Smart devices and mountains of data: the future of healthcare is personal
New kinds of health data and technology are driving a revolution in healthcare, writes the CEO of Discovery Health
In what’s been called the Fourth Industrial Revolution, massive advances in technology are changing healthcare systems at an unprecedented rate. This revolution is driven by the availability of new kinds of health data and the rapidly falling costs of storing and processing that data. Forecasts suggest that by 2025, the “global datasphere” will grow to 163 zettabytes (ZB) or 163-trillion gigabytes – 10 times the 16.1ZB of data generated in 2016. This staggering data collection is bringing unprecedented opportunity for better, cost-effective and more personalised healthcare. Currently, wellness and healthcare are based on a “one size fits all” approach. We recommend similar nutrition and exercise approaches for most individuals. Most patients with high blood pressure receive similar medicines at similar doses, and the same is true for cancer and most other diseases. But the data now available makes it possible to predict individual disease risk, responses to nutrition, exercise and m...
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