The Patient Will See You Now: The Future of Medicine Is in Your Hands

Cardiologist/professor of genomics Topol expands on his 2012 The Creative Destruction of Medicine, extending his vision of the role that new technology and genomics can play in the future of medicine. Exploring a personal GIS (a "Google map" of an individual's demographic, physiologic, anatomic, biologic, and environmental data), lab tests and scans by smartphones, electronic health records fully accessible to the patient, costs, and 24/7 medical consultations via mobile devices, the author foresees a "power shift" in which all people have the same access to care "provided they have a mobile signal." Therefore, a "renaissance of medicine" will enable patients to call the shots and make their own choices. The book notes actress Angelina Jolie's decision to have a double mastectomy after learning that she carried a gene often associated with breast cancer as an example of a person making her own medical decisions despite some disagreement.