Cutting Edge Ideas That Can Transform Health

At the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, we have a vision that one day, everyone — no matter who they are, how much they earn or where they live — will have the opportunity to live the healthiest life possible.

We call this a “Culture of Health.”

As we work with others toward this future, I’m part of a team tasked with exploring the frontiers of science, medicine, culture and technology. We’re examining emerging trends that could shape the trajectory of health for generations to come. Where it’s possible, we’d like to harness these trends to improve health and/or mitigate the trends that are likely to harm health.

Here are five of the trends we’ll be watching in 2017:

The secure systems that enable Bitcoin transactions have been considered as a way to ensure the privacy of health data as it is passed from provider to provider. One can imagine how this might offer a solution to interoperability challenges that made data sharing difficult in the past. But are there other ways a secure open code that keeps track of transactions can help us build a Culture of Health?

From machine learning and cognitive computing to bots, robots and self driving cars, artificial intelligence is poised to transform the way we think about health and how we engage with the health care system. We’re interested in learning how these new technologies can help reduce health care costs by targeting interventions and improving diagnoses. We’re also examining the ethical concern that these technologies may increase health disparities as they trade on the data they have, not the data they need.

For readers who saw my post on the Future of Work, you’ll know we have our eye on how changes in our economy and the way we work might influence our health, and what it might mean for the health care workforce. We’re hoping to see more and more players in the sharing economy proposing policies that help workers reduce the uncertainty and stress that can come with an irregular work schedule and that increase access to tools like health insurance that keep people healthy.

We’ve been tracking the citizen science and open science movements for a while. Platforms like ResearchKit and ResearchStack are permitting the creation of studies and sharing of data that are producing better insights into our health, and particularly in assessing our moods. In addition to generating more knowledge among scientists about how to keep our brains healthy, studies conducted with cell phones and other devices are being designed to make it much easier for us to gather information and insights about our own mental status. This “return of information” is not without issues and considerations — something I’ll be talking about at SXSW this Spring.

If you just read my interview with Howard Nusbaum, you’ll know how technologies that emit light, noise and vibrations are helping us connect with our “essential self,” and encouraging us to sit up straight, meditate, breathe and regulate our emotions. While haptic ability has been around for years, smart watches, mobile phones and virtual reality systems are coming up with more clever uses of haptics to make us be present, and use the wisdom of the body to feel better.