“Hospitals of the future will become more like NASCAR pit-stops than inescapable black holes,” says Melanie Walker, co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Future Council on neurotechnology and brain science. Tomorrow’s biggest health issues will be managed through preventative care, on mobile phones and through wearable health-monitoring devices. “The global burden of disease is largely vascular, and therefore preventable with better understanding of risk factors,” Walker says. When someone does need in-person treatment, endoscopic robots and 3D-printed tissue will replace surgeons and donated organs.
Photo credit: Annette Chiu
