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The Future of Health Care: Preventing Disease

To paraphrase Henry David Thoreau, it seems that for every 1000 people working to treat disease there is but one person working to prevent that disease from occuring in the first place. This, of course, is a slight exaggeration but it is safe to say that the preponderance of today’s health care expenditures are directed toward treatment, not preventation.

This is a costly way of doing business. Luckily, a fair number of scientists, researchers and savvy businesspeople are working hard to reverse this trend. The other day, Technology Review had an excellent article entitled ”Next Generation Diagnostics” in which it highlighted a new start-up called Quanterix. Apparently, the company’s technology is so sophisicated that it can detect a single molecule. This feat is important because often tumors will release small trace amounts of a signature protein prior to turning into larger, more problematic tumors. Much the same is true with heart attacks. Often proteins indicative of a heart attack will be released prior to the attack actually occuring. The thinking goes that if these trace amounts can be detected early, the diseases can be prevented.

If Quanterix’ technology doesn’t work then perhaps the new nano-bio chip being developed by researchers at the University of Texas or the medical diagnostic test being developed at the University of Colorado will. Both technologies are somewhat similar to Quanterix’, but instead to testing for proteins in blood, Texas’s technology quickly scans a patient’s saliva whereas Colorado’s scans a person’s breath.

Any way you slice it, though, the future of health is growing increasing clear: preventation is taking precedence over treatment.

Interested in other health care-related posts? Check out these recent articles:

Health Care Providers Need a Second Life
The Future of Health Care: Part 3 (Robotics)The Robot Will See You Now
Hospitals Robotic Future: Part 2
Hospitals Robotic Future: Part 1
Hospitals Get a Lift

Jack Uldrich is a writer, futurist, public speaker and host of jumpthecurve.net. He is the author of seven books, including Jump the Curve and The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. He is also a frequent speaker on future trends, innovation, change management and executive leadership to a variety of businesses, industries and non-profit organizations and associations.

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