The Case for Health 4.0

Abstract

Demographic and socio-economic changes in large parts of the world enforcing change to health care systems as we know them. While our societies are ageing and thus require more health services the number of hospital beds, at least in Europe, is decreasing, while at the same time the point of care is shifting towards outpatient departments, doctor’s surgeries, care homes, patient homes and—the Internet. Buzz words such as Individualized Medicine, Precision Medicine , mHealth and lately the 5th generation mobile networks are driving a trend towards virtualization and a transition from manufacturing, for example of pharmaceutical products, to service provision. Pharmaceutical companies are aiming at the provision of holistic services including data processing with algorithms, case management and billing. However, this must not be confused with the business models of health maintenance organizations (HMOs) in the United States but needs to be understood as a paradigm shift in the health industry driven by new technologies and strategies. One of these fundamentally new strategies is Industry 4.0, which is not only restricted to manufacturing industries but seems to scale well into the health domain.