1.
The Top 20 Digital
Health Trends For The
Near Future
Re-Defining Healthcare
After COVID-19
Dr. Bertalan Meskó
The Medical Futurist
& Dr. Pranavsingh Dhunnoo
Design:
Adam Moroncsik (Studio VAN)
2021

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Welcome Message 4
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The Anatomy Of A Trend 5
__1 Patient empowerment is the biggest milestone in the history of medicine 6
__2 Lifestyle medicine is the redesign primary care has needed 9
__3 Globalised healthcare brings precision medicine to life 11
__4 Pharma companies found the jackpot: packaging a medication with
a digital health service 13
__5 Direct-to-consumer genetic testing has an edge in drug sensitivity 15
__6 Nutrigenomics is the biggest promise of digital health 17
__7
Food scanners are lagging behind 19
__8 ECG devices have led the regulatory race for portable diagnostic devices 21
__9 A.I.-guided portable ultrasound devices are the unicorns of digital health 23
_10 The conscious health consumer of the future uses sensors
and loses privacy 25
_11 Virtual visits and chatbots represent the new primary care 28
_12 A.I. needs a prospective upgrade and the video game industry can help 30
_13 It is possible to bioprint living tissues but not organs 32
_14 3D printing can customize treatments and supplement the medical
supply chain 34
_15 The automation race defines whether A.I. can outperform physicians 36
_16 COVID-19 has catalyzed technological adoption, but not the cultural one 39
_17 Mixed reality can transform virtual meetings and medical education 41
_18 Virtual reality can help ease pain for patients in the hospital 43
_19 Robots only roam rich hospitals and pharmacies 45
_20 Digital health insurance companies will have no competitors 47
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Conclusion 49
Table of Contents
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At The Medical Futurist, and at The Medical Futur-
ist Institute, our research aims at providing con-
text around digital health innovations and their
impact on medicine and healthcare. We try to de-
cipher the crucial details behind announcements,
partnerships and studies so policy makers, phy-
sicians, patients and many other stakeholders of
healthcare can properly prepare for what is com-
ing next.
As a physician, it was clear for me that I had to
become a short-term futurist looking at the next
5, maybe 10 years ahead. This way, we can draw
interesting conclusions and find useful insights
while also staying practical about what we can do
today to improve care for patients.
In this e-book, our goal was not to give you an-
other list of technologies to keep an eye on but to
share insights we have found through analysing
thousands of news and articles and hundreds of
companies and breakthroughs.
We wanted to provide directions about where
healthcare and medical technologies are head-
ing and what major benefits or dangers these will
come with. This way, hopefully, you can better pre-
pare in your organisation, your job or personal life.
Kind regards,
Dr. Bertalan Meskó
The Medical Futurist
Director of The Medical Futurist Institute
Dear Reader,
Welcome message from
The Medical Futurist

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In previous years, The Medical Futurist published annual e-books about digital health
trends regarding potential developments that were worth keeping an eye on for that par-
ticular year. Based on our analyses and forecasts, these trends help give a bigger picture
regarding the direction that the field was heading towards during that year; even though
not all forecasts came to fruition.
This current e-book also shares our insights about noteworthy trends based on similar
analyses. However, unlike our previous annual trends e-books, we do not restrict ourselves
to a current year but look at the short-term future now, with the developments likely to
happen in the next 2-5 years. Moreover, we don’t only focus on these insights but also
help in providing context about those trends and relevant technologies in general.
In the following sections, we elaborate on 20 trends that we have been constantly mon-
itoring and that we believe will have the most importance in shaping the digital health
landscape in the near future. Each section contains an aspect that we wanted to highlight
about that technology or trend based on our analyses by studying the field for years. We
also walk you through that area with relevant descriptions and examples that we find in-
teresting.
Additionally, we include further reading suggestions at the end of every section which you
can turn to so as to dive deeper into the subject. And without further ado, let’s begin with
the first trend.
The anatomy
of a trend

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Traditionally, medical knowledge and access to clinical-grade tools were accessible only
through the tightly-controlled ivory tower of medicine. Patients were excluded from having
a say in discussions and processes that would impact their well-being and healthcare ex-
perience. However, the advent of digital health rendered this hierarchical model obsolete.
Digital health is itself defined as “the cultural transformation of how disruptive technol-
ogies that provide digital and objective data accessible to both caregivers and patients
leads to an equal level doctor-patient relationship with shared decision-making and the
democratisation of care.” Patients now have access to information, studies and technol-
ogies that they can use to make more informed decisions about their health. Previously,
such tools were inaccessible to them, but now these empower patients in ways not possi-
ble before as it turns them into the point-of-care. This in itself is the biggest milestone in
the history of medicine as the field will evolve around empowered patients going forward.
1Patient empowerment
is the biggest milestone
in the history of
medicine

