Trend: Not your health, my health

A trend indicates a direction of change in values and needs which is driven by forces and manifests itself already in various ways within certain groups in society.

Doctors have always tried to tailor the best treatment