The Creative Destruction Of Medicine By Eric Topol

The Creative Destruction of Medicine is a book written by Eric Topol, who is a M.D. He is one of the most top citied researchers in medicine and was named Modern Healthcare’s #1 Most Influential Physician Executive in Healthcare in 2012 (Topol, 2012). This book explains how the future of medicine will change dramatically from what it what was then and how it is now. The book is split into three different parts. Part I is “Setting the Foundation” where it explains where the technology began and how it has changed in the modern day. Part II is “Capturing the Data” explains the different ways that modern day technology can show what is wrong with a patient easier and more convenient than ever before. Part III is “The Impact of Homo Digitus” here

Part I “Setting the Foundation” Topol gives us a look back on technology from when Marty Cooper invented the cell phone 1973, Michael Wise inventing the personal computer in 1975. Topol also references Steve Jobs and company’s efforts on inventing the biggest break in technology with the Apple products and what they have changed in society today (Topol, 2012). It’s hard to imagine a world without this technology today because for most of the young people today this is all they ever known. He continues to speak about how the technology has changed certain aspects of life such as music downloads from having to buy the records or CD’s to renting at a local Blockbuster to having Netflix (Topol, 2012). The world is steady evolving rapidly is the basis of the early part of this book. Topol starts discussing the evidence based medicine and states that it may be unreliable and gives an example to back his claim starting with Lipitor (Topol, 2012). Topol feels we should base medicine more on the individual and not the general public which is not a bad idea. We as humans see all these different celebrities advertise things that they get paid to get regular

In this part of the book Topol writes about how all the technological changes that he speaks about in the previous chapters of the book should be put to use of the medical professionals. Topol believes that the medical profession must evolve the way society has with the technology. Topol believes that medical professionals should adapt and use the technology to their and the patients’ advantage (Topol, 2012). They are problems that are here now and more will come in the future, but by using the technology given it may ease some of the new transitions that may and will occur. Topol also talks about the pharmaceutical industry and three ways to improve upon their business. The three ways he mentions the Wikimedicine where not anyone can contribute to, Topol states that this should be a collaborative and interactive network among the life science industry (Topol, 2012). The other two ways Topol writes about is the Guaranteed-to-Succeed Model and the Digital Marketing, Tracking and sales (Topol, 2012). The final chapter Topol reflects on the technological advantageous that we have today and explains we should use them together in order to create a virtual human being (Topol, 2012). Topol later writes about how each individual is different even if they are twins they still have differences in their epigenomic markings (Topool, 2012). Topol also briefly speaks on the