WHAT'S TRENDING
in Medicine in 2014
By Jennifer Webster
W
ILL PATIENTS EXPECT email
consults? Will they benefit from personal health
metrics delivered directly
via their smartphones? Will physicians
continue to turn away from independent
practice and join hospitals? Experts
weigh in.
Mobile for the Masses
Mobile technology has been touted as the
tool of the empowered patient. Will digitally
accessible electronic health record (EHR)
portals and mobile healthcare apps enable
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patients newly enrolling in health insurance
under the Affordable Care Act — and
perhaps accessing health care systematically
for the first time in years — to become
savvier about their health?
Cardiologist Eric Topol, MD, West
Endowed Chair of Innovative Medicine,
Scripps Health, and Professor of Genomics,
The Scripps Institute, thinks so.
"The public doesn't get enough credit for
how much [information] they can handle,"
Dr. Topol says. "The medical profession
has been paternalistic from its origin.
Information flowing directly to the patients
has shifted the entire balance. What was
controlled by physicians will be tilted toward
the consumer."
The flurry of new health apps — particularly those that allow patients to interface
with physicians remotely — will drive down
costs, too, Dr. Topol says.
"The whole idea of not going physically
to see a doctor, but virtually through smart
phone or tablet, is increasingly common,"
Dr. Topol says. "[You will be] as likely to see
a physician physically as you would to go to
a video store to rent a movie. That will make
things cheaper and more convenient."
