Why these are still early days of healthcare technology

A couple of decades later, when we look back at this time, we would more completely understand that these were the early days of healthcare IT. While majority of Americans are just about getting on digital records, large pockets of the world are largely paper-based. While most of the hospitals in the US are using hospital management systems, almost no one takes a cloud-based approach. While several medical practices are migrating to the cloud, just a minority uses a mobile platform. While large healthcare systems have figured out how to implement and use an EHR, almost no one uses the medical record as a means to deliver healthcare. While early adopters are getting access to data from their insides through DNA and microbiome tests, most doctors aren’t yet accustomed to using this information to diagnose before a disease occurs. While several families use Skype to talk to loved ones, they have never used video calling to speak to a doctor.

There are 7.2 billion people in the world today, majority of them in urban areas. There will be 1.75 billion smartphone users in 2014. It’s easy to imagine that in just a few years, most of the world will be connected via smartphones that are Internet-enabled. It would be a failure of our health systems, if we don’t take advantage of this reach to provide healthcare access everywhere.