Around the world, advances in innovation are celebrated. Companies like OpenAI, and its ChatGPT product, have been a cause of admiration. Now, in the field of medicine, experts affirm that innovation will improve the capacity of analysis, diagnosis and treatment evaluation of doctors and health professionals.
(Read more: The debt of health entities with hospitals and clinics increased 4.8%)
However, experts also affirm that among the main barriers to health innovation are excessive expectations and the absence of citizen perception about its value. Regarding the first, innovation always comes accompanied by expectations that can overvalue progress. For example, in 2016, an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine stated that machine learning would displace the work of radiologists and anatomical pathologists.
This prediction not only generated significant discontent among these professionals, but it ended up being false and excessive. Currently, the inclusion of artificial intelligence in radiology and in many fields of medicine has a long way to go.
Secondly, innovation in medicine is not valued in the same way as innovation in other industries. This is due, among other things, to the lack of constant demand for truly innovative procedures. This makes the explicit value of health innovation only becomes evident for patients with complex diseases who resort to treatments at the forefront of medicine. An example of this is blood cancer. In Colombia, the prevalence of this type of disease has had a significant increase.
According to data from the National Cancer Institute, cases of lymphoid leukemia increased from 2.3 per 100,000 inhabitants to 3.7 between 2003-2018. Similarly, cases of myeloid leukemia increased from 2.1 per 100 thousand inhabitants in 2003 to 3 in 2018. To care for these patients, it is necessary to develop treatments and medicines that can increase the quality of life of patients at a reasonable cost. , for which innovation is essential.
(Read more: What types of amnesia exist and how you can identify them)
However, given that few people demand this type of treatment, the explicit benefits of health innovation are not evident to the vast majority of citizens.
Another example of how innovation is essential to improve the quality of life of patients is in autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, psiorasis, inflammatory bowel disease, among others. These diseases, which affect 1 in 10 people around the world, cause the body’s immune system to mistakenly attack healthy cells, causing inflammation and significantly limiting people’s quality of life. Among the elements that add difficulty to the management of these diseases is their heterogeneous behavior.
Although disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis may have a known clinical profile, its behavior at the molecular level may be composed of a varied group of diseases that make attacking the root of the problem a process that demands a personalized element of medicine and treatment, since it does not. All people will react in the same way to treatment. This means that for people who suffer from these diseases, Like your family and caregivers, finding the appropriate treatment is a tedious, painful process, with a high cost in time and quality of life.
(Read more: The health effects of parents who still live with children over 30)
Health
(More news: Colsanitas Insurance Company is authorized to sell health policies)
For this reason, pharmaceutical companies have begun to use technology and artificial intelligence to build molecular profiles that can be the basis of treatments for this type of disorder, in order to increase the quality of life of patients and save them costs, monetary, mentally and physically not only to them, but also to their caregivers and family members. However, taking into account that these diseases are not predominant in people, technological advances are not valued in the same way by citizens, this being an important barrier to innovation in this field.
These are just some of the barriers to entry in health innovation, since there are also costs and times in the development and research of medicines, as well as the processes and times required to comply with different regulations around the world. However, work must be done to reduce these barriers and promote innovation in health, not only to improve the quality of life of patients, but also to reduce costs and prepare for a future where there will be a demographic crisis in Colombia and around the world. , which will demand more and more resources from the health system. According to a Dane report, It is expected that by 2050, 25% of the population will be older adultsin other words, around 15 million people.
Today, this number is around 8 million, or 14% of citizens. Therefore, It is imperative to advance in health innovation issuesnot only to be able to serve this population, but to be able to do so in an efficient manner, and thus be able to guarantee a higher quality of life for patients.
Innovation in health, together with professionals in this field, improves diagnosis, treatment, disease control and in turn generates greater productivity for the country, having healthier populations, with a better quality of life and requiring fewer health services.
(Read more: The reasons patients complain most about the health system)
MARÍA JOSÉ SÁNCHEZ
General manager of the biopharmaceutical company AbbVie.
Add Comment