What will healthcare systems around the world look like in the future? How will digitalisation impact on different sections of healthcare? In the book “The digital pill” (English) / “Die digitale Pille” (German), the President of the Board of Directors of Swiss pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche, Christoph Franz, ETH Zurich & HSG Prof. Dr. Elgar Fleisch, Prof. Dr. Andreas Herrmann (HSG), and PhD candidate Annette Mönninghoff (HSG) review ways in which healthcare might change with digitalisation.

The authors lay out how the sequencing of the human genome will continue to become more affordable, which will increase effective treatment options of rare diseases. Overall, medicine will become more individualised, as subgroups of patients emerge and treatments are tailored to their needs. More sophisticated data analysis methods and the increasing availability of data from different patient groups will lead to precision medicine becoming more cost-effective for health care providers. The good news for patients is that with more personalised treatments available, access to suitable medications and treatments should be quicker.

The authors also review some ways in which a shift towards preventive care might help combat chronic conditions. Some of the trends include an increase in self-monitoring with the use of wearable devices, online platforms for exchange with other patients, the use of remote medicine, and the continuous support from digital apps and health coaches.

The authors further discuss how such advances may be made. Two of their suggestions focus on the need for regulatory reform, data protection, and international collaboration, as well as on the shift towards genetic testing becoming standard practice.

The German version of the book, “Die digitale Pille. Eine Reise in die Zukunft unseres Gesundheitssystems“ will be published on 10 February 2021 by Campus Publications. An English version will follow.

For a review of the book by Prof. Dr. Fleisch, we would like to invite you to watch our recorded lecture below.

Recorded Guest Lecture