Abstract
Medical advances today reflect a particularly intricate set of interactions and “convergences” in scientific knowledge and technological capabilities that promise improved human healthcare worldwide. This chapter addresses trends towards accomplishing this. They include, among other means, “precision”, individualized medicine; novel means of diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of disease; improved individual monitoring and record-keeping that can be extrapolated to inform community medical analysis and improve integration of data; major advances in regenerative medicine and prosthetics; and overall, reduction in costs of and improvement in access to quality healthcare. The convergences affecting convergence-based medicine include a focus on wellness as a function of education, healthy lifestyles, mental/neural health, societal interactions, the environments in which people live and work, and active aging.
With contributions from James Heath, Ramy Arnaout, Larry Bell, Clem Bezold, Jake Dunagan, and Robert Langer.
Corresponding editors M.C. Roco (mroco@nsf.gov) and W.S. Bainbridge (wbainbri@nsf.gov).
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Notes
- 1.
Membership includes Massachusetts Institute of Technology (lead), Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, City College of New York, Morehouse College, University of California-Merced, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Emory University, Princeton University, Tufts University, and University of Georgia.
- 2.
See Chap. 8 of this report for a greater discussion regarding how converging technologies should shape science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in levels 7–16.
- 3.
“Converging Nano-Bio-Info-Cognitive Science and Technology for Responsible Innovation and Society” Workshop, internal presentation, Panel 1 conclusions, IMEC, Leuven 20–21/09/2013.
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Urban, R.G., Grodzinski, P., Arnold, A. (2013). Implications: Human Health and Physical Potential. In: Roco, M., Bainbridge, W., Tonn, B., Whitesides, G. (eds) Convergence of Knowledge, Technology and Society. Science Policy Reports. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02204-8_5
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