Bringing patient and treatment closer together is becoming faster, personalised and more technical.
Innovation has already revolutionised medicine in the past few decades. Break-through drugs have made HIV/AIDS survivable and hepatitis C potentially curable. Meanwhile, a range of new technologies from immunotherapy to biorobotics are already making the notion of precision and personalised medicine a reality.
In the years to come, innovations in nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science (NBIC) promise to change the way patients are diagnosed and healthcare is delivered. A number of potential cross-industry applications will make it easier to develop drugs more efficiently and identify patients for clinical trials more precisely.
