Abstract
The practice of medicine is undergoing a transformational change in terms of science, technology, personalization, digitization, mobility and social media. At the vortex of these changes is data, generated analyzed and employed to develop, deliver, manage and predict aspects of health and disease. The fulcrum of change is the better resourced countries versus the less resourced countries grappling to stay in the fray. Global transformative medicine presents not only technical challenges to advancing medicine and targeting it to specific sub populations but ethical challenges as well. The greatest challenge, however, may well be how medicine and healthcare, both fundamentally reactive, will transform themselves to being proactive.
Highlights
The practice of medicine is undergoing a transformational change in terms of science, technology, personalization, digitization, mobility and social media
Proteus Digital Health in collaboration with Novartis has pioneered the age of ‘Digital Medicines’ used its ingestible sensor technology, with a chip integrated in a pill that provides invaluable data about pharmacokinetics, absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion [31]
Key companies that have been offering this service include Navigenics, Pathway Genomics, deCODEme, Lumingenix, DNA Direct to Consumer (DTC) [35] and DNA Direct, bought by Medco, Caremark. 23andMe has patented a diagnostic test for a rare mutation used to diagnose risk of Parkinson’s disease
Summary
The practice of medicine is undergoing a transformational change in terms of science, technology, personalization, digitization, mobility and social media. The cost burden to society, dollars spent but lost work days, and to individuals, who may have no choice but to spend their life’s savings (especially in geographies such as India where they are not covered by health insurance) for therapies which are unsafe or ineffective, demands a solution. This calls for a personalized medicine approach, spawned by the technological capability of identifying and understanding the molecular basis of disease and its individual pathophysiological expression over time.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have