Eric Topol, MD (author of "The Creative Destruction of Medicine"): "Rebooting Our Health System"

May 6, 2013 Dear Catherine Coste, When I was approached by Medscape to become the new Editor-in-Chief, I was thrilled. Why? It certainly wasn't because I was looking for more to do, with multiple roles at Scripps Health, Scripps Clinic, and The Scripps Research Institute. The reason: Medscape is the largest electronic/digital network of physicians in the world. Millions of doctors and other healthcare professionals look to Medscape for the most useful, practical information to help their patients and their practice. This is the most exciting, momentous time in the history of medicine. For the first time, we can rapidly and affordably sequence a human genome. We have sensors that can remotely track virtually any physiologic metric, from vital signs to glucose to intraocular pressure. We can add a lab-on-a-chip to a smartphone to assay almost any routine chemistry and digitize pills to ensure adherence. Or use a smartphone to conduct all the components of the physical examination. This is superimposed and convergent with a remarkable digital infrastructure that includes ever-increasing bandwidth, pervasive connectivity, cloud- and supercomputing, enormous social networks, and those little mobile devices that we cannot put down. Medicine is thus poised for its biggest shakeup ever as it transforms to a more precise, individualized, and democratized model. My charge at Medscape is to help capture this excitement, the changes and opportunities, along with the challenges and the need for validation. Medscape will be expanding its breadth of coverage in areas that will be rebooting, which include not only diagnostics, imaging, and medical devices but also the operational aspects of office visits, hospitals, and medical informatics. We have an outstanding team of experts across all medical disciplines, and we'll provide you with timely and insightful commentary on the most important topics in medicine. We intend to take Medscape to the next level, one that embraces the need for change and zooms in on the ways to get there -- the ways to provide better, more efficient care for your patients. We are all connected, with only a few electrons that separate us. I welcome your ideas and feedback about Medscape, so please direct emails to etopol@medscape.net or follow me on Twitter at @EricTopol. Sincerely, Eric J. Topol, MD Editor-in-Chief of Medscape