Medicine in the Matrix- the future of healthcare: Part 1 (the Red Pill)
By: Dr. Samori Swygert
The future of medicine will undergo a revolutionary transformation. I purchased a copy of U.S. News & World Report 2014 January-May edition. I also read a captivating article in the Wall Street Journal: How digital medicine will soon save your life, by Robin Cook and Eric Topol. When I finished reading this article and magazine expose, I said to myself “welcome to the Medicine Matrix”.
First, the goals in future medical practice are centered on everyone having a fully sequenced genome. This means that your full DNA is completely mapped out, and analyzed. This will reveal any and all genetic defects, or variances in certain genes. This will supposedly allow for more precise dosing of drugs, and more specific drug selection. Drug selection is important because some individuals have enzymes in their liver that breakdown drugs faster in some people, but slower in others. This can lead to toxicity or ineffective treatments. Furthermore, some individuals may produce more or less receptors for drugs to bind to, and that affects overall therapy.
Secondly, the main focus of these two pieces of literature is prevention. Prominent researchers, institutions, and biotech companies have collaborated expertise to create an anticipatory and prevention based arsenal of therapies. For instance, if an individual has their genome sequenced, and carries the gene that codes for Cystic Fibrosis, the CFTR gene, a drug designed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals will target that specific mutation and alter it. Some patients that take the drug Abacavir to manage HIV, but maybe predisposed to a fatal drug reaction. Thus, a genetic test would be conducted to see if Abacavir is appropriate for this patient before administration. Lastly, cancer patients can see what drugs will and won’t work based on the gene mutation they may possess. This will allow physicians to tailor and streamline drug regimens.
Let’s talk technology
Everybody’s cellphone will become their medical watchdog. The tech industry and medical community have created apps and programs that will be installed on your smartphone. Individuals will have nanobots dispersed into their bloodstream that will conduct internal surveillance of EVERYTHING inside your body. A nanobot is a small digital device that is 10-9 in size (like a millimeter is 10-3), this is extremely small. However, these nanobots will detect your body’s: pH, blood count, signs of infection, temperature, glucose levels, drug levels, serum protein, HCG hormone (detect pregnancy), testosterone and estrogen levels, change in blood chemistry before a heart attack, pre-cancerous signals, microorganisms, and more. All of this data will be transmitted to your doctor and your phone.
In addition to the nanobots in your bloodstream, our smartphones will be able to read your ECG and tell your physician if a heart attack is impending. The nanobot-smartphone alliance will also serve as a sentinel to monitor patients that have been recently discharged from the hospital or clinic and cut length of stay, while still allowing physicians to monitor their progress.
The FDA has approved a “smart watch” called, Visi. The watch measures breathing rate, blood pressure, oxygen levels, and the electrical conductivity of your heart.
Telepresence will be another medical biggie. A motorized physician avatar will be suited with GPS, monitors, microphones, speakers, and sensors. This high tech apparatus will have travel around the hospital from unit to unit, and room to room, but here’s the catch, a real-time screen with the physician is attached. Physicians can check on their patients from a remote location like their home, or while on a trip. A high definition, high resolution camera will allow doctors to zoom in and out for surface exams. The doctor can conduct real-time conversations and interviews with patients and staff. The robot avatars can also consult with other doctor avatars, so you may see 2-5 robots “huddling” as they think about care plans for a patient. The telepresence aspect has also been touted as an advantage for underserved or rural areas that lack adequate physician access.
The abundance and ever burgeoning amount of medical data can be overwhelming to many practitioners. I can vouch for that as a critical care hospital pharmacist. Every other month new drugs are hitting the market, and you must learn these drugs, or at least understand the use, dosing, side effects, and contraindications. This also applies to physicians because they have to prescribe the drugs, understand the diseases and conditions patients have.
Well IBM developed, “Watson”, yes the computer that humans played against in jeopardy. This will be integrated in healthcare systems around the country. Volumes upon volumes of research, textbooks, guidelines, case studies, and etc will be installed in this device to help healthcare practitioners arrive at faster, accurate, and more well informed decisions. Technology experts predict that by 2020, Watson will contain the equivalent of 500 billion four-drawer file cabinets worth of medical information.
Dr. Showme Da Money
Lastly, to finish off this part, I have included direct excerpts from the U.S. News and World Report expose. We must discuss financial and economic aspect of this digitized upgrade. Healthcare is big business. This past January the Federal Communications Commission reported that it has allocated $400 million annually for creating broadband networks to facilitate communication between rural areas and “urban medical hubs”. BCC research has predicted a doubling of the telehealth market from $11.6 billion to $27.3 billion in 2016.
AT&T has invested $1 million in funding to help develop the telehealth market. The NIH estimates the cost of sequencing a person’s genome at approximately $5,700, so multiply that by the number of individuals that are to receive medical care and all the babies to be born! President Obama proposed $100 million for brain research. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York already invested $3 million for their genomic supercomputer. There is much more to discuss but far too lengthy for a blog post.
Stay tuned for part 2 as we go more in depth to this digital medical revolution.
Source
1. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303973704579351080028045594
