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An overview of our future prevention first strategy to health care built around biomarker tracking and powered by advances in AI.
With advancing information technology we have seen rapid improvements in the health sciences. Collectively, it includes such areas as wearables and health tracking, pharmacology and biotechnology, and increasingly sophisticated AI.
As our store of health data increases, we’re learning to a finer degree what constitutes good health on an individual basis. We’re moving away from a treatment-based one-size-fits-all approach towards increasingly personalized processes focused on a prevention first strategy.
To prevent disease we need to understand the causes of ill health and intervene before they manifest. Taking the often-used analogy of maintaining a vintage car, if we understand what maintenance is required we can keep the vehicle running indefinitely. The same we hope for our bodies.
Following the historically upward trajectory of life expectancy; better health maintenance will lead to both an increase in lifespan as well as healthspan.
This evolution towards maintenance begins with individual empowerment via personal tools to track and monitor the biomarkers of aging. We’ll track and tweak these biomarkers so that we can maintain an ‘optimal’ state of health.
The Longevity Profile is the sum of what will constitute this ‘optimal’ health state.
What does this mean in practice?
Imagine a not too distant future where you have a full suite of wearables, possibly implants or devices circulating in your blood, and the environment (both public and private) is enriched with sensors.
Routinely you will undergo a comprehensive physical and biochemical workup. The time frame will depend on the current science, your budget, or your enthusiasm.
You will go to your local G.P. or possibly a longevity center. Such a center won’t be so different from the current trend towards the concentration of local health services.
You will have a wide range of tests that could include element and metabolite profiles, microbiome health, miRNA and rRNA profile(s), and other various blood and tissue samples.
AI will then integrate these varying data sets into an ongoing picture of your current health while also mining our collective data sets for insights.
Health professionals will be plugged into this data stream and will be brought in before an underlying pathology develops into a disease. Deviations from the ‘optimum’ will prompt interventional micro-adjustments that could range from behavioural recommendations, drug microdosing, or sophisticated regenerative therapies.
As noted by The Deep Knowledge Group, ‘failure will be when patients are forced to get doctor’s involved’.
Who decides what is optimum?
By plumbing society’s collective data, we will better understand our body’s molecular systems and the systemic results of our interventions. This positive feedback loop will result in ever finer tuning that will allow us to head-off diseases earlier.
So the simple answer to the question would be that data will decide.
However, we must note the risk of algorithmic discrimination. It can emerge either when the AI’s algorithm has had bias built into it or when unintended/unanticipated bias is created during the data management process.
A straightforward example of such bias could be where an AI provides health recommendations to an ethnic minority using data based on a wider majority.
This is a consideration that is now starting to be appreciated in both academia and industry. Individual health is influenced by a wide range of complex contributing factors including demographic, socioeconomic, environmental and regional factors. The key is understanding the risks and continuing to improve what will always be imperfect models.
At what age will this be applicable to me?
Preventative medicine should begin from the day you’re born to your final day.
Owlet Smart Sock Baby Monitor
Because we’re still in the early days of this field, individuals are going to have to take a much larger initial role in their health tracking than what will be the norm in the future.
This is further compounded by the fact that medicine today is still only in the early stages of this transition. Most doctors are not yet ready for patients empowered by data who may be attempting to self diagnose.
All we can recommend is to try and build health tracking and management into your daily routine. If it doesn’t become a habit, then it will only be a short-lived novelty that won’t impact your long term health.
How will I protect my health data?
This is an in-depth topic that requires its own separate piece.
Health information management today can encompass a wide variety of policies from secure hospital and doctor data to wearable data owned by the manufacturer. Ultimately, you need to decide what information you’re comfortable for a company to have.
Is this only going to be for those who can afford it?
There will always be the bleeding edge of development that will begin as the sole province of the wealthy.
What will be needed is a segmentation of services along a gradient of impact vs cost. Packages can then be developed that are both affordable and capture the most effective treatments/interventions at that price level.
Due to the enormous market demand, a successful longevity intervention will enjoy, there will be significant downward pressure on price.
Demonstratable success will also, hopefully, create societal pressure for national governments to subsidize or partly subsidize effective technologies. Similar to how expensive drugs are subsidised in many countries of the world today.
This sounds too complex for me!
More than understandable. It’s a complex topic that has long been the domain of health professionals too long focused on a whack-a-mole approach to age-related diseases.
The whole purpose of Augment is to help break this complex topic down. Check out our blog section where we provide practical actionable information.
However, we always caution that if you have any health concerns, your first point of contact should always be a qualified health professional.
This future, while complex, will be one of incredible opportunities.
Longevity will be the largest market in human history and this market will be built on the longevity profile.
While sophisticated products and services powered by AI will move much of the complexity into the background, the onus will still be on us to manage the various services available as well as take action when new technologies arise. The result will be profound improvements in both our lifespans and healthspans.
We live in exciting times!
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