Imagine you went to the doctor with your brother; both of you
are sick with the same thing, but they hand you a blue pill and him a yellow
one. You both get better in record breaking time but if you had been given the
yellow pill and him the blue, neither of you would be feeling any better a week
later.
Customizing peoples’ healthcare based on their genetic data
is the future of medicine. Driven by the Affordable Care Act, huge amounts of electronic
data are being compiled. These human genomes are being coupled with other
factors such as gut bacteria, drug treatments, skin bacteria, and their
environments to produce petabytes of data of thousand of people that are
hopefully going to show researchers a genomic trend. If they can start to find
trends they can treat people specifically based on how they think the body will
best react. The recovery information can be submitted as well and added to the
data for more trend analysis. Not only
can sequencing someone’s genome help cure them, but it can also alert of
preventative needs or who is more critically ill in need of service. Mount
Sinai has already been doing this to help lower the 30-day readmission rate for
patients by 56% percent, just by determining who was at the highest risk for
returning to the hospital. This
type of work can save hospitals thousands of dollars by not distributing treatments
that would not have worked for the patient.
The availability of genome sequencing is rising. To sequence
a genome cost around three thousand dollars at the moment, but is quickly
approaching the cost of an MRI or PET scan. However, if the data becomes
available or accessed by the public, discrimination would occur. Employers
would be less likely to hire someone with a health defect if they pay
employees’ health insurance. It is crucial that this information is kept safer,
since some has already leaked out. If those issues can be fixed then this is
the future of medicine. We will be living in a world in which our genomic data will
determine our prescription, our lifestyle, and our safety.
Kennedy, K. (2013,
November 24). Analysis of huge data sets will reshape health care.
Retrieved from
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/24/big-data-health-care/3631211/
This is a really fascinating article, especially with completion of the human genome project, and could prove to be drastically change the way we see medicine. However, I have to ask if you found any research on how they are reducing the cost from three thousand dollars? Primarily since I expect that the equipment and data needed to precisely modify medicine is very complex and not cheap. Also, any thought on whether or not you believe that companies who provide healthcare for their employees should be allowed access to such private information? I think that definitely needs to be addressed before this can truly become reality since it could drastically impact job opportunity. Just curious to see what you and others might think about how this should be addressed?
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