The Virtual Hospital

This book describes the current picture of healthcare and how medicine can develop in the 21st century to provide traditional hospital services differently with the use of clinical-digital transformation. Technological and social developments are enabling doctors, patients, tech developers, entrepreneurs and policy makers to recognise that care delivery can be achieved in novel and interesting ways far from the classic bricks and mortar approach. There are multiple triggers for change including the ageing population, limitations of existing clinical capacity and the COVID pandemic, accelerating the use of remote technologies, along with patient demands and expectations being higher than ever. With the speed of development of so many new technologies, it is hard to keep track of them, plus there is a need to scrutinize their claims and true potential for significant improvements in care delivery. The increasing global emphasis on the use of ‘virtual wards’, a way of remotely monitoring patients in their own homes and freeing up hospital beds, raises questions about the use of such systems of care and how they may be prone to safety failures and higher costs. The rush to use them needs to be balanced with the right level of evaluation and assurance. The Virtual Hospital explores the many approaches by which traditional medical practice is changing and the potential for new technologies (everything from biohacking to AI) to disrupt the existing paradigm. The goal is to assess and challenge whether the claims for such developments are robust and beneficial, rather than merely praising how shiny and clever the future looks. Consequently, this book is of enormous value to all involved in the provision of care, from physicians, nurses and healthcare planners to data scientists and healthcare leaders in all clinical settings.