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© 2011, 2012 Health Futures Digest
Genomic and Molecular Medicine After many attempts over the past two decades, genetically modified mosquitoes may finally have a chance of helping to eradicate the dengue fever with which mosquitoes annually infect 100 million people and cause 500,000 cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever and 22,000 deaths, mostly among children. For the disease of choroideraemia (rarer […]
A European court has ruled that methods using embryonic stem cells for research cannot be patented. If researchers can’t profit from the methods they develop (and without a patent, it is hard to do so) then they will either develop them pro bono publico and let others patent and profit from the methods in regions […]
Neo-Luddism–the belief (roughly put) that machines destroy jobs–may seem off-topic for a blog about the future of healthcare, but I am still swimming in thoughts that arose while writing my recently published book about the rise of machine intelligence (Deus ex Machina sapiens) and I maintain that the topic is really not off-beat at a […]
Accelerating change is the central theme of the Digest, and in this issue we see how pundits have recently assessed change from (1) a global perspective, (2) an IT perspective, (3) a sophisticated healthcare perspective, (4) a simple technologies perspective, (5) a hospital/medical perspective, and (6) a seldom-mentioned perspective of the patient of the future.
Predictions The World Future Society’s list of ten predictions for “2009 and beyond,” summarized and paraphrased a bit, was as follows: Everything you say and do will be recorded by 2030. Everyone will have a nanoimplant with a unique IP address connecting them to the Internet. “Bioviolence” will become a greater threat with our greater […]
Last December, a consumer watchdog group questioned the legality of advertising medical devices on YouTube, and called on regulators to crack down on such promotions.
The same need to factor in accelerating change in a broader context applies to discussion of the alleged impending doctor shortage. It is claimed that the US faces a doctor shortage of 200,000 in the year 2020, of whom apparently only 4,080 will be cancer doctors.
Patient Medicine and Social Genoming Following his neurologist’s advice, for 14 years a multiple sclerosis patient took a daily 10-milligram pill to mitigate the effects of “foot drop.” It didn’t work all that well, but the neurologist said a higher dose would be deleterious. Last year, on a website called PatientsLikeMe, the patient discovered nearly […]
Beating Expectations Pessimists said 2020. Optimists (that would be us) said 2010. Well, it’s only 2008, and here it is: a hydrogen fuel cell car you can lease today. It is true that the June rollout of Honda’s “FCX Clarity” is very limited, but given: the competitive pressure it puts on other automakers, accelerating advances […]
We at HFD are as susceptible as everyone else to the accelerating growth of information. The amount of relevant raw material we have clipped in the past three months is enough to fill a book, never mind a monthly (give or take) newsletter. To solve the problem (at least until the tsunami starts to […]