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On the NHS's 75th anniversary; 100 NHS staff, futurist Tracey Follows and Florence founder Dr. Charles Armitage predict how technology could shape its future.
- Patient longevity: There'll be a shift from restorative to preventative medicine, and technology will help most of the population live well beyond 100 years. Nurses will play a crucial role in helping people avoid serious illness.
- Robotics in nursing: Robots will provide cost-effective basic care, so nurses can spend more quality time with patients, or learn new methods and regulations.
- Immersive training: Augmented and virtual reality training will become more common as new practices, methods, tools and regulations emerge across all nursing specialties.
- AI colleagues: Nurses will increasingly partner with AI systems, which will help analyse information, make recommendations, forecast results, help make decisions and create optimal patient care plans based on lots of data.
- Personalised medicine: All medicine will be highly personalised, with treatments tailored to individuals. Today's cutting-edge treatments will be seen as rudimentary.
- Data privacy and security: The importance of data privacy and security will increase, and only specific companies and people will be able to access patient records.
- Widespread telemedicine: Nurses will work from remote locations to provide care to patients all over the world.
This form of virtual nursing could include using internet of things (IoT) devices to monitor patients' vital signs remotely, providing people who live or work abroad with high-quality healthcare.
Tracey and Charles are well placed to weigh in on the future of healthcare. Find out more about their backgrounds and experience here.
Tracey Follows has been listed as one of the top fifty female futurists in the world by Forbes.
Follows is also the founder and CEO of Futuremade, a futures consultancy. She works with brands, businesses and organisations to help them spot trends, develop foresight and fully prepare for what comes next.
She's the author of The Future of You: can your identity survive 21st century technology? and host of The Future of You podcast, where she invites renowned academics, authors and innovators to discuss and debate the future of identity in a digital world.
Follows is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists, the World Futures Studies Federation and an associate fellow of the World Academy of Art & Science.
