A vision for the hospital of the future

In the grand journey of human progress, healthcare is at a tipping point. Much like the decline of civilizations chronicled by Jared Diamond, traditional hospitals, once viewed as bastions of healing, are on the brink of an existential collapse. The hospital of the future needs to break free from the constraints of its physical walls. With a growing emphasis on digital health, hospitals must adopt a hybrid model, offering care that is half-virtual and half-physical.

As a medical doctor turned researcher turned techbio founder, I can say with certainty that the entire patient experience must be revamped, combining gamification with operational efficiency. Imagine a healthcare system where every patient has real-time access to their medical information on a mobile device, paired with a digital “copilot” that assists them through their treatments and monitors symptoms.

This copilot, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), not only tracks the patient’s progress but connects seamlessly with environmental health devices that monitor vital signs without patient involvement. It could understand images and data in ways that surpass human capabilities, acting as an intermediary between patient and doctor, preempting crises before they escalate.

How the future empowers doctors

For the hospital of the future to succeed, doctors have to evolve too. Medical school won’t just consist of learning medicine, but also learning the principles of artificial intelligence, physics, and mathematics. The healthcare professional of tomorrow will blend engineering with medical expertise. Doctors will also need project management skills, fostering a collaborative and entrepreneurial spirit that has, until now, been absent from most healthcare systems.

The reliance on repetitive tasks, like reading CT scans or analyzing pathology slides, will diminish as AI takes over these functions. Doctors will instead focus on complex cases and technical procedures, spending more time with patients and less time overwhelmed by clerical tasks. A new generation of medical professionals will train using smart video games—think of it as the “Mario Kart of Medicine,” but with a focus on honing medical knowledge and decision-making skills.

A decentralized, AI-driven healthcare system

Hospitals will no longer be isolated centers of care but part of a decentralized, AI-powered global network. Tumor boards—a meeting of medical professionals that discuss complex cancer cases and determine the best treatment plan for a patient—currently operate in silos. These will be reimagined, allowing experts from around the world to collaborate on complex oncology cases.

One day, we could match a specific patient case with a specific doctor, from anywhere in the world, using AI to analyze their samples. Patients in advanced stages of cancer will be compared with similar cases globally, ensuring that the best treatment options are available, no matter where they are.

AI will also play a critical role in helping doctors understand the biological underpinnings of diseases. Automated labs, integrated with AI-driven discovery systems, will constantly test new hypotheses and generate training sets from patient-derived models. By combining biological data with insights from animals, AI will unlock the mysteries of disease mechanisms and identify precision treatments for unmet medical needs.

The role of Agentic AI in medicine

The complexity of biology is beyond the reach of the human brain. Agentic AI will surpass simple language understanding and delve deep into the intricacies of the immune system, the molecular basis of diseases, and the discovery of new patterns in patient data. Agentic AI will transform how we comprehend biology, creating new hypotheses and developing interventions that extend life.

As healthcare technology becomes more affordable and digitization spreads, the gap between developed and underdeveloped countries will shrink, and federated learning technologies will help democratize access to the latest medical breakthroughs, ensuring that geographic location no longer determines the quality of healthcare.

Revolutionize care

This is the future of medicine—a “positive singularity” where hospitals evolve into highly efficient, tech-driven ecosystems of care. AI and Agentic AI will augment doctors’ skills, empowering them to provide more accurate, timely, and personalized care. Repetitive tasks will be automated, allowing human caregivers to focus on what truly matters: the patient.

Hospitals will be run like startups, driven by patient safety and innovation, pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Data silos will crumble, replaced by collaborative technologies that enable seamless sharing of knowledge across borders.

The future of healthcare is not just about curing diseases—it’s about building a system that anticipates, innovates, and delivers healthcare in a way that is proactive, decentralized, and above all, human-centered. The hospital of the future will be a testament to how far we’ve come—and a glimpse of where we’re headed.

Thomas Clozel is cofounder and CEO of Owkin.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91233495/a-vision-for-the-hospital-of-the-future?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss