Bioprinting live tissue and organs such as livers, hearts, cartilage and fat can offer solutions to a host of illnesses and injuries and even solve the current donor organ challenge. The printing of human stem cells, in combination with 3D bioprinting, could take regenerative medicine to unprecedented levels, improving surgeries and providing patients with increasingly positive outcomes. This will forever change the healthcare landscape.

Neurotechnology focuses on brain-computer interaction, linking thoughts to the outside world via a brain-computer interface (BCI). This enables the direct measurement of brain activity, translating electrical signals into language a computer or another human can understand. Neurotech can potentially enable the blind to see and paraplegics to walk. It also allows us to control machines with our thoughts, potentially disrupting allied technologies like robotics and self-driving systems.

Biotechnology is all about reimagining biology as complex tech and tweaking it to our advantage. To manipulate life itself, scientists couple innovative nanotechnology with the best quantum computing and advances in chemistry and biology. Biotech signals a growing trend: the interconnectedness of the sciences, engineering, and the ever-increasing processing power of the fastest computers.

The dynamic field of telemedicine is developing rapidly, with mobile health apps and new medical devices enabling consumers to take vitals, measure blood pressure and glucose levels and even diagnose ear infections. This allows patients to gather information for medical diagnoses without having to go to the doctor’s office. Patient-doctor relationships are becoming more independent of infrastructural confinement, and acceptance of telemedicine is becoming increasingly widespread across healthcare facilities.

Supercomputers like IBM’s Watson play an important role in providing medical professionals with access to real time clinical and medical knowledge to reach diagnoses and formulate treatment plans. Within 5 to 10 years - using artificial intelligence, 3D-imaging technology and pattern recognition - medical professionals will be able to diagnose chronic conditions and it won’t be long before physicians prescribe treatment before a disease has a chance to manifest itself.

Automation in healthcare is reaching new heights. Robotic surgery, for instance, enables surgeons to perform minimally invasive yet complicated procedures that are more precise than conventional operations. Robotic surgery is already widely practiced in various fields, including gynaecology, urology and in complex procedures such as cardiac valve repair. Other robots in healthcare are deployed to deliver drugs, prepare meals, make beds, do laundry and take care of waste disposal.

Consumers are adopting wearable health trackers at an increasingly fast pace. These gadgets can track virtually anything, from physical activity to sleep patterns, breathing rates, blood glucose levels, exposure to sunlight and heart rates. Their wearability and versatility contribute to their popularity, allowing medical professionals to remotely monitor their patients and offer patients more control over their own health.

Today’s technological developments enable us to fix, replace or enhance almost every part of the human body, including stomachs, kidneys, hearts, lungs, muscles, skin, limbs, ears and eyes. These are now real science instead of science fiction and they have many potential applications. In the future, human bodies will contain at least one if not more technologically and mechanically engineered parts.

The company of the future is hyper connected. It closely monitors new developments and collaborates with startups, scientists and universities. It uses smart algorithms to analyse the world and employs a flexible workforce capable of rapidly developing new products, services or processes and offering support on complex issues. The company of the future requires accessible leaders who inspire, have new visions and are prepared to veer off the beaten track.