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Precision Medicine

Early diagnosis can improve your chances of survival massively, and is also a big opportunity to new technology to help as shown in the Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE entries. When visiting a GP it can be hard (maybe impossible) for them to determine whether you have a bacterial or a viral infection. Some ailments (e.g. pneumonia, diarrhoea) can be caused by both.

Hopefully one day (and not some distant time in the future) you will be able to be quickly scanned for a wide variety of diseases and infections - many more than could realistically be considered by a doctor considering general symptoms such as fever, nausea and pain - of course they have to assume its the most common ailments first so could be months before all the other possible causes are tested for and discounted.

Of course, even when the tests are available, it's still a matter of cost. However with new technologies prices could be slashed, permitting regular, wide sweeping tests. Imagine if every time you visited a GP, while you were waiting for your appointment, a point-of-care diagnostic instrument was able to run a hundred tests from a small blood sample - checking whether there were any serious ailments that needed to be dealt with. Catching a disease early inevitably makes the treatment significantly cheaper and, more importantly, more successful for the patient.

Resources

Click on resource name for more details.

Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE

Prize given to development of a Tricorder device that diagnoses 13 health conditions and captures vital signs

Nokia Sensing Xchallenge

Prize given to sensing technology developed for any of the principal medical sensing domains

Emulate

Company creating living platforms that emulate the complexities of human biology

Metabolon

Global leader in metabolomics for precision medicine, biomarker discovery, and advancing microbiome research

2bPrecise

2bPrecise brings the power and promise of genomics and precision medicine directly into the clinical workflow

XPRIZE

Non-profit organization that designs and hosts public competitions intended to encourage technological development

Scanadu Scout Medical Tricorder indiegogo project

Health-scanning device that collects health data and send it to mobile app

Mologic

UK-based developer of point-of-care diagnostic devices

Abingdon Health

Manufacturer and developer of lateral flow immunoassay rapid diagnostic test and reader solutions

Perfectus Biomed

U.K.-based biotechnology company providing microbiological services

More Precision Medicine resources

Precision Medicine Blog Posts

Review of longevity technology in Passengers (movie)
03-Jan-2017

Review of longevity technology in Passengers (movie)

Has a clever Autodoc chamber to diagnosis treat disease - would be surprising if it couldn't reverse ageing too by then

Warts precision medicine got to do with it?
04-Aug-2015

Warts precision medicine got to do with it?

Skin growth as an example of where early diagnosis could save money, and put patients' minds at rest

Medical technology meets Moore's Law equals in vivo diagnostics
18-Feb-2015

Medical technology meets Moore's Law equals in vivo diagnostics

In the 2040s we could all have swarms of sensors monitoring every part of our bodies

Six of the best from Ray's newsletter
18-Jun-2013

Six of the best from Ray's newsletter

Including nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery, nanofiber sensors, and personalized nerve cells

Scanadu Scout Medical Tricorder indiegogo project
31-May-2013

Scanadu Scout Medical Tricorder indiegogo project

Star Trek style device to measure heart rate, body temperature, oxymetry, respiratory rate, blood pressure, ECG and stress

Recent News

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Advancements could enable early detection of various cancers via membrane proteins in urine

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Real time ELISA brought an entire lab onto a tiny chip

Stanford University - 21-Dec-2020

Provides quick and accurate blood profile of any protein & improves patient care

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Data from individual cells holds the key to a longer & healthier life

Science Business - 17-Dec-2020

Aim to intervene in ageing-related diseases before they cause harm. Sounds like curing ageing!

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A blood test that can detect 50 types of cancer

BBC - 27-Nov-2020

NHS to offer this test to 165,000 people next year for detecting cancers early

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Changes in retina could help identify Alzheimer's

Cedars-Sinai - 17-Nov-2020

Identifying early changes will help diagnose patients early and treat better

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