Engineering truly democratised healthcare

THE provision of healthcare is a basic human necessity, but access to healthcare is by no means universal. While the UK's National Health Service, Obama's Affordable Healthcare Act in the US and Singapore's national health system have all succeeded - at least in part - in bringing affordable health services to more people, truly democratised healthcare is yet to materialise.

This is where technology can revolutionise the healthcare industry. In the same way as the taxi industry has been transformed by the emergence of Uber and similar data-powered services which put the user in control, the healthcare industry is undergoing a shift towards digitally-enabled "self-care". Wearable technologies, mHealth applications and more sophisticated drug-delivery devices are empowerin…