Top 12 Areas for Innovation through 2025: Personalized Medicine
The first in a series of 12 briefs that shed light on the top areas for technology innovation.
Washington, DC (PRWEB) November 29, 2007
Futurists and analysts at the DC-based research and consulting firm Social Technologies this month released a series of 12 briefs that shed light on the top areas for technology innovation through 2025.
Personalized Medicine is the first trend in the series, explains Denise Chiavetta, leader of Social Technologies' Technology Foresight project.
"This includes the use of gene therapy, pharmacology and information technology to treat each patient individually," she explains. "The ultimate goal of personalized medicine is the use of a person's genome to move medicine from a reactive to a preventive stance, fixing a potential problem before it occurs rather than after it manifests."
Technology Overview
The author of this brief, Social Technologies futurist Christopher Kent, goes on to explain that looming changes in the medical and healthcare sector will give consumers more information about the interplay of disease and their own genomes.
"This will provide them the opportunity to take greater control of their healthcare and enable treatments tailored to specific genomes, which will thereby move medicine from 'one drug for all' to 'one drug per case,'" Kent says.
As the individual technologies that compose personalized medicine are further refined, Kent explains that new technologies are being developed and tested. These include:
Gene chips--The growing use of silicon wafers coated with sensors that detect DNA or other compounds is fostering an improvement in diagnostics by facilitating testing for the presence of certain genes and molecular biomarkers. Bioinformatics--Using databases to analyze individual genomes, efforts such as Harvard University's Personal Genome Project seek to provide doctors with better information about a patient's genome to aid in more precise diagnoses. Phenotype pharmacology--Continuing research into the human genome is yielding new insights into how the body metabolizes pharmaceuticals, and efforts are underway to isolate drugs that work for select groups with similar phenotypes or genetic profiles.
Challenges Ahead
While the idea of personalized medicine is expanding in medical and research fields, significant obstacles will need to be overcome before it can flourish commercially. These include:
Costs--At approximately $1 million per individual genome, gene sequencing is still too expensive and time-intensive for commercial applications. Reducing patients' upfront expenses for these technologies would certainly help to promote personalized medicine as patients seize the long-term cost-saving opportunities presented by this sector. Technology--The computing power and time needed to sequence a genome are too great to permit use on a mass scale. New tools will be needed to make the analysis of how current pharmaceuticals interact with genomes commercially feasible, as well. Entrenched interests--While it would ultimately save money for everyone involved, a shift to personalized medicine, with its focus on prevention, amounts to nothing short of a total reimagining of how healthcare is currently provided. For starters, many insurance providers do not currently cover preventive procedures. A move to personalized medicine would also force the pharmaceutical industry to restructure itself in order to take advantage of the desire for personalized drugs.
Forecasts
The evolution of personalized medicine will change the healthcare industry. In the process, it is likely that several "gamechangers" will emerge--aspects of new technology that will result in significant commercial or social impacts.
Some examples of potential gamechangers include:
Cheap sequencing--On the research side, one of the goals of the National Human Genome Research Institute is to reduce the cost of sequencing an individual genome to $1,000. Fast diagnosis--A new generation of handheld gene scanners will revolutionize genetic testing for disease while cutting analysis time and, eventually, costs. Availability of biomarkers--Better understanding of molecular biomarkers and the ability to use microarrays to identify biomarkers will also enable disease monitoring which is less invasive. For instance, a microarray chip could be used instead of a biopsy to test a patient's blood for the markers of certain cancers.
Learn More
To determine the relevance of these findings and forecasts to major business sectors, set up an interview with Christopher Kent by sending an email to Hope Gibbs, leader of corporate communications, at hope. gibbs@socialtechnologies. com.
Christopher Kent Futurist
Christopher Kent is a writer/analyst with more than 10 years' experience tracking emerging public policy and social policy issues, primarily with Stratfor (Strategic Forecasting), a leading geopolitical-intelligence service. His expertise spans topics such as consumer and industry trends in the energy sector, the future of China, consumer lifestyles in Europe, and the impacts of microcredit in World 3. Christopher also oversees Social Technologies' internship program. He has an MA in the history of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance from the University of Toronto, and an undergraduate degree in history and English from Marquette University. Areas of expertise: Media and entertainment, tourism and leisure.
About Social Technologies
Social Technologies is a global research and consulting firm specializing in the integration of foresight, strategy, and innovation. With offices in Washington DC, London, and Shanghai, Social Technologies serves the world's leading companies, government agencies, and nonprofits. A holistic, long-term perspective combined with actionable business solutions helps clients mitigate risk, make the most of opportunities, and enrich decision-making. For information visit www. socialtechnologies. com, the blog http://changewaves. socialtechnologies. com (http://changewaves. socialtechnologies. com), and the newsletter www. socialtechnologies. com/changewaves (http://www. socialtechnologies. com/changewaves).
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