Future of Medicine

So as we near the future and new technologies are made everyday, here are some questions for all of you...

What do you think future doctor examinations and techniques will look like? Do you think we will begin seeing less of a "hands on" approach during gyne examinations? Do you think they will come up with new devices that will be able to take pap smears, or look up inside a woman's vagina?

What do you think future ultrasounds will look like? I'm already amazed with how amazing 3D ultrasounds are. Do you think in the future you will be able to see every detail in full color?

And last but not least, do you think they will ever find a way to perform a colonoscopy without having the patient drink that gallon of fun stuff before the exam?

What do you think the future of medicine will look like??

Part of the future has just arrived. At a recent visit to my PCP the doctor spent as much time typing in my note as she did examining me. Although electronic medical records make records available and transportable immediately, it is a return to the day when doctors scribbled their own notes in the chart rather than dictating the notes for transcription later.

The doctor of the future will be greatly aided by technology. Imagining advances in ultrasound, MRI, and CT technology will give insights never seen before. Implantable intelligent technology is already here. A friend's father recently was found unresponsive on the floor at his home. He has no pulse and was not breathing. His wife performed CPR until paramedics arrived and shocked his heart back to normal. He now has an automatic defibrillator implanted in his chest that monitors his heart beat and will deliver a shock if his heart stops. Tethered to a cell phone, the defibrillator will send data back to the hospital. There are also automatic defibrillators in office buildings such as the one I work in; all plug and play.

Doctors will always be hands on. That is where the real doctoring takes place. As any good doctor understands, curing the physical ailment is 50% doctoring and 50% patient compliance. Cold, indifferent doctors make lousy clinicians. Female doctors who have not forsaken their femininity are the most effective doctor when they allow their instinctive motherly nurturing skills to blend with their clinical skills. The future doctors will be predominately female I suggest.