What if everyone has medical testing equipment at home?
I was reading Hacker News today and came across a thread to predict future trends. One prediction was the advent of biohacking — bio-hacking beginner kits for everyone. But to "hack," or improve requires measurement. But if a diverse range of test-kits was made into a universal home kit? Something that "dials back" to a doctor? (And by a doctor, I mean a neural network trained by real doctors).
Doctor visits will be a thing of the past
With medical test kits in every home, there will be no longer be a need for neighborhood clinics. A prick of a needle and an Apple watch that goes intravenous, and the results will be sent, and a teleconference call with a doctor will ensue.
Visits to the clinic will be a thing of the past. Medical care will be relegated to pharmacies and hospitals.
Home-based Test Kits
Just this week (I think?), Google announced that their neural networks are now better than doctors at diagnosing potential breast cancer tumors from mammograms. The diagnosis layer is being solved at a breakneck pace.
What is not being solved fast enough are home-based test kits. There is the Apple watch, but it only goes as far as a few millimeters off your wrist. We need to go deeper! Intravenously, saliva dabs, retina scans, feces, and urine sampling. A home-based test kit that reduces a dab and a prick to digital bits. Bits that will be forwarded to a layer of artificial intelligence for post-processing.
Do not get me wrong though. I am not predicting that the future of medicine will be one of the accessible home-based test kits and a smartphone app. Instead, I am saying there is a business opportunity in building home-based test kits because it seems like the other parts are largely solved.
The specialists of the future
Today, we are trained to be the best version of the programmer that we can be. Or a mathematician, or a surgeon. In my opinion, the specialists of the future require a dual specialization -- in software engineering AND another specialization. For home-based test kits to be ubiquitous, it must be invented by an engineer with a specialization in medicine.
In 2020, I am excited about the next decade because I think it will be the decade by which technology will permeate our lives through and through beyond smartphones.