The Future – How Do We Get from Here to There?

Over the last decade the development of rapid diagnostic tests for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, syphilis, malaria, human African trypanosomiasis, visceral leishmaniasis, dengue fever, influenza, ebola virus disease and yaws have made it infinitely easier to make a fast and accurate diagnosis of these diseases, enabling more rapid initiation of targeted treatment. Many of them can be performed at the primary point-of-care, thus avoiding the need for transport to clinics or hospitals, another factor in speeding up the initiation of treatment. The combination of smartphones and Internet access is revolutionizing the provision of specialist medical services to remote rural areas. At the global level at least, some of the Sustainable Development Goals will be achieved and health in the low- and middle-income countries will improve. At the local level the next revolution will be from artificial intelligence through smartphones that have the computing power to search enormous data bases.