A fascinating new report from Allianz Care titled ‘Future Health, Care and Wellbeing’, looks at how medical science and healthcare will be transformed globally in the next 20 years.
Authored by renowned futurologist Ray Hammond, the report is part of a wider ‘The World in 2040’ series and presents likely future developments and trends in healthcare between now and 2040.
The report outlines that medical science and healthcare delivery are conservative, slow moving sectors that are highly resistant to change. But over the next 20 years five major revolutions will transform how medicine is practised and how healthcare is delivered.
These revolutions are expected to be:
- Personalised medicine – based on personal DNA analysis and electronic health data collected from individual patients
- Stem-cell medicine – the use of stem cells to repair/regrow tissue and organs
- Nano-scale medicine – drug delivery and development at submicroscopic levels
- Gene therapy and gene-editing – altering human DNA to improve health
- Digital health – using artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technology to diagnose and to monitor patient health
The report outlines that each of these five revolutions would individually transform the prospects for human health and longevity. But taken together they will produce an entirely new paradigm for healthcare; one in which consumers will collect their own health data, geneticists will remove hereditary diseases from the population, artificial intelligence systems will routinely aid diagnosis and treatments will be tailored and personalised for individual patients.
Paula Covey, Allianz Care’s Chief Marketing Office
Paula Covey, Allianz Care’s Chief Marketing Officer commenting on the report said “It’s clear that in the future, our business model will need to change. Currently, one of the primary purposes of insurance is that you’re covered for the unexpected. But in the future, health issues will be identified, and often addressed at birth. Health will no longer be an unknown quantity. Insurance premiums, which used to pay for health events that ‘might happen’, may evolve into a fund which is there to pay for treatment following unexpected accidents, and to access the latest technology to treat conditions which can’t be dealt with at birth.”
You can read the Allianz Care’s The world in 2040 FUTURE HEALTH, CARE AND WELLBEING report in full here.