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The Embodiment of Modern Medicine
Summary: Star Trek has provided us with a vision for medical care that is as much technology-based as it is human, transforming the experience of visiting a doctor into a seemingly magical world of scanners, voice-activated computers and data-driven treatment. This sci-fi vision is already informing ways to enhance the patient-doctor relationship.
Key Information:
Dr. McCoy: In Star Trek: The Original Series, Dr. McCoy, the Chief Medical Officer, was often seen on away missions with a hand-held device, monitoring vitals of injured crew, capturing data and diagnosing appropriate action before they were transported back to the ship. Using this device, known as a medical tricorder, Dr. McCoy had the ability to quickly analyze data, sometimes conducting a multivariate analysis instantly, and sharing that information with his team. Currently, we are seeing the rapid adoption of telecommunications technologies into medical treatment for similar purposes – commonly referred to as telemedicine. One such program, “Care Beyond Walls and Wires”1 by the Flagstaff Medical Center, AZ, utilizes this approach of remote monitoring of patients with chronic conditions living in rural areas. Utilizing smartphones connected to health-monitoring equipment, doctors can monitor patients from their clinic and intervene quickly, transporting the patient to the hospital if required.
Dr. Beverly Crusher: In the Star Trek: The Next Generation series, Dr. Beverly Crusher was often seen in sickbay, an on-ship clinic where she used voice commands to access data from the ship’s computer. She also dictated her patient observations to an electronic medical log with ease, freeing her hands to operate tools (such as her medical tricorder). Today, with the use of electronic medical record-keeping (EMRs) in healthcare, the foundation for voice-assisted medical care is already being set. And as discussed at the recent HIMSS Annual Conference, current voice-recognition technology could pair with “collaborative intelligence tools” creating a platform that can “listen” to a doctor’s information and alert her to implications of new data in real-time2 much like the ship’s computer often does.
The Emergency Medical Hologram (the “EMH”): In the later series of Star Trek: Voyager, the ship’s doctor is a hologram, fondly referred to as the Emergency Medical Hologram or “EMH”. This “doctor” was able to function by leveraging a database of over 2,000 medical sources and the experiences of 47 doctors, making his seemingly human face a mere interface to a completely data-driven approach to medical care. He declares “I am not just a doctor…I am the embodiment of modern medicine”. This ability to treat a patient case by comparing it to an expanse of medical information is similar to the approach of leading-edge hospitals, where staff monitor volumes of patients from behind a computer panel, with access to other specialists, and sometimes leveraging robotics to conduct highly complex procedures.3
Implications:
The 24th century vision of medical tech in the Star Trek series is becoming real and may reveal new opportunities for marketers:
- Technology in the doctor’s office: may provide the opportunity to integrate professional and patient educational tools, such as goal trackers, into the platform, enabling digital enrollment and sharing data with patients over time.
- Telemedicine: the use of mobile devices could facilitate a feedback-loop between patients and their healthcare team in between doctor visits. This could be particularly useful in persistency programs to help patients adopting a new therapy.
- Data-driven medical processes: will empower doctors with information to access health information at their fingertips and more quickly share with other specialists and patients. Marketers have the opportunity to facilitate this for both professionals and patients so they can function like an integrated team.
1 Congestive Heart Failure – In Home Monitoring, http://www.flagstaffmedicalcenter.com/OurServices/Telemedicine/Programs/CHF
2 Healthcare IT Goes Star Trek http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/232601419.
3 Hanson, Dr. William Smart Medicine: How the Changing Role of Doctors Will Revolutionize Health Care. Palgrave Macmillan, June 7, 2011
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Star Trek ©, Star Trek: The Next Generation ©, Star Trek Generation and movies ©, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ©, Star Trek:
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