Is the Future of Health-care Technology or Goal Driven?

To the Editor: Health-care redesign seems to be a buzzword in the USA. However, the President Trump recently objected to some parts of Obamacare. No one doubts the importance of the initiatives of “shooting for the moon” and precision medicine in cancer treatment. All-round health care has had a major beneficial impact through state-of-the-art technology, such as big data, internet medical care services, smart medical devices, and minimally invasive techniques. As a result, health care is entering a new, third era; a collision between emerging technology and old notions of care redesign. This new era has also aroused broader interest from global leading experts to the general public.

The emerging technologies are a double-edged sword, which brings benefits and convenience to patients and health care providers, but also imposes a burden on patients and national medical insurance systems, mainly due to higher costs or uncertain outcomes. Indeed, it seems to have encountered barriers during the course of relentless care reform unless the researchers can keep the balance between stimulating benefits and realizing social fairness. Otherwise, health reform may hurt low-income patients unexpectedly.

In our opinion, the need for ongoing redesign of health care is to establish core values or basic principles, and it is a cornerstone of health-care transformation. In this regard, three “C principles” may be instructive or worthy of recommendation. (1) Communication among patients can create a harmonious environment if carers provide not only optimized medical protocols but also a rational and transparent price list. Documented informed consent should be obtained from patients or their families so as to provide what patients really need. (2) Cost-effectiveness: High-end, smart technology is important, but it is not an end in itself. Now is the time to filter important health-care data from the unimportant and effectively integrate medical resources in a more meaningful way. (3) Control of health care is always important. New technologies must meet patients’ demands, and their costs should be kept under control or within a reasonable range. What we need should be goal-driven as a positive direction rather than technology-orient alone. The goals are to maintain patients’ dignity and quality of life and prolong survival.

Continuous health-care redesign is a major challenge for all countries.[1] We hope that smart, innovative, safe, and inclusive health-care redesign is carried out in the future.[23]

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