What might a real medical model look like in the future?

steamwright

I say "model" in the title, because I can't think of a word to really summarize everything about a Trek medical environment: doctors, nurses, rooms, technology, etc.

So, using such a poor term, what might the very model of a modern major medical facility look like in the future? Like McCoy or Crusher's med bay setups where the doctor uses technology to assist in a diagnosis, and building a solution, but the doctor actually uses their brain to sort through option and construct those solutions? Like Bashir, where a doctor will need to be a genius to keep up with every detail and facet of both human and xeno-biology? Like Phlox, who opts to use a somewhat homeopathic approach using organics of several planets and cultures? Like Voyager's Doctor, where the technology IS the doctor, as the only real means of keeping up with an overwhelming amount of medical information? or as something else altogether?

I started thinking on this as I considered that IBM is currently attempting to train their A.I. Watson to be a doctor. Computer diagnosis is the future apparently. I also have had thoughts on this every time I pass any one of several TUG units in the hall at work: robot pharmacy assistants who port locked trays of pharmaceuticals between the pharmacist and the various nurse stations.

That said, I'm tending to lean in viewpoint towards a hybrid model of McCoy & Voyager Doctor. A computer will likely miss far less than a human due to a lack of fatigue, illness, etc. It will also be able to store vast amounts of information needed to make a faster, more accurate diagnosis. But I'd be one human to say I'd want a fellow human to make the final call based on the information handed him or her by the technology, including any variances considered. But unlike McCoy, who did surgery by hand, I might find it better to have surgery done by robot, just overseen by a human doctor with the power to override the robot, leaving crucial decisions in human control.

The medical facilities themselves I'd like to see turned over to A.I. powered robotics. I actually work in an award-winning medical facility, and have been a custodian in others back in my immediate post-college days, and I can tell you that cleaning methods are hampered by our humanity. Even a hard-working, attention-detailed custodian can only do so much to keep floors, walls, etc. clean. And fatigue again plays a factor. Technology can go a lot further in sterilizing the environment as well as the equipment.

Other factors to be considered?

gulberat

Speaking of cleaning robots, this one grabbed some headlines last year. Pretty cool concept...

http://www.xenex.com

wombat140

That does sound very useful/very cool.

Just a correction: "homeopathic" isn't a general term for all types of complementary medicine, though it seems to be mistakenly used that way quite often - it's a specific thing. It's the one that uses massively diluted doses of a substance that, in healthy people in full-sized doses, produces similar symptoms to the ones the patient has. The idea is that it's meant to get the body to react and fix those symptoms, without being enough to generate more of them itself. The word you're looking for is probably "holistic", although that sounds a little airy-fairy for Dr Phlox.

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if homeopathy itself became a thing in future medicine. Yes, I know it has a reputation as complete crank nonsense, but in fact there are studies that have found pretty clear results. (There was the year they used it in Cuba, on a scale of millions of doses, when the annual leptospirosis vaccine ran short, for instance, and IIRC reported better results than with the vaccine. And it's used successfully by some farmers to treat mastitis in cows, which certainly rules out the placebo effect for that case). And my own experiences have been rather dramatic. If that did happen, it would be exciting for scientists, because homeopathy notoriously doesn't make theoretical sense - at the higher dilutions used, there are no molecules of the original substance left at all, so if it does work there must be some entirely new mechanism at work which would need to be tracked down.

As for medicine in general - what the technology's capable of is one thing (interesting points about robot surgery and so on - I think I broadly agree), but there's the human factor to be taken into account too. Patients' psychological state has a bearing on their physical health. For instance, there are those oft-quoted studies that found that patients were not only happier but recovered faster after surgery if they could see grass and trees from their window. (Haven't got the actual reference off-hand, but I'm pretty sure the fact is genuinely accepted by scientists, not just by the rumour mill.) So making everything automated chrome and glass, even if it was the most scientifically efficient way, might not be the most effective way if it had a bad psychological effect on the patients. In fact, I think this is an idea that is attracting more interest from researchers now, so, if this were really to catch on, you might end up with hospitals of the future seeming MORE "human" and homely than they do now. Hopefully that and technical efficiency could co-exist, though, given the will and the creativity.