History of disruptions in laboratory medicine: what have we learned from predictions?

Predictions about the future of laboratory medicine have had a mixed success, and in some instances they have been overambitious and incorrectly assessed the future impact of emerging technologies. Current predictions suggest a more highly automated and connected future for diagnostic testing. The central laboratory of the future may be dominated by more robotics and more connectivity in order to take advantage of the benefits of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence (AI)-based systems (e.g. decision support software and imaging analytics). For point-of-care testing, mobile health (mHealth) may be in the ascendancy driven by healthcare initiatives from technology companies such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Uber.