Thursday, June 26, 2008

Biomedicine in the Post-Information Age: 2

In yesterday's blog , I began a series on the post-information age of biomedicine.

In the post-information age, everyone is empowered with lots of information, as well as the hardware and software tools to use the information.

This means that there will be less dependence on bricks-and-mortar institutions to carry on research, development, and entrepreneurial ventures. People can do an awful lot from their homes, or from nearly any location on the planet.

My guess is that we will see a growing workforce of talented, free-lance technologists who make enormous contributions to biomedical research in the post-information age. These individuals will come from two groups:

1. The recent college grads, who are technology-enabled and who developed a group of collaborators through social networking sites while they were in college.

2. Retirees, who bring their technical expertise with them into their retirements and who are fully capable of leading technologically productive lives from their homes.

Just about everyone one else (i.e., age 30 to 60) is fully invested in the bricks-and-mortar paradigm. They're dependent on regular pay checks, and on the family health coverage provided by their employers. They are not sufficiently secure, financially or medically, to leave their jobs to begin a new life as free-lancers.

Tomorrow, I'll discuss the kinds of projects that can be done "from home" in the post-information age.

- Copyright (C) 2008 Jules J. Berman

key words: biomedical informatics, medical informatics
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