FiRe 2017: Bringing about the End of Disease
By Ahrash Poursaid
Imagining a world without chronic illness and disease sounds like a fairytale or science fiction but according to Dr. Leroy Hood, President and Co-Founder of Institute for Systems Biology and CFO of Providence Health & Services, it is an achievable feat in the next decade.
Dr. Hood spoke about an initiative that would progress healthcare by improving quality of care, predict and prevent disease, reduce costs, and reduce time spent in the hospital by patients, known as “scientific welfare.”
During his keynote speech at the Future in Review (FiRe) conference in Park City, Utah, Dr. Hood pointed out how the importance of understanding wellness and disease within each patient could help discover the transitions between the two states. Doing so could lead ways to reverse these states and become preventative medicine.
“In 5 to 10 years we will have the ability to reverse Alzheimer’s,” he said.
Dr. Hood emphasized that cloud computing has become a big part of everyday life and is making a significant impact in healthcare. Data clouds are generated to create “actionable abilities” to improve wellness and prevent disease among patients. This lead Dr. Hood to develop the P4 medicine system: Predictive, Prevention, Personalization and Participatory. The focus of this movement is in progressing patient wellness rather than just treating diseases.
“Healthcare is not just about disease but wellness as well,” said Dr. Hood.
According to him, creating personalized wellness programs for patients is the biggest step in progressing healthcare. Using genomic sequencing, clinicians can find methods to prevent disease by altering the patient’s wellness.
“Only 50% of kids born in this calendar year are expected to live to 100,” he said. This is an alarming figure and not improving wellness this statistic will remain the same. Wellness is a lifetime journey and is different for everyone but if done properly following the 4 P’s and using the innovative predictive methods, people will be able to live longer and healthier lives.