Srivarsha Rayasam
What is personalized healthcare? Why is it important? When did it emerge? What are big companies?
Personalized healthcare is essentially targeted medicine. Physicians, nurses, dietary specialists, etc. all come together to analyze a patient’s demographics and lifestyle to prevent or treat diseases. Oftentimes, medicine can be too generalized; for example, the same dose of over the counter medicines like DayQuill may have a different effect on different people. When it comes to stronger or more serious drugs, the effects may dramatically vary person to person. There are many aspects to personalized medicine, from a team of medical professionals, to formulating specific drugs for each individual's body. This is a relatively new field, as the term personalized healthcare was first presented in a Wall Street Journal article in 1999. There have been many discoveries and failures ever since, however the new and emerging science excites long-term patients, medical professionals, investors, and innovators.
Biotechnology and AI: What is it? How does it play a role in personalized medicine?
Biotechnology utilizes biological processes in order to manipulate microorganisms to create antibiotics and hormones. Biotechnology is a major part of personalized medicine, as it can be used to identify specific genes in a person’s DNA that are different from “typical” DNA. For example, in a study done by the Chicago Food Allergy Study, they found that 20% of people with a peanut allergy have a specific genetic mutation, and their biological parents carry that gene as well. This advancement in biotechnology could better prepare expecting parents, as well as give scientists a starting point to develop medicine that targets this gene. In terms of deadly diseases, recognizing genetic mutations early on can be extremely helpful in prevention. With heart disease, multiple genetic mutations have been identified, and if these are found early on, patients and doctors can take the necessary precautions to prevent heart disease.
A big accelerant in the personalized healthcare field is the use of artificial intelligence, which can shortlist target molecules based on machine learning algorithms. This saves time and effort for companies, as they don’t need to manually collect data and previous research from platforms, and individually go through each to determine a list of biological target molecules. Instead, services such as PandaOmics can help determine a couple candidates by analyzing vast scientific data and creating robust models. Artificial intelligence can also learn which molecules play what role in the body, create insights on what target molecule has a high chance of success, intake data and analyze it to help doctors make the best decisions.
Market Perspective
The market value for personalized medicine is currently valued at about $514.33 billion dollars, and it is expected to continue growing because of the demand for novel drug discoveries for cancers and diseases around the globe. This makes it a great space for startups, entrepreneurs, and scientists to enter the field, as there is a great opportunity for growth and investors are willing to invest in projects that can be successful and relevant for a long period of time. However, the flip side for startups is that there is a relatively high chance that the R&D is too expensive and the company is unable to break even.
Is personalized healthcare equitable?
From a broad perspective, healthcare in the United States is not equitable, as people who come from a higher income bracket are able to afford insurance that allows them to pay less when it comes to prescription medicine. Personalized medicine requires a combination of medical professionals to prevent and gauge how a person will be affected by a disease based on their specific body. This becomes more difficult for two main reasons:
In order to help prevent disease for a specific group of people, their overall health must be studied thoroughly, which is not the case for many minority groups in lower socioeconomic classes. Because of this notion, personalized medicine may not benefit everyone, due to the lack of research on how different diseases affect different people in terms of ethnicity and geography.
It is expensive to leverage a healthcare team that has access to complex equipment and high standards of delivery, and society’s view currently holds that personalized healthcare is a privilege, therefore it is very likely that the government won’t be willing to spend a large sum of money towards building a personalized healthcare system. In addition, because of the first issue, it is not the smartest decision to build an intricate personalized healthcare system that only benefits certain groups of people. Instead, it would be more beneficial to invest in more research and more startups to collect information to implement this type of system in the future.
There is much more research and improvements in the approach to personalized healthcare that needs to be done before it becomes accessible and equitable to everyone, however the effect it has already had on people is commendable. It is a growing field that attracts many researchers, scientists, investors, and the general public because of its interdisciplinary nature and significance to healthcare. Because of its ability to prevent diseases from a very early stage, many people find it appealing to engage in personalized medicine.
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