Health Newfound Technologies and Future Perspective: Opportunities and Challenges

Since the end of the twentieth century, the concept of emerging technologies and their science network and governance have been considered by academia, media and policy makers. The emerging technologies are “radically novel or disruptive and relatively fast-developing, but still nascent, scientific-technological developments that may have prominent economic, environment or social impacts”.

In focus group discussions with the presence of experts in science and technology (expert panel), their opinions about the emerging technologies were recorded. Subsequently, a list of these technologies that were determined by brain storming in the expert panel, was categorized in subsectors of the Roco and Bainbridge convergence foundational science and technology system (Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno-AI, in brief NBICA).

There is considerable opportunity in the emerging science and technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, telemedicine and digital health, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, synthetic biology, gene editing, neurotechnology, biosensors, 3D printing and robotics) for achieving scientific authority, promotion of justice and creation of social security. The majority of these emerging technologies were revealed to be converging technologies in nature. Therefore, they produce significant challenges in the biosafety and biosecurity domains.

There is a strategic opportunity in the convergence foundational science and technology system (NBICA). Wonderful advancements can be achieved in health sector, therapeutic and drug development, social security and justice with the help of these emerging technologies. Hence, a particular attention should be paid to approaches for achieving scientific authority in converging technologies.