How Medicine Will Change in 2021

The future of medicine is to become all technology based. As we start approaching the next decade we are to see more computer and robotic procedures performed. Today we already have the start of these advanced machines performing the task of humans.

Changes in Primary Medicine for the Next Decade:

Electronic Medical Records which is the newest of medical advancement of today focuses in minimizing the time that the medical staff and providers need to spend on administrative duties. This in our future will become more advanced and into the minimization of actual patient contact in the next decade.

The newest version of internet and video calling will be the mode of communication between patient and physician. The swiping of a credit or insurance card via computer or other technological machine will be used to ensure payment and services rendered at the time of the visit. A stethoscope with a built in processor to be used via computer will be developed.

No longer will urgent care visits need to be made at a doctor's office. There will be a dedicated staff member to handle these visits via the internet. Although actual hands on through a computer will not be available until the following decade, the approach will be focused on listening and seeing the patient rather than touching. This will be the mode of diagnosing and treating the urgent care patient in 2021.

Changes in Surgical Medicine for the Next Decade:

In 1998, The San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article about a "bleeding sailor performing self-surgery via e-mail," assisted by a Boston doctor, who sent instructions via e-mail. Today this would be done via web-cam and in 2021 this will be done via a portable robot.

Surgeons will perform more robotic surgery. In the next decade computer based surgery will become more of the typical day for a surgeon than it is today. Surgical procedures will be scheduled quicker and hospital stays will be shorter. There will be more in office procedures done with the advancement of technological instruments being developed. No longer will an actual person be needed in the operating room, robots will be used to replace a human being to assist the surgeon.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately medicine will be geared towards facilitating those with the hectic lifestyles that have been created. The advancement of technology will prove this to be done easier and more efficiently.

The future of medicine will not be known as the personal medicine we all long for, but instead the practical medicine that we all call for.

http://articles.sfgate.com/1998-11-19/news/17737296_1_viktor-yazykov-sailor-e-m