Preventative DNA Checkups
Will GPs become obsolete?
Blake Newcome reporting from the future - he is a fictional forensic journalist in the fight against complacency. - Reporting for the "Fact File News" - December 2033
Health Apps can hardly be called the Future of Medicine anymore. What is new, or what will become the future, is the shrinking size and cost of the diagnostic equipment, including how to test your DNA.
The future is all on your mobile device. Already, we have thousands of clever little health smartphone apps and other mini devices like Fitbits or Hapifork.
Medical diagnostics are at your fingertips ... literally. Already, there is an app for everything, from measuring your pulse while you sleep to memory training.
It will be just a matter of time before these apps become serious and can be used as medical-approved diagnostic appliances.
With everything getting smaller and computer power fitting into mobile devices, the next step may well be complete monitoring and personal health data collection. Add a few additional tests, like DNA testing for diseases, or one of my favourites, DNA testing for what diet a person, according to their DNA, should be on. This would include a list of foods not to eat because of allergies or hypersensitivity and a list with recipes and what you should eat to make and keep you healthy.
Does that sound far-fetched? Not really, because most of those tests are already available; it is just a matter of time before they become mainstream and work on your mobile devices.
There will be many advantages and disadvantages, especially security issues like privacy. Interestingly, security issues may be a more significant challenge than the development of diagnostic apps.
If, however, security can be assured, then all our personal health data could be stored in the cloud, and access could be allowed by code, fingerprint or similar, to be used on "demand" when visiting a Doctor or Hospital or some Medical Facility of the future. Just imagine the money that would be saved.
There is no need to fill out endless forms; all data is constantly updated automatically by your wristwatch, with a built-in "prick and go" blood testing device and other vital data selection such as pulse, blood pressure, blood sugar, temperature, fitness, and a comprehensive DNA Preventative Check Up, all stored, and to be accessed when needed.
Will you still have to go to your friendly medical general practitioner?
This will become questionable; GPs may have to be re-trained in holistic medicine to access and re-direct the patient much more efficiently.
General Physical GP checkups may become obsolete because you go to your "Online Medical Centre", and request an "online checkup", where you will have direct access to a computer diagnostic trained nurse.
Why a Nurse and not a Doctor?
The nurse will be much cheaper; as we all know, the medical system is breaking down under financial strain. Nurses become your first line of contact in the health system; you will meet the Online Triage nurse, who will further assess your data and updated condition, knowing your history and vital signs from your mobile data collection device.
As one can see, a "normal" GP or medical Doctor at this stage will have become obsolete.
Only if the data collected by your mobile devices, including your online cloud data and questions answered, will show an adverse medical situation will you be able to see a GP Doctor within an actual brick-and-mortar health Centre or Hospital.
That Doctor will be much more holistic than any previous Doctor. The whole patient will be considered in the future, and causative factors will be necessary to cure a patient instead of prescribing maintenance medical drugs.
If we venture even further into the future and consider 3-D printing, there is the possibility that therapeutic devices will be printed specifically for an individual.
What can we expect from DNA testing?
Testing will become cheaper and affordable for everything; even so, many tests will still need to be devised.
Testing for faulty genes will not mean waiting until you get sick; it will mean advice and possible treatment to achieve the best possible outcome. In other words, DNA testing can become a preventative tool. It is different from any other test, which only shows what issue you have or don't have.
With ordinary tests, getting the all-clear is not helping you decide how to improve your Health.
With future Preventative DNA Testing, we have a fundamental paradigm shift.
Knowing our strengths and weaknesses, we can actively change our health destiny for the first time.
Future Health Systems will be much more accommodating towards Holistic Health - Prevention and Wellbeing because it is the only way to keep people healthy.
The time has passed when the medical system has to wait for a disease to manifest before advising a patient of a suitable treatment.
The next generation of diagnostic Apps
What is in development or here already:
Tiny DNA sequencing devices the size of a mobile phone may cost only about $1000.
New "nanopore" sequencing devices, could speed efforts to make gene sequencing a routine part of a health checkup. - The goal is to speed up sequencing results in a few hours at a cost of less than $100.
iPhone add-on that lets doctors take an electrocardiogram, a case that snaps onto the iPhone, with electrodes on the back. It reads heart rhythms. A cheap version will allow patients to capture their heart data, document arrhythmia or track the success of lifestyle changes.
Bio Sensors will bring further medical tests to your own home. Tests are developed to smell out allergy-causing substances, warn the allergy sufferer, and sniff out infectious diseases.
DNA testing certainly is NOT the exclusive domain of doctors anymore; it is now a do-it-yourself process. You can buy a test online, collect a DNA sample, and mail it to a testing company. In return, you'll receive personalized medical information that purportedly allows you to combat genetic diseases by making informed choices about your Health.
New research demonstrates that you can turn off faulty disease-promoting genes by improving your diet, stress and lifestyle.
As discussed above, the next step is just around the corner: your DNA Testing device, some health apps and a bio-sensor all take samples of your health status.
Feed it all into your computer and get a printout with lifestyle advice.
If this is not a paradigm shift for our Health, I don't know what it is.
Blake Newcome is a fictional forensic journalist in the fight against complacency. - Reporting for the "Fact File News" - December - 2033
Cheers, Dieter Luske - News in Brainland
***Blake investigates topics in his scope of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, artificial intelligence IA and robots, humanoids or androids development. He often spends months, even years researching and preparing a report.