Genomics - Disruptive Technologies : Creating A New Healthcare Paradigm

Over the past decade, virtually every major industry invested heavily in computerization. The heath care industry was no exception to the rise in the use of technology. These technologies are starting to allow health care practitioners to offer faster, and more efficient patient care than ever before. No doubt this is the right direction we expect health care to follow.

Going back hundreds of years, we can trace the history of health care. Although it has evolved over the years, it all has a common goal; to heal those who are ill. Technology is one of the major evolutions and now plays a big role in the health care system. It helps patients to be more involved with their healthcare. They can make appointments, follow up on test results, and contact their doctors. Back then, they didn’t even have all the medicine we have now, let alone the technology. We can only imagine what is in store for the future.

With the healthcare world evolving the need for traditional provider-patient relationships is changing toward a more complex system. That would allow caregivers and their patients to have a chance to become an active part of the healthcare path. Along with the continuous chance of healthcare business models the way technology is seen is most healthcare systems. The technology is visible and yet seem

The health care industry has become increasingly reliant on technology. From medical translation tools to mobile apps, these devices are helping healthcare institutions save money and improve patient treatment.

In observation, (Fahnestock, McComb, & Deshmukh, 2013) stated "Information technologies are transforming the way healthcare is delivered. Innovations such as computer-based patient records, hospital information systems, computer-based decision support tools, community health information networks and new ways of distributing health information.” (p.3.2). In the sector of delivering healthcare using technology, has made it easier for healthcare professionals to access medical records, digitization of prescriptions and view test results. With the use of high-performance devices being used in the hospital, helps to make the jobs of healthcare professionals a little easier. As well as relieve anxiety from anxious patients that may be awaiting lab results to come back. Therefore, IT devices and services has been and continues to be a tremendous help and game changer for the healthcare system. However, there is still a lot of work to be done to help shape and reform the healthcare

Kristi Henderson talked about the transformation of healthcare using technology for the improvement of accessibility, health, and to lowering costs (attachment VI.A).

In June 2000, the publicly funded Human Genome Project (HGP) and the private firm Celera Genomics Inc. announced that they had completed sequencing the human genome. This unprecedented accomplishment is expected to enable doctors to diagnose, treat and even prevent numerous genetic diseases. As these two entities worked on sequencing the human genome, there was also a separate and less publicized race to patent as many human genes as possible.

Many advances help fuel the economic growth and create better quality and care for patients, even when cost is considered. However, there are some technology that, according to Healthcare technology and technology assessment” new technologies are often introduced into the marketplace with little evidence about their usefulness in comparison to already existing devices or procedures.

The most interesting part of Time was the sentence stating, “a majority of doctors in a recent survey predicted that more testing will trigger higher costs…” This was fascinating to me because this sentence contrasts with Dr. Armstrong’s passage that claimed genomics will work towards reducing costs and improvement of patient outcome. It truly showed the divide in mindset amongst professionals.

One good point, people often bring up is Dr. Venter’s Human Genome Project. To better explain, Dr. Venter and scientists at the National Institutes of Health recently

Science is a field of study that is always evolving and changing with time and new discoveries. New studies in medicine are constantly improving, such as the flu shot, which changes every year to protect America’s population against influenza. With all the adventure into the unknown comes the worry of taking science too far. Also, not letting people’s bodies and life take its natural course is a fear of genetic testing. While others believe the improvements to using genetic tests will benefit society drastically. One of the newer studies and discoveries in science is the ability to map a human genome, which takes a single strand of a person’s DNA and interprets genes into the information that patients, doctors, and scientists understand.

The debate over patenting sections of the human genome arrived shortly after the completion of the mapping of the human genome. These patents give rights of a specific section of the human genome to certain companies to develop gene products and tests after. Although patents on sections of the human genome can encourage pioneering and further advancements in genome products and genetic tests, patenting on the human genome can lead to the monopolization of gene tests that can delay patient treatment and diagnosis, restrict more than one developer to make genetic products and tests, and allow one developer to increase prices on a specific test to outrageous prices.

The human genome project has its origins in the mid-1980s, but its intellectual roots stretch back further. Alfred Sturtevant an American geneticist created the first Drosophila gene map in 1911. In 1953, Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the double helical structure of the DNA molecule. This discovery was the first crucial step in molecular genome analysis, and in much of the molecular biological research of the last half-century. In the mid-1970s, Frederick Sanger developed techniques to sequence DNA and with this development the idea of analyzing the entire human genome was first proposed by a few academic biologists. The early genome project was established in 1987 and in 1988, Congress funded both the National Institute of Health and the Department of Energy to embark on further exploration of this concept. In 1990 the initial plans for the project were drawn up and made public through a joint research plan, “Understanding Our Genetic Inheritance: The Human Genome Project, The First Five Years, FY 1991-1995.” (NIH, 2012). This initial research plan set out specific goals for the first five years of what was to then predicted to be a 15-year research effort (NIH, 2012). In 2001, the Human Genome Project published its results showing a 90 percent complete sequence of all three billion base pairs in the human genome (NIH, 2012).

The Human Genome Project started in the mid-1980’s and was discussed widely throughout the scientific community and public press in the last years of the decade. In the United States, DOE

Watson and Crick notoriously discovered the double helix of DNA, sparking a scientific revolution in DNA. The Human Genome Project first began in 1990 and finally ended in 2003. (“Human”). Before it began, the Human Genome Project was heavily opposed by scientists and many other people. Surprisingly, initially it had been the United States Congress that had supported the Human Genome Project more than biologists. (Hood, Rowen). The Human Genome Project offers a lot of appeal from various aspects; international competition in medicine and biology, economic benefits, and the most important, potential for better human health. In 1990, the National Institute of Health, NIH, and the United States Department of Energy united with other international partners to ignite the Human Genome Project. (“Human”). Then in June of 2000, the “working draft” of the human genome sequence was finished and released. A few years later in April of 2003, the Human Genome Project was successfully completed. In fact, it concluded ahead of schedule by more than two years and under budget by about $400 million. (Collins). Even though the Human Genome Project was finished a substantial amount of time earlier than expected and hundreds of millions of dollars under budget, it was still an extremely time consuming and expensive project. Over