Answer 17 of the dossier “40 KEY QUESTIONS TO UNDERSTAND THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD”, coordinated by Albert Bosch from a request of the communication group “GRUPO Z”, where an expert in each subject answers a question about the trend of a certain topic. In this specific case, this question is answered by JULIO MAYOL:
During this century, more than an evolution, medicine will experience a real revolution, caused by different key factors such as genetics, biotechnology and robotics, which will add to the already accelerated medical advances by more common methodologies.
And all this will be integrated at high speed thanks to the irremediable digital transformation. That is, there will be progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases as a result of advances in computing and the internet.
Digital devices connected to large databases will allow us to capture information about the functioning of the human body in a non-invasive way, that is, imperceptible to patients. In addition, we will become “transparent” for diagnostic imaging methods, so that we will not only see the anatomy as we did so far with X-rays or ultrasound, but also obtain graphic representations of the molecular functioning of our organism.
All the data that is accumulated, which will represent from the smallest, like our genes (genomic data), to the largest, like our social behavior (socialomic data), will be processed with Artificial Intelligence techniques by supercomputers .
We can reconstruct an organism digitally, in order to simulate and emulate the disease and its treatment with new personalized drugs or minimally invasive surgical procedures.
This will help the decision making of patients and healthcare professionals. In addition, it will facilitate health policy. In this way, we can improve the health not only of the individual but also of society as a whole.
In summary, during this century a 5P Medicine will become a reality: predictive, preventive, participatory, personal and populational.
Julio Mayol: Professor of Surgery at the Complutense University. Medical Director of the San Carlos Clinical Hospital and the Innovation Unit of the San Carlos Health Research Institute (IdSSC). Member of the board of directors of the “British Journal of Surgery” and the editorial board of the “Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery” and “World Journal of Gastroenterology”.
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