Biobusiness Revolution: Healthcare and biomedical science
There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.
- Albert Einstein -
A great quote by Albert Einstein, shared by Prof! It basically summarises what drives changes-----our mindset. A curious mind encourages us to explore what is seemingly impossible, and this leads to innovation or invention.
An interesting article http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/t030709.html (reading 5) to read. To summarise, it mentions how technology used in the area of healthcare has actually increased life expectancy but also caused the increase in healthcare costs due to the lengthy and expensive R&D process required. However, the rate at which drugs are being produced has not increased and thus, there is a need to improve the efficiency and value of medical technology. A proposed solution is to increase access to generic drugs. However, this solution is debatable because on one hand, it could discourage pharmaceutical firms to spend much effort on R&D knowing that the profit gained will be greatly reduced, but on the other hand, generic drugs which are cheaper but nearly always equally effective as the original can help alleviate many healthcare problems in the less developed countries which are typically faced with widespread disease outbreak. A proposed win-win solution by prof is to provide the developing nations with license to produce the drugs. In other words, give them exemptions from the patent rights owned by the developer. This would definitely be a good solution, however, there may be a concern that the developing countries could export these drugs to other countries to gain profits if the licensing is not well monitored.
An interesting point brought up by prof was that many people spent more money nearing the end of their life just to buy themselves more time. In fact, the article “Cost of Dying” by CBS news found out that in 2009, the Americans spend $50 billion on doctors’ and hospital bills during the last 2 months of patient’s life. This amount is much higher than the amount spent on defence and education. (article adapted from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/19/60minutes/main5711689.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody ). Is this ethical? I think not. After all, it is a known fact that we will die one day. Why bother prolonging the inevitable when we know that our time is nearly up and illness is beyond cure? Money can be better spent on creating new drugs to cure other illnesses as opposed to trying to extend one’s life without him/her being able to enjoy a good quality of life anyway.
It is projected that chronic diseases will be the main cause of death in the future. Perhaps it would be more prudent to spend the money on building infrastructures or developing medicine that can help us deal with this problem in future.
There are many opportunities for biobusiness in the realm of healthcare. An opportunity that I find intriguing is that of herbal and traditional medicine. It seems ironic that we are so modern these days with all the high-tech devices, but when it comes to healthcare, many people still rely on herbal and traditional medicine. For instance, the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has gained much popularity in Singapore, and even around the world despite having a history of over 4000 years. Some have even suggested that the western medicine and TCM can complement each other. Going forward, it is good to see that the world has not disregarded traditional methods especially in the healthcare sector since its effectiveness is probably the reason for its long existence.
On a whole, I would give this lesson a rating of 8/10.
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