A paradigm shift is a difficult, tedious, sometimes impossible process. And if you choose an industry in which a paradigm change is needed, then it will undoubtedly be healthcare. The World Health Organization estimates that total global health spending in 2012 was $ 6.5 trillion. And this number will grow if scientists do not develop new technologies and mechanisms dedicated to preventive, preventive (preventive) medicine.
One such pioneer scientist, Dr. Leeroy Hood, spoke at the Exponential Medicine Conference hosted by Singularity University last week. In addition to a long track record of innovation in the biological and computational sciences, he contributed to the human genome project and co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology.
He, like so many others today, believes that integrated personalized medicine has the potential to transform the healthcare industry to a great extent. For decades, Dr. Hood has advocated systems medicine, a holistic approach to health that simultaneously takes into account biochemical, physiological and environmental aspects. An integrated approach allows you to observe the disease in detail from start to finish.
However, getting such an unprecedented vision is not so easy. It is necessary not only to quickly link streaming health data, but also to invent new interdisciplinary technologies that will allow this data to be obtained faster. This is the approach Dr. Hood took 30 years ago when he developed the automatic DNA sequencer.
“We needed to easily combine engineering, chemistry, computer science and molecular biology,” he says. “When we did that, within two months we had a basic strategy that later worked in automated DNA sequencing.”
This same approach led to the success of the Human Genome Project, the human genome project.
Progress continues today.
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Applying these lessons to the idea of general health, Dr. Hood extends the ideas of systems biology to medical systems. This is important because health depends 30% on genetics, 60% on lifestyle and the environment, and 10% on health. A deep understanding of health is essential in addressing how disease disrupts the biological networks in our bodies.
How will it look in practice? Longer and more painless life in the literal sense of the word. If the disease can be curbed at an early stage, life will look very different.
“My hypothesis is that if you engage in scientific enrichment throughout your life - strive for all feasible possibilities - you can scientifically improve your health. We can bring you back to the 90s in terms of mental and physical condition."
To advance this new approach, Dr. Hood has developed a 4P Medicine (P4: Predict, Alert, Personalize and Participate) that can quantify scientific recovery and uncover diseases. While modern health care focuses on disease, a whole new industry is on the way that will define the key metrics that determine health. Rather than looking at populations or isolated single factors, the 4P approach will create a platform for “dense, dynamic, personalized data clouds” with healthy ideas.
"Just as the Hubble Telescope has allowed us to look at stars with unprecedented resolution, so dense dynamic clouds of data will allow us to see aspects of human biology and disease in a whole new way."
Imagine that all the data that could affect your health - your genetic predisposition to developing cancer, information about the food from your stool, the amount of exercise and sleep that you receive - will be loaded into a database. At the moment, such a database will look like a hodgepodge, but when compared with the data of other individuals, patterns, features and connections between biological systems will become obvious.
Regular data collection will show how these biological systems are disrupted by diseases and how these diseases progress. This will lead to preventive medicine of the future, and we will be able to move not from wellness to illness, but from wellness to wellness.
ILYA KHEL