Healthcare Key Findings: March 2013
Technology to Replace 80% of What Doctors Do
Airplanes fly on auto-pilot, algorithmic trading drives the stock market and self-driving automobiles are being readied for market by a number of companies, including Google. Data-driven healthcare is the next frontier. Fact, some say computers will eventually take on 80% of what doctors do today. This will not only reduce costs and medical errors, but is expected also to improve patient care and allow physicians to interact more with patients. This is based partly on the exploding amount of medical data, diagnostic information and research becoming available digitally, and new technologies that enable healthcare practitioners to access it. Human cognitive capabilities restrict the average doctor from realistically being able to adequately review and digest say, the latest 5,000 articles on heart disease, or the symptoms associated with the 10,000+ diseases humans can get. Routine activities by most physicians such as checkups, testing, diagnostics, prescriptions, patient behavior modification tips and more can be effectively managed by digital sensors, passive and active data collection and analytics. Increasingly, technology can compensate for human deficiencies and amplify strengths, enabling MDs and other medical professionals to focus on more critical areas such as gathering harder to measure information and explaining diagnoses and treatment plans to their patients. Granted, this evolution will take time, but according to experts, not as long as many people believe. (cnn.com)
Bullets
- Pharmaceutical companies spend more on marketing than research: According to ScienceDaily, a “new study by two York University researchers estimates the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spends almost twice as much on promotion as it does on research and development.” (noedb.org)
- More than a third of parents (35%) have received prescription pain medicine for their children at least once in the last five years. (C.S. Mott Hospital at the University of Michigan; 734-936-6641)
- More than a quarter of U.S. adults (27%) have used walk-in health clinics located in pharmacies, retail stores, or work-places in the last two years. (Harris Interactive; 585-272-8400)
- More than one in five children ages 5-13 (21%) have had three or more dental cavities filled. (American Dental Association; 312-440-2807)
- Researchers report that women’s magazines have 10.5 times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than men’s magazines do, and over 75% of women’s magazine covers include at least one article title about how to change a woman’s body by diet, exercise, or cosmetic surgery. (randomhistory.com)