Stanford Medicine released its 2017 Health Trends Report.
The key trends outlined in the report include:
1. The struggle between sharing data to maximize benefits and maintaining patient privacy. New and diverse data as well as open datasets are making new drug discovery possible and research more efficient.
2. Wearable devices integrate health awareness into everyday life for patients and engage them when the physician isn't around.
3. Telemedicine makes it possible for patients to see physicians from remote locations, improving access to personalized care.
4. Data allows physicians to create detailed patient profiles and use predictive models to target at risk patient populations and prevent illness as well as identify and treat disease early.
5. Increased cost to the healthcare system presents a significant challenge.
6. There are still several roadblocks preventing data sharing and the patient's privacy remains a key concern.
7. Interoperability and data privacy are likely issues that will be addressed at the legislative level to encourage innovation without disrupting patients.
8. EMRs continue to undermine the patient-physician relationship.