Will Robots Make House Calls?

By Christine Gorman

July 1, 2030. Like just about everyone she knows, Angela Jefferson, 36, wakes up to the insistent patter of a HealthWatch Model 9000 alarm clock. "Today is Monday, and the time is 6 a.m.," the little box chirps. Angela stares at its smooth, blue face long enough for the embedded microlaser to scan the back of her eye. "Ocular pressure, blood pressure and carbon-dioxide levels normal," the alarm clock reports. "But you are dehydrated. I'll signal the refrigerator to fix you an electrolyte cocktail."

Angela pads off to the kitchen to pick up her drink, then heads to the bathroom. Before the toilet finishes flushing, its sensors have completed a urinalysis and stool test. The information is automatically patched through to a secure website that contains all her medical records. If anything alarming, such as a spot of blood or some defective DNA, shows up, both she and her physician will receive a health-care alert. By the same token, if she ever falls ill while traveling, doctors can instantly punch up her records, using her medical ID card to gain access.

Back in her bathroom, Angela turns to splay her fingers under the hand sanitizer. Next she picks up her DentiGuard toothbrush, which checks for signs of gum disease and measures her bone density while it brushes her teeth. During the course of her morning routine, a total of 85 microscopic sensors, in everything from her hairbrush to the medicine cabinet, will keep tabs on her health. Most days she doesn't even notice their presence.

If talking toilets and wired toothbrushes sound more like an Orwellian nightmare than a dream come true, you might want to skip the rest of this story. But can you really afford not to read on?

Predicting the future is easy; doing it accurately is a whole different matter. But current trends suggest that the most dramatic changes in medical care in the next 20 or 30 years will spring from a growing reliance on "smart" technology. Computer chips will become ever faster, smaller and less expensive. Medical instruments and sensors will continue to shrink. (One that already has is the formerly big, lumbering machine needed for radiation treatment; today mobile electron accelerators are portable enough to be used during some cancer operations, reducing the number of healthy cells that are damaged.)

We are witnessing the early days of a wired revolution in medicine. The Web has shattered the physician's tightly held monopoly on information. Specialists are starting to provide consultations via the Internet. Some doctors are experimenting with computer programs that monitor how often an asthmatic refills a prescription, alerting them when the pattern indicates that stronger medicines are needed to head off a more serious attack.

All these automated checkups would be a prescription for information gridlock if we humans tried to track it all. But it is likely that we will leave the bulk of data collection and processing to increasingly sophisticated computer programs..

So will robots be taking over for doctors? Probably not. Computers that today can describe every disease known to man still can't navigate a hospital corridor. And even artificial intelligence, or AI, diagnosis has its limitations. You're probably going to want a flesh-and-blood practitioner--not just a computer--to diagnose your aches and pains for at least another decade or two.

Still, computer technology can dramatically extend the physician's ability to treat diseases, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the operating room. Already, information from CAT scans is routinely used to reproduce detailed views of human anatomy in three dimensions. Soon engineers will perfect the tools that allow surgeons to simulate an operation realistically--down to the resistance of skin against scalpel.

But technology will never be a cure-all. Accidents and plagues won't disappear. The AIDS epidemic is so entrenched in Africa and parts of Asia that it could overshadow much of the 21st century. Nor will everyone be able to afford the latest treatments for cancer or Alzheimer's disease. For millions of people alive today, though, the ability to monitor their health more closely and start treatments at the earliest stages of disease means that many may live long enough to enjoy the blessings of the 22nd century.

TIME senior writer and health columnist Christine Gorman built her first robot out of Legos when she was 10 years old