady. Wearables is a relatively immature domain that benefits from incremental miniaturization of computing, communication and power yet will definitely result in revolutionary products in the future.

Lastly, it is good business. Where big money flows progress happens. Healthcare is a multi-trillion dollar business. Not only is the number of customers on the rise but their life expectancy is too. You’ve got an increasing number of “loyal” customers. What more can a business can ask for? In fact, healthcare consumers become more “loyal customers” the more services they consume.

All these developments will result big changes in how we deal with healthcare. With transformations come trouble too.

Major questions arise.
What would be the business models to sustain an increased consumption of healthcare services?
What would be the resulting impacts and side-effects of increased life expectancy (or other health improvements) on societies? How will those influence other domains?

 

General

Predicting a future is, as the saying goes, a task for the fool. Future Shaping tries to avoid being fool and hence remains modest. Let’s not predict the future but rather talk about it and try to prepare ourselves wherever it makes sense. Nobody says we could not influence what will happen.

In the discussions on each domain we try do exactly that. It is difficult but the challenge is fun.

The “mystery” or what is harder to analyse is how all these trends and vectors will impact each other in their cross-interactions. Trying to figure that out is one level higher in terms of complexity. Yet, it’s not less interesting.

There are many cross-interactions that people already talk about. For example, developments in health and their results. How will they impact social structures? If rich people live longer will it create social tension and increased inequality? This is just one example.

In our General discussion let’s discuss these cross-interactions between the various domains.