A consulting firm dealing with long-range, leading edge technological innovations and their consequences and implications for healthcare policy and practice.
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alt="http://hfdigest.com/wp-content/gallery/pics/robomed2.jpg" Whether or not the US is slow to pick up on personalized medicine (see the section under that heading), there’s no doubt it is falling behind the rest of the world in failing to quickly approve hip resurfacing as an effective but cheaper and less invasive alternative to hip replacement. US patients are therefore cashing […]
Another sign that the long-awaited promise of gene therapy (a form of personalized medicine) can be fulfilled is evident in two patients who are doing well after 18 months of it. Yet according to Deloitte, the US healthcare system appears to be reluctant to ride the trend toward personalized medicine. Perhaps Deloitte missed the significant […]
The falling cost and growing benefits of digital x-ray systems threaten the radiology Establishment but promise better and more affordable healthcare. Even bigger threats to the Establishment lurk in the wings: Imagine being able to scan a patient’s interior just by looking through him or her. A way has been found to do just that, […]
Good news for medical devicemakers: “Baby boomers are descending upon the health care infrastructure of the United States like locusts upon a cornfield,” hungry for medical devices. But with regenerative and pharmacogenomic medicine making headway fast (as other sections of this issue show), we think the boom in devices might turn out to be a […]
A new way of squeezing more circuitry onto silicon wafers will keep Moore’s Law alive for a few more years, by which time, quantum chips could be ready to take the Law to a whole new level: A quantum chip made in Michigan has brought the Holy Grail of quantum computing a step closer. Another […]
British Telecom’s “futurologist” told the BBC recently: “. . . using common sense you can discount the ideas, like internet fridges, which are never going to take off.” Also not taking off, according to the BBC reporter, are flying cars — another “outlandish prediction.” If intelligent fridges and flying cars are not batty enough for […]
The first face transplant was done in France in November, too late for our last issue. It is now “old” news, but is worthy of mention not only as a major milestone in the progression of microsurgery but also because it is one more step in the direction of “superhealth.” This particular procedure raised ethical […]
Having found evidence that home medical monitoring pays dividends, the land that led the world in cell phone design and manufacturing is turning its attention to subcutaneous sensors for biomonitoring. Not surprisingly, the sensor data will be transmitted to the doctor’s cell phone. Meanwhile, at the supercutaneous level, the first consumer apparel that monitors vital […]
The bad news was breaking soon after we published the last issue of the Digest, so it’s a bit dated but too important not to mention here that, with the exception of a cloned dog (no mean feat), the stem cell breakthroughs to which Hwang Woo-suk attached his name and reputation were a fraud. Whether […]
The law has been retroactive (perhaps inevitably, though that is debatable) in dealing with the effects of new technologies. Efforts under way at leading US law schools to become more proactive in anticipating technology’s effects may be necessary if the institution of law is to remain relevant and credible in the age of acceleration. Acceleration […]
