Star Trek medicine is here                         

            My career in medicine began nearly 60 years ago and I have occasionally commented that I practiced medicine during the Golden Years: after penicillin and before HMOs. The awesome advances of the last several years have me wondering if another golden age is upon us. Let’s leave aside the roaring epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes and how we will pay for it all. There is a convergence of inventiveness that includes miniaturization, genetics, robotics, nanotechnology, digital imaging, wireless transmission, 3-D printing and as yet undreamed of technology that would leave Star Trek’s physician’s head spinning.

            If you have visited your doctor’s office recently you might have been a little put off if he or she concentrated more on their laptop than on you. Electronic medical records (EMR) are new to everyone and they still require a keyboard. Software incompatibility is a major complaint and constantly emerging government regulations haven’t made it any easier. On the other hand we are already enjoying less invasive procedures, hospital stays that last for hours instead of days and remote diagnoses and monitoring.

            It won’t be long before your physician will speak into a lapel microphone while a camera in an eyeglass frame will record what he sees and a nearly invisible device on his fingertip will measure the size and texture of every lump and skin lesion. No more laptop.

            The iconic stethoscope won’t be around much longer. Electronic versions are more discerning than the human ear and they will be coupled with a wand-like device that provides a 3-D image of your heart and its valves as well as an electrocardiogram that doesn’t require sticky patches and a tangle of wires. Of course, the data that they provide will go into your electronic health record without any keystrokes. That information might even go to a specialist several states away who will provide an instant diagnosis.

            Eventually you will assist with your examination from your own home with your smart phone (a soon-to-be-outdated term). Your virtual office visit will replace the current one, which seldom lasts as long as your stay in the waiting room. Patients with heart disease and diabetes are already being monitored remotely and that technology is in its infancy.

            For a preview, use your search engine to find the You Tube clip, Eric Topol video. It’s the beginning of a new Golden Age in medicine.