Just recently, I saw a commerical that demonstrated another indirect method in which technology decreases healthcare costs. The commercial was advertising one of those fitness routines anyone can do in his/her home. In addition, he/she can do many different exercises with just one innovative machine. Although this method initially costs money and has financial benefits for that company, it increases a person's fitness level and improves his/her health, reducing the potential cost of hospital bills for a heart attack or other illness due to poor exercise or obesity.
Although this is not probable right now, another futuristic way that technology helps with reducing healthcare costs is that if researchers perfected the "personalized healthcare" system from the Grand Challenges for Engineering where physicians would be able to know the specific diseases a person could contract based on his/her blood or genome. This method would eliminate the costs of many unnecessary tests and improve healthcare overall.
Grand Challenges for Engineering. (2009). National Academy of Engineering of the National Academics. https://courseweb.library.upenn.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_23684_1%26url%3d
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Good post. There's tons of ideas floating around that can reduce healthcare costs and I'm glad you found some I didn't think of. Just some food for thought: you talked about some ways personalized healthcare can reduce costs, but can you also think of some ways that it can increase costs?
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