In the last decade, rapid technological advancement has resulted in a shift toward digital health in medicine. This shift is theorized as a cultural transformation of how disruptive medical technologies providing digital and objective data accessible to both caregivers and patients lead to an equal level partnership between physicians and patients with shared decision-making and the democratization of care.
From the patients’ side, the result is the evolution of the ‘e-patient’ – where the ‘e’ stands for ‘electronic’, ‘equipped’, ‘enabled’, ‘empowered’, ‘engaged’ or ‘expert’. A patient who takes responsibility for their health, and actively engages in shaping their future – in a mutually beneficial partnership with their caregivers. Although this doesn’t sound like technological advancement, which it really isn’t, it is enabled and facilitated by wearables, health sensors, and any other innovations which make patients the point of care. And from this viewpoint, it is unmissable from this list.