Practicing Medicine In The Year 2050

Our future patients may need vaccines and antivirus software.

For those who have not seen or heard of the documentary, Transcendent Man, it is a film that chronicles the life and work of author, inventor, and futurist Ray Kurzweil. The film is at once fascinating and uncomfortable. It makes The Matrix look like a prophecy the will soon become reality. In another 40 years, according to Kurzweil, you may be presented with the same desicion as Neo, swallow the red pill and end up downloading kung fu. He firmly believes that in the next 40-50 years humans will merge with machines, and artificial intelligence will become self aware. So if you are sick of trying to remember intimate details of purine metabolism, forget it, just download the software update. The reason we will need to enhance our brains is simple. Technology will eventually hit a point referred to as “the singularity”  where improvements will be made so fast that the normal human brain will not be able to keep up without plugging into the matrix, so to speak.

This movie also explores the future of medicine. Doctors will have machines the size of red blood cells armed with one thousand times the computing power of my mac. These little cyborgs will go cruising through our vasculature diagnosing and treating disease as they float along. Really, it's unfortunate we have to wait for them because if I have to get pimped on nephrotic membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis one more time, I think I might loose it.

I guess no can say for sure what the field of medicine will look like in even 20 years; but one thing is for certain, it will have many changes. In fact, medicine is likely to change more in the next 20 years than it has in the last 100, which is both a frightening and exciting thought. For the physicians of the next generation, memorizing and mastering the current treatments and practices will not be enough. The next wave of great doctors will be creative thinkers, innovators, and those who are most able to embrace and navigate change. All that said, I might still wait a few years before I start downing pills offered to me by some random large black man in a leather coat.

Rethinking What's Possible As A New Doctor

Thoughts after Medical Fusion Conference

Next time you find yourself in The Maldive Islands with no plans and some spare cash, book a room at The Conrad Maldive Rangali Island Resort. In addition to the group of overwater bungalows, with a coral reef for a front porch, they will turn the underwater dinning room into a hotel suite, for the right price. The idea for a hotel room positioned 20 feet underwater amidst a vibrant coral reef teeming with fish is a concept anyone could dream up. However, taking that dream and turning it into a reality is a whole different story. When you learn about someone who made a big dream come to fruition, it forces a rethink. You begin to question all the assumptions held about “what’s possible” and this also leaves you open to new and bigger possibilities.

The 2011 Medical Fusion Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada has just finished and the weekend was packed with speakers who have spent their careers rethinking and redefining “possible” in medicine. I was fortunate to have the weekend open and was able to attend, because my current rotation is outpatient pediatrics. But this silver lining had a grey cloud. Though the first lecture was scheduled to begin at 8:00 am on friday morning, for me, the day began at four hunched over the toilet revisiting the previous night’s dinner. I guess I had one too many kids sneezing in my face that week and my normally stellar immune system was no match for those walking petri dishes. After two more episodes of reverse peristalsis I was less than enthusiastic about spending all day listening to lectures.

My apathy melted away almost instantly as the first speaker, Dr. Barry Silbaugh got up and shared his experiences working as the CEO of The American College of Physician Executives, his international medical work, and his thoughts on how to pursue a non-traditional career in medicine. As the morning went on I found my excitement building as one after another the speakers continued to shatter the assumptions I held about what is possible as a medical professional. By the time Dr. Greg Bledsoe finished his presentation on living and working abroad I was glowing with enthusiasm, though it could have just been my fever, but either way I had just been presented with a new paradigm and was ready for more.

As the conference continued, my immune system finally resumed control of my gastrointestinal system, and I was repeatedly amazed at the innovative and creative individuals sharing the trials and successes of practicing medicine on their own terms. My favorite part of the conference was the accelerator sessions at the end of each day. These sessions provided a chance to connect with the speakers on a more personal level. As a medical student this provided me with a rare opportunity to sit down with great doctors and pick their brain for advice. I was honored by the way they engaged my questions, offered sound advice, and challenged me to continue to think outside the box in my own career.

The experience I had at Medical Fusion was one I believe will become a defining point in my professional career. It is for that reason I have decided share what I learned and work to build a community where medical students can rethink what’s possible in medicine. Now that I have met so many talented physicians who are engaging medicine in a way that excites them, I know I want to do the same. The weekend helped me to rethink the kind of doctor I aspire to become. I hope this site will do the same for you and who knows may be some day we’ll be seeing patients at a hospital clinic 20 feet under the sea.