Look Who's Talking- Clinical & Research News - For and about the Physicians and Researchers of Brigham and Women's HospitalLook Who's Talking- Clinical & Research News - For and about the Physicians and Researchers of Brigham and Women's Hospital

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Look Who's Talking

In celebration of Time Capsule Tuesday, we asked BWHers to share their predictions of how medicine will change in 50 years.


In the next 50 years, I predict that health care will be more prevention-focused and more directed toward cure rather than management of chronic diseases, and that it will sustain equity in health for diverse populations.
 - Cheryl Clark, MD, SD, Director of Health Equity Research and Intervention, BWH's Center for Community Health and Health Equity


I envision a world, where heart rates, blood components, body temperature, pressure distribution, etc. are measured regularly as people walk by the gates of a metro station or waiting for the bus at a street corner or getting on an orbital flight. Personal health care systems will be supported by personal satellites tracking patients and population health 24-7 in a larger global scale minimizing risks for rapid spreading infections. Some of these services may require sign-up from the patients, some of which will be  mandatory similar to the mandatory health care in Massachusetts, especially if it serves the population overall by avoiding chronic cases, potentially eliminating or minimizing emergency room visits, and decreasing overall cost for the system. 
- Utkan Demirci, PhD, BWH Bio-Acoustic Mems in Medicine Laboratories


The health care system will be transformed on many levels, and this transformation will include an ingrained culture of safety. There will be an environment where staff will not only be comfortable with transparency of errors, learning from mistakes, and speaking about them in an open setting, but staff will work together in teams to ensure that this environment exists and everyone is as responsible for providing safe care. 
-Caroline Keogh, Senior Consultant, BWH Center for Clinical Excellence / Patient Safety


BWH will have a sizable stem cell infusion center that patients will visit weekly for their stem cell infusions to treat diseases such as COPD, arthritis, stroke, diabetes, just to name a few. Patients receiving stem cell therapy will have patches applied to their skin that will indicate if the therapy is working and when the next dose is required. Cancer patients will receive patches to assess properties of their metastatic disease and clinicians will receive guidance as to which therapeutic will work best for that patient.
-Jeffrey Karp, PhD, BWH Division of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Medicine


Extracellular vesicles mediate communications between cells and participate in the exchange of functional and genetic information and in mediation of adaptive immune responses. Since they contain various constituents of their parental cells, extracellular vesicles could serve as ideal biomarkers and hold potential for immunotherapeutics, vaccines, and cell modulators. They appear to have advantages over existing drug delivery systems due to their size, lack of toxicity, and target specificity. I believe that in the future, medical science will utilize extracellular vesicles as an effective treatment against cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and degenerative diseases including cardiovascular calcification.
-Elena Aikawa, MD, PhD, BWH Cardiovascular Division



Ambulatory visits will be extremely rare.  Instead of coming into the office to see a physician, patients will have a computer-type chip in their body that constantly records vital signs and important health indicators (glucose levels, etc.).  The physician visit will take place via e-visit, and patients will scan their chip to transmit vitals and other important health information to their physicians.
-Angela Killilea, Senior Project Manager, on behalf of BWH Ambulatory Services


I think in 50 years, medicine will be much more personalized. Whereas right now, we often have a ‘one disease fits all' mentality and we often think of everyone with one particular disease as the same. But our understanding of how genetics and environment influence each patient's variation of a disease and response to treatment will be much more sophisticated in 50 years. As a result, our ability to tailor the diagnosis and more importantly treatment to the individual will be vastly improved, which means outcomes will be better. This will be particularly important in cancer, but will also be true for many other diseases.
- Christine Mauro, MD, BWH Department of Surgery