Tech Advances Put the Annual Doctor Visit on the Critical List

"You had to decide for every single patient how you're going to provide care for them in a way you never had before," he recalls. That prompted him to ponder the role of the physical itself: "What would happen if I delayed it three months, or didn't do it at all?" For Dr. Hyman and many other physicians and their patients, the pandemic triggered a disruption in one of medicine's most common encounters--and, through virtual visits, provided an early glimpse of the physical of the future. A look at how innovation and technology are transforming the way we live, work and play. An explosion of advances in digital technology, imaging, gene sequencing and artificial intelligence will likely transform the physical into an even more virtual experience.