Can we use deep tech to personalise the medical industry?

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Image of a doctor using a tablet. The doctor is using a touchscreen on the tablet. A holograph of a human is standing on the touchscreen of the tablet. Various medical devices are in the background.

The future of the healthcare industry is in developing technology that makes personalised medication and preventive treatment a reality.

“90 percent of all drugs administered fail to cure 50 percent of patients – simply due to an oversimplification [by pharmaceutical companies] in assessing the makeup in cell biology.” This statistic, shared by Algorithmiq co-founder and CEO Sabrina Maniscalco, shows how imperfect the medical industry is, and how willing we are to accept trial and error as part of the experience of recovering from sickness.

Recently, multiple panels of healthtech entrepreneurs at Web Summit shared their thoughts on how technology can reinvent the medical industry, moving away from mass-treatment practices and towards fit-for-purpose, personalised and preventive healthcare.

Prevention before cure

Diet, lifestyle choices, and early detection practices can all contribute to moving the healthcare dial away from treating illnesses and towards preventing illnesses from manifesting at all.

To the first point, getting the appropriate vitamins and minerals from our food is key to preventing health deterioration. George Hadjigeorgiou, co-founder and president of medical company Zoe, is one of a few leaders in the healthtech industry pioneering the analysis of individuals’ unique body chemistry, allowing Zoe to create personalised food plans for users. This attempts to transform food into preventive medicine.

To the second point, wearable medtech is only really used in two contexts: fitness and wellness (think of Fitbits), and in response to emergency medical situations (pacemakers). Babylon Health founder and CEO Ali Parsa thinks this is bizarre: “Every asset we have has sensors and technologies that come with it to track if things go wrong and address it. So why aren’t we doing that with our most important assets – our bodies?”.

Babylon Health is a digital-first health service provider that combines an AI-powered platform with virtual clinical operations. This helps patients in accessing medical advice digitally to address concerns immediately as they arise and in keeping track of their health better over time.

Ana Maquies with wearable healthtech during Web SummitAna Maiques, co-founder and CEO of Neuroelectrics, with a wearable healthtech cap during Web Summit. Image: Eóin Noonan/Web Summit (CC BY 2.0)

A more personal touch

The personal touch offered by digital healthcare products that enable us to track our health as it changes is in line with George’s prediction that “within the next 30 years, we will be measuring everything around our health”.

This prediction stems from a greater capacity to measure health indicators, such as blood pressure, and illness symptoms, such as headaches, through digital health apps.

However, this projection also stems from dissatisfaction with the healthcare industry. George claimed that “customers have said ‘we aren’t getting what we need from the medical system’. They want something more personal”. Cast your mind back to the figures at the start of the article – 90 percent of all drugs administered fail to cure half of all patients. It’s no wonder people want treatment tailored to their situation, not a catch-all.

A near-future with personalised drugs being created through the power of data science is achievable, claims Neuroelectrics’ Ana Maiques. The co-founder and CEO leads a project analysing individuals’ body chemistry to assess how people’s brains will respond to a given course of treatment, allowing medical professionals to find solutions to illness far quicker.

“If we can use the technologies we have today to understand how the brain will react to a drug before we prescribe it, it would be a giant leap forward.”

“There is not a single technology we need that isn’t already here. We have everything we need to switch from a sick-care system to a healthcare system,” added Ali

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Main image of doctor using healthtech in patient treatment: Zapp2Photo/Shutterstock (CC BY 2.0)

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