learning is lifelong: April 2018

Life Sciences is undergoing such transformations that our perception of our ourselves and our take on our health and services will change radically. As per mobi health news remote patient monitoring grew by 44% in 2016. Swedish market research firm Berg Insight mentions “Bring-your-own-device connectivity will be preferred by select patient's groups and will be used for the monitoring of 22.9 million patients in 2021."

THE CONNECTED PATIENT -

We are going to be a part of a world where every article comes with sensors which will detect our every movement. Ex: A pillbox has sensors and will relay information informing our near and dear ones of medicines taken or forgotten and subsequently further steps will be taken.

Source : https://www.gemalto.com/review/Pages/the-connected-patient.aspx

Health care delivery systems in 2020 -

Most of the medical care will be at home and no longer need to be confined to clinics or hospitals. Many doctor – patient contacts will now be virtual.

Specialist hospital treatment may be reserved for trauma and emergency surgery; local day care organisations will deal with most elective surgery, while chronic and long term will be maintained in the community.

3D Printing and life sciences

At the University of Melbourne, engineers and doctors have worked together to model and 3D print the heart arteries of patients. These models allow doctors to see the twists and blood flow in the vessels and accordingly construct an accurate heart stent, a mesh tube to support weak arteries.

In collaboration with researchers at the University of Wollongong’s ARC Centre of Excellence in Electromaterials Science, the team is able to print a patient’s artery within a day.

According to 3D Printing Progress, the 3D printing industry is estimated to grow to approximately $6 billion by 2024. Prosthetics, knee and hip replacements, implants, hearing aids, tissue and medicines are expected to drive 3D-printed biotech products.

Prosthetics - an artificial device that replaces a missing part of a body will be one of the major choices for 3D printing. Ex: printing of limbs

Implants will be another area with multiple applications. These can range from knee and hip replacements to dental and oral implants to bone — again, enhancing quality of life at a lower cost.

Tissue, organs, bones, muscle and skin 3D will be printed to match samples taken from a patient in order to decrease rejection of surgeries is been researched and will soon be a norm.

Medicines produced via 3D printing, will be tailored to each patient to provide a more personalized treatment.

Adoption of Iot and wearables -

Ubiquitous presence of smartphone and Internet of things will help to reduce gap between patients and pharmaceutical industries. It will facilitate at home diagnostic testing, self-management of chronic diseases and remote patient health care.

Wearables will track recovery from cardiac arrests, replace physical interaction with digital intervention and lower cost of treatment.

Source: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Life-Sciences-Health-Care/gx-lshc-healthcare-and-life-sciences-predictions-2020.pdf

Genomics and the future-

Do you remember watching the movies Elysium (2013) and Gattaca (1997)? They had spoken about the future of medicine. Well, Genomics plays a huge role in that. It is the study of understanding the structure of the genome, which contains all genetic instructions for developing and directing the activities within an organism in the form of DNA.

Personal genomics

By sequencing individual genomes, researchers can uncover large amounts of information concerning all aspects of an individual's physiology, from their susceptibility to certain diseases to the way they respond to specific drugs. A single strand of DNA will speak of our entire life processes. Amazing, isn't it?

Artificial Intelligence and Life sciences -

The promise of AI is to extend it in three crucial areas, complex computations, algorithmic assessments and making meaning from loose associations.

AI could add value by reducing time in the analysis of a bacterial swab or increasing accuracy in subsequent antibiotic prescription thereby giving doctors more time for clinical assessment.

The future thus tells us we will be masters of our own bodies controlling every aspect ranging from better health diagnosis to receiving timely treatment to maintenance available at our terms, ease and comfort. So gear up and cheer up because long lives need to be balanced with happy dispositions and strong relationships.