THE PATIENT WILL SEE YOU NOW

A visionary physician predicts a technology-driven, patient-centered revolution in health care.

In this work about the changes afoot in the world of medical care, Topol, in this natural follow-up to his previous book (The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care, 2012, etc.), demonstrates the combination of intelligence and ambition that is apparent in his successful medical career: He’s a top cardiologist, professor of genomics, director of Scripps Translational Science Institute and founder of the world’s first cardiovascular gene bank at the Cleveland Clinic. Not content to simply critique the current system (though he does so thoroughly and convincingly), the author strides optimistically into the future of health care. In the very near future, he predicts, medicine will be patient-centered to a degree unimaginable to the countless readers who have lost countless hours in the waiting room. All of this will come courtesy of new technology that Topol likens to the introduction of the printing press, which revolutionized the dissemination of information. Medicine’s “Gutenberg moment,” writes the author, will similarly democratize medicine, enabling things like quick and accurate “smartphone physicals” and comprehensive individual genomic profiles with minimal input from the top-heavy, cost-intensive hospital system we now rely on. It’s all good news for patients, although some of Topol’s more complex statistical analyses and heavy use of medical terminology, particularly in genomics, might put off some lay readers. Others will relish the robust research the author presents throughout. Most will come away impressed with the body of knowledge Topol has collected here and, if they’re not convinced that our health care fortunes are poised to change, they’re at least hopeful that we are moving in the right direction.

An expertly detailed, precisely documented exploration of the “power of information and individualization” in health care.