Global medicine is about to be "Googlised" – the biggest change in the methods of medical care since the development of antibiotics. And it's not just some long-term dream – it's happening now and will explode in two or three years, forcing medical practitioners, hospitals and governments to change their current practices as the industry is opened up to global online currents.
When this looming revolution was explained at the Hayman Leadership Retreat I was staggered and it immediately became the final leg of the Hayman global road map.
The man who introduced Australian business and government leaders at Hayman to the looming "Googlisation" of medicine was John Mattick, who is Professor of Molecular Biology at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland.
Let me summarise what is happening, but for readers who want more detail I have attached two papers by Mattick. The revolution started in 2000 when, after ten years of work and the outlay of several billion dollars, the first human genome sequence was completed. This was accompanied by gala press conferences on both sides of the Atlantic, attended by US President Bill Clinton and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Today the cost of sequencing a human genome is down to $10,000.
So at the moment I can have my genome sequenced for $10,000, although it costs another $10,000 to have the material analysed. Most of the work is done in the US, but at Mattick’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience a human genome is sequenced every week. Mattick says the cost of sequencing a human genome is expected to drop to $1,000 within the next year, and fall to $100 in the near future.
Once the system has my genetic analysis it can be compared to 'normal' DNA to determine vulnerability to various medical problems, including heart complaints and cancer. At this stage the number of medical vulnerabilities is limited but in a year or two knowledge of vulnerability will be greatly expanded. And if I have a complaint the analysts will show what treatment is best for my genetic pattern. Again, the number of problems where answers are currently available is limited but is expanding rapidly.
The information is available internationally and interpretation and treatment prescriptions can also be international if the Australian medical industry holds back. Right now, Australians who want genetic analysis are obtaining the information overseas at lower cost.
Obviously complete medical treatment is not as simple as this and relying on this one diagnostic/treatment availability would be high risk, especially at this early stage. And so I want to emphasise that 'googlisation' is not going to suddenly change everything and no doubt wrong conclusions will be reached, again especially in the early years.
Nevertheless this is an enormous change which is set to transform the role of pathology, specialists, general practitioners etc. Over time it will cut the cost of medicine, although because it will prolong lifespans those cuts will be less dramatic than at first appears likely. It will also create many ethical problems for insurance and employment.
The cost of medicine is a huge section of the national and state budgets in Australia, the US and most developed countries so this change has important financial implications. Australians will go overseas if the local industry does not adapt but there is also an opportunity for Australia to be a world leader.
To read two papers by Institute for Molecular Bioscience professor John Mattick, click here.
This article first appeared on Business Spectator.
For those who are not up-to-date on the science, it is important to realise that we all have "bad genes" - loads of them. However, luckily, most of them are "switched off". Finding out that you have the gene for condition X, does not signify much.
Perhaps those of you who are over 30 years old will have wondered why the media went all quiet after the first human genome was deciphered. Now you know why.