In the great journey of human progress, health care is at the top. Similar to the collapse of civilization written by Jared Diamond, traditional hospitals, once considered centers of healing, are on the brink of existential collapse. The hospital of the future needs to break free from the constraints of its physical walls. With the growing focus of digital health, hospitals must adopt a hybrid model, offering care that is part-virtual and part physical.
As a medical doctor turned researcher turned techbio founder, I can say with certainty that the entire patient experience must be renewed, combining gamification and operational efficiency. Imagine a health care system where every patient has real-time access to their medical information on a mobile device, accompanied by a digital “pilot” that helps them manage their treatment and monitor symptoms.
This flight assistant, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), not only tracks the patient’s progress but also easily connects with environmental health devices that monitor vital signs without patient involvement. It can understand images and data in ways beyond human capabilities, act as a liaison between patient and doctor, and prevent problems before they escalate.
The future empowers doctors
For the hospital of the future to succeed, doctors must evolve. Medical school will not only include studying medicine, but also studying principles of artificial intelligence, physics, and mathematics. The healthcare professional of tomorrow will combine engineering and medical expertise. Physicians will also need project management skills, fostering a collaborative and entrepreneurial spirit that has been lacking in many health care systems to date.
Reliance on repetitive tasks, such as reading CT scans or analyzing pathology slides, will decrease as AI takes over these tasks. Instead doctors will focus on complex cases and technical procedures, spending more time with patients and less time overwhelmed by clerical duties. A new generation of medical professionals will train using smart video games—think of it as the “Mario Kart of Medicine,” but with a focus on honing medical knowledge and decision-making skills.
Decentralized, AI-managed health care system
Hospitals are no longer isolated care centers but part of a global network powered by AI. Tumor boards—a meeting of medical experts who discuss complex cancer cases and determine the best treatment plan for a patient—currently operate in silos. This will be reimagined, allowing experts from around the world to work together in complex oncology cases.
One day, we can match a particular patient’s case with a particular doctor, from anywhere in the world, using AI to analyze their samples. Patients in the advanced stages of cancer will be compared to similar cases around the world, ensuring that the best treatment options are available, no matter where they are.
AI will also play an important role in helping doctors understand the biological bases of diseases. Automated labs, combined with AI-driven discovery systems, will constantly test new ideas and generate training sets from patient-derived models. By combining biological data with insights from animals, AI will unlock the mysteries of disease processes and identify precise treatments for unmet medical needs.
The role of Agent AI in medicine
The complexity of biology is beyond the capacity of the human brain. Agentic AI will go beyond understanding simple language and delve into the intricacies of the immune system, the molecular basis of disease, and the discovery of new patterns in patient data. Agent AI will transform the way we understand biology, creating new ideas and developing life-extending interventions.
As healthcare technology becomes more affordable and digitization spreads, the gap between developed and developing countries will shrink, and shared learning technologies will help democratize access to the latest medical breakthroughs, ensuring that geographic location no longer determines the quality of healthcare.
Change care
This is the future of medicine—the “virtual unity” where hospitals transform into more efficient, technology-driven care systems. AI and Agentic AI will improve the skills of doctors, empowering them to provide more accurate, timely, and personalized care. Repetitive tasks will be automated, allowing human caregivers to focus on what really matters: the patient.
Hospitals will be run as startups, driven by patient safety and innovation, pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Data silos will break down, replaced by collaborative technologies that enable the seamless sharing of information across borders.
The future of health care is not just about treating disease—it’s about building a system that anticipates, innovates, and delivers health care in an efficient, decentralized, and above all, people-centered way. The hospital of the future will be a testament to how far we’ve come—and a glimpse of where we’re headed.
Thomas Clozel is the founder and CEO of Owkin.
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