6.
The diabetics community is a prime example of the disruptive force of empowered patients
that shows the need to accommodate patients at an equal-level partnership. Diabetics
created the “#wearenotwaiting” movement following undelivered promises of regulatory
bodies, medtech and pharmaceutical companies to provide innovative products to better
attend to these patients’ needs. The community decided not to wait anymore and took
matters in their own hands. This movement led to initiatives like open-sourced DIY artificial
pancreas, discussion platforms like DiabetesMine and cloud-based solutions like Tidepool,
which makes diabetes data more accessible and actionable.
Heeding to the patient’s demands, the FDA approved of the first artificial pancreas two
years after the open source DIY artificial pancreas had been made publicly available. By
further embracing empowered patients’ input, the FDA created its own patient engage-
ment advisory board.
Another encouraging example of patients involved in shared decision-making is in the
design of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department of Radboud University Medical
Centre Nijmegen in the Netherlands. The institute redesigned the rooms of the whole de-
partment based on patients’ suggestions. This involved simple yet important changes that
enabled a more balanced patient-doctor relationship and friendly atmosphere. They prior-
itised round tables over square ones for more friendly conversations and also suggested
brightly lit rooms with friendly colors.
PATIENT PATIENT
Management Board
BOARD MEMBER BOARD MEMBER BOARD MEMBER

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Summary:
Patient design is a must-have in every
organisation or team working in healthcare.
We can only create solutions that meet
patient needs by involving them
in the highest level of decision-making.
Further Reading:
1. Digital health is a cultural transformation
of traditional healthcare
2. The Digital Health Manifesto
These exemplify how patients can make their voices heard and have their demands met.
We are bound to see a growth in this trend and patients will need to be included in dis-
cussions relating to their health whether it’s for developing wearables or designing the
hospitals of the future. It only makes sense to include patients in such discussions as
they are the end-users of healthcare services and can provide valuable insights from their
point of view.

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While the importance of patient empowerment in medicine will only expand, those empowered
patients will need guidance to navigate the ever-increasing digital health technologies
and analyse the data obtained from these tools. But who should they turn to for such
guidance?
One’s primary care physician could adopt the role of such a guide to facilitate the adoption
of digital health tech by patients. But even physicians might not be familiar with or open to
such options. This shows the need to redesign this area and the emerging field of lifestyle
medicine might be the answer.
2Lifestyle medicine
is the redesign
primary care
has needed
13:55
29 june, monday

9.
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) initiated the steps to establish the
standards shaping lifestyle medicine as a field of its own. ACLM defines it as “the evi-
dence-based practice of helping individuals and families adopt and sustain healthy be-
haviours that affect health and quality of life.”
This field is budding in countries around the world from the Philippines to the U.K., with
events and conferences held regularly. The Lifestyle Medicine Global Alliance, which was
initiated by the ACLM in 2015, groups worldwide lifestyle medicine professional associa-
tions for such a scientific collaboration.
Addressing those lifestyle behaviours to improve one’s health is what lifestyle medicine
specialists focus on. Dr. Réka Vernes, a lifestyle medicine specialist, told The Medical Fu-
turist that “lifestyle medicine approaches medical care of chronic non-communicable dis-
eases from a new dimension.”
Clinicians practising lifestyle medicine report substantial improvements in type 2 diabetics,
such as normalising their blood glucose without the use of medication through lifestyle
changes. Indeed, a growing number of research points to the benefits of adjusting one’s
lifestyle habits to improve health outcomes.
Dr. Vernes added that “we follow lifestyle health parameters to gain more information and
other aspects of the patient; and this is where digital technology comes into the picture.”
Indeed, digital health tools can augment lifestyle medicine specialists’ craft.
Lifestyle medicine specialists can recommend tools such as food scanners to patients
allergic to some ingredients or sleep headbands to track the sleep of those with sleeping
difficulties. The patients can more effectively monitor these parameters remotely and con-
sult with their healthcare provider when results seem off.
Despite being a newcomer to the medical field, lifestyle medicine is increasingly getting
incorporated into life science curricula. The Baylor College of Medicine includes it in its
curriculum; and other sister organisations of the Lifestyle Medicine Global Alliance offer
professional courses and certificates to eligible candidates.
Summary:
Lifestyle medicine has the potential to
be the new medical specialty that is
the most infused with digital health
technologies and might also represent
the new initial line of primary care.
Further Reading:
1. Lifestyle Medicine Could Be The Key For
Digital Health Adoption
2. Lifestyle Medicine Global Alliance
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