“Omics” and Biomedical Informatics: The Future of Pathology and Pathology Informatics. But, are we Ready for the Future?

Abstract

Healthcare industry is undergoing one of the most massive transformations ever seen in any other industries. There will be an escalation of challenges facing the healthcare industry in the next few decades. Among these challenges are proliferation of new technology and information management within the healthcare system. Pathology services pride itself in driving the medical changes through adaptation of new technology into the healthcare system, especially in combination with the sophisticated pathology informatics systems. The pathology informatics systems are arguably the most advanced and sophisticated information systems within the healthcare sector for many years. Some of the most exciting news in medicine such as the human genome project and the messaging and taxonomy standardisation all involve pathology services and pathology informatics [1]. In the next few decades, medical care will experience unprecedented velocity of technology advancement. Pathology services and pathology informatics will continue to lead the transformation of medical care through genomic, proteinomics, tandem mass spectrometry and micro-array technologies [1]. From the view of pathology service and pathology informatics, the next few decades are going to be exciting yet challenging. The “omics” technology and biomedical informatics will gradually merge together and be an integral part in the deep sea of laboratory medicine. These new advances will not only have significant impact in the delivery of the diagnostic and the therapeutic manoeuvres, but also in the workflow of medical practice and ethos of patient care delivery. While the technical aspect of laboratory medicine will continue to revolutionise healthcare system, the associated changes within the socio-cultural context of medical practice is unclear. This study explores the issues of socio-technical interaction with advances in pathology services and pathology informatics. This study aims to provide a conceptual framework for future discussion about socio-cultural integration of technology and pathology informatics into the healthcare system to provide seamless patient-centred care delivery which would provide provider-client understanding of the service delivery system in an user friendly way. Firstly, the study describes a hypothetical case, the technical aspect of which is achievable in the next decades by advances in biomedical informatics. By using the hypothetical case, the paper explores the socio-cultural challenges imposed by advances in technology on pathologists, clinicians and consumers. The paper reveals the barriers and challenges faced by future pathology informatics within the constrains of current organisational and professional structures of the healthcare system. It then explores the ethical, social and cultural aspects of consumers of the future. While the “omics” future might be real from technological perspective, we, the healthcare workers and consumers might not be ready then for it!