Five of my favourite - medical innovations for the future

Accelerated Vaccine Development - Ebola

The average time taken from 'bench to bedside' of research evidence to health service change is approx 17 years, i.e. journal publication to practice (Morris et al, 2011).  I managed to get caught out at the end of last year when a sprightly registrar persuaded me that helping him do his latest bit of F1 doctor research could well change my job in 18 months time, it's really not the case.  With that in mind and planning towards the 2030s, here are my top 5 not-yet-on-the-market innovations that could be in my medical handbooks once I've completed my training...

1) Psilocybin (as in magic mushrooms) for treatment-resistant depression.  Efforts are also underway with other psychoactives, including LSD and ketamine.  Carhart-Harris et al., 2016

2) CRISPR, a gene splicing tool for genetic diseases - e.g. child-onset terminal diseases like beta-thalassaemia and adult-onset diseases like Huntington's. Nature, Video link

3) Smart inhalers, which track patient usage - connected to mobile apps which include game-ified incentives for patients, and enable compliance to be recorded.  MobiHealth News

4) NHS-accredited mobile apps to prescribe to patients - there are apps to assist with anxiety reduction, understand & auto-monitor your diabetes, diet, pain, and record your vitals through peripheral monitoring devices connected to your phone.  Roll this forward a decade and NICE should be recommending specific tools to docs so they can prescribe them to their patients ModernMedicineNetwork, NHS 2014-18 Five Year Forward View

5) Phage therapy for bacterial infections - using one enemy on another, by deploying viruses that specifically destroy bacteria, with the advantage being that they can target particular strains of bacteria while leaving the rest of the body's microbiome intact.  Mind you, they have been known about since 1915, and none are ready for humans yet... Nature Magazine, primary lit

+ honourable mention to accelerated vaccine development, as trialled during the 2014-2016 West African Ebola outbreak Nature, Video link