The growth in availability of portable and highly connected health devices will drive an expectation in society to be aware of our own health and more pro-active in the lifestyle choices we make. People will use technology to prevent and diagnose disease, and in some cases, bypass the doctor’s clinic by taking health care into their own hands, or at the least go armed to the doctor with helpful diagnostic information.

Our informed insight will mean that the doctor’s role will change. They will become coaches, rather than a source of initial diagnosis. Self-diagnostic tools will empower doctors to monitor, prevent and treat medical conditions. One early example of this is the ECG attachment for the iPhone, which is already capable of producing medical-grade data.

Private health care organizations will tap into health applications and their capacity for diagnosis as a result, and will offer these widely to consumers. Your smartphone will come to know your body better than you know yourself and doctors will provide a health care service based on your measured behavior and key health indicators.