10 reasons to be cheerful going into 2024

There are plenty of positive medical breakthroughs on the horizon: here are my top 10!

As the new year gets into full swing, with media stories of over 7 million people waiting for healthcare in the UK and most populations getting sicker its easy to be pessimistic about the future. But I’m excited at the prospect of what the future holds for medicine. Having recently attended the 40-year anniversary of my graduation from medical school, I’ve seen a lot of changes during my career. As I celebrate the release of Food for Life in paperback, I wanted to shine a positive light on the future of health.

I am hosting a live event this Friday to celebrate the Launch of Food For Life in paperback.

I am doing a giveaway of 100 tickets for the event and I thought many of you would like the chance to attend.

Some of the ZOE team will be there, and I will be signing books at the end.

The event is in Hackney, London and will start from 7:30pm, 5th Jan. You can see more details here: hackneyempire.co.uk/events/an-evening-w…

To enter, please enter your details here: hackneyempire.co.uk/events/an-evening-w…

Hope to see you there!

Reflecting on recent research and developments, I thought I would share with you my list of 10 things I’m most hopeful about in 2024.  

1. AI will revolutionise medical diagnosis via photos and phone and app bots

Efforts to improve and speed up diagnosis using digital tools have been underway for some years. 

Across wide-ranging medical fields, such as ophthalmology, dermatology, oncology and gerontology, we’re increasingly seeing sophisticated AI tools that can help clinicians diagnose patients faster and with greater accuracy than doctors. 

That’s because AI can analyse huge amounts of images – for example, x-rays, MRIs and ultrasound – in a short space of time. It also teaches itself using artificial neural networks like our brains and doesn't rely on humans to program it. Combined with other things like patient data, medical history and laboratory test results, AI tools have the potential to completely change how and how fast we can diagnose disease and make life-changing clinical decisions. For example AI is now better than medical specialists at diagnosing suspicious lesions as being cancerous or benign.