Prevention is
better than cure
Chronic diseases place an enormous burden on both patients and the healthcare system, as well as on the environment. Chronic diseases are intensive in the use of resources such as supplies, energy, and human capital. In the Western world, it is commonly observed that prevention is underfunded, while treatment attracts a higher overall priority. Increasing the uptake of prevention services requires multi-faceted strategies, including, inter alia, early diagnosis, organizational leadership, and a joint commitment of health sector stakeholders.
EXAMPLE:
At present, ultrasound imaging requires a clinician or technician to apply a messy gel and hold a probe against the skin to obtain images of the underlying organs. This is impractical for long-term imaging, and it also requires expensive equipment and the need to attend a clinic or hospital. To address this, these researchers have created a small wearable patch that can look inside the body for up to 48 hours. Engineers at MIT have created an ultrasound patch that can provide long-term ultrasound imaging of internal organs and structures. The device contains a rigid piezoelectric probe array and uses an underlying layer of elastomer-covered hydrogel instead of the gel applied to the skin during conventional ultrasound procedures.
Expert Statement Oliver Hayden:
Well, the biggest opportunity is still to better diagnose the major common diseases, to diagnose them earlier, namely there, from this clinical-centric environment towards prevention, that’s the opportunity we all have. At the moment, everything, including all developments, is very strongly clinically-centric, because the system delivers it that way, but a clinician is only interested in the sick. What we need in the future, however, are clinicians who are interested in healthy people, and accordingly, we also need the tools so that we can keep healthy people healthy for longer. And that requires an ecosystem where there is an incentivization that we can keep the healthy as long as possible because that is the only way we can protect our health systems from financial burdens.
Expert Statement Dieter Deryckere:
R&D is generally much more focused on the development of drugs than on the development of diagnostics or platform technologies. At present, the question is: how can I cure a patient? instead of, how can I prevent a patient from becoming very ill? There is much more interest in putting a medicine /drug on the market than to invest in Diagnostics these days. A more equal investment of budget in drug discovery and in diagnostics should be more beneficial for the general health care space. This doesn’t only imply a change in Big Pharma’s business, but it also implies transforming governmental decisions. Authorities need to change that mindset to prevent the patient from becoming ill. It is clear that the cost of diagnosing is much lower than the cost of treating a patient with a heavy/chronic disease