The story of medicine up to now
Modern medicine as we know it begins with the first real attempts at systemising medical knowledge. Leaving behind traditional medicine, new emphasis and techniques were created to produce results that were testable and reproducible.
In this way early modern medicine really differentiated itself through a focus on quality, evidence, and, therefore, increased survivability. There were many breakthroughs in this period, such as early inoculations, anesthetics, antibiotics and hygiene. Momentous figures like John Snow are credited with work that saved thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, through tools and processes that fundamentally shifted how we approach the world.
Much has been overturned in the intervening centuries, but evidence and efficacy are still the primary paradigms of mainstream medicine. The latter stages are about maximising this breakthrough, if anything.
Then came the industrialisation of health care. With medicine becoming an organised and growing set of knowledge, service and delivery needed to be equally sophisticated. Rather than discrete and disorganised outlets, health care providers started to agglomerate into ecosystems of services and expertise.
Hospitals and clinics multiplied, offering end-to-end care, from in-patient services through treatment and recovery. This is what differentiated Health 2.0 — end-to-end service and coverage. It also helped systemise many aspects of healthcare that are familiar today, from medical training through doctor behaviour and expectations.
The next phase saw a doubling down on coverage, as healthcare turned to new technologies in the pursuit of greater efficiency and throughput, cutting costs and waste, leading to greater access. As with other industries, this began with a focus on back-end operations.
Software, for instance, was introduced for better planning and managing of patients and resources. Through both lower costs and higher productivity, healthcare became available for more and more people.
As with other industries, the fourth stage, digitisation, marks a huge shift in both delivery of services and the business models that support it. As technology moves beyond in-house operations, “healthcare” becomes many things and takes many guises.
Healthcare is now something that can, in some forms, be accessed almost anywhere. New apps and online services allows some therapies and preventative care to be offered on a subscription basis. Apps and websites offer mental health and other services at low cost or through micropayments.
Video conferencing and digitised references unlock knowledge, more equally distributing expertise. And, as more and more data becomes accessible, and the touch points between patients and providers increases, we also see healthcare becoming more proactive in interventions and service delivery.
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