History of Health Technologies and Meaningful Change in the Era of Health 4.0

The medicine in ancient Egypt is some of the oldest in history. Although rudimentary, it was already highly personalized and with exclusive access. During the Renaissance—one of the most remarkable ages of humankind—medicine had a modern foundation and shifted to a scientifically-based discipline.

However, it still needed standardization of quality. In the 1960s, laboratories moved from physician offices to centralized and increasingly automated infrastructures. The industrialization of the diagnostics element of medicine was a critical step in the standardization of healthcare, leading to a rise in quality correlated to increasing complexity, specialization and cost.

We are now at a tipping point in the U.S., where the inability to afford healthcare overwhelms millions, with a cost burden of about 20% of the GDP. At the same time, the number of physicians is shrinking, adding to accessibility and affordability problems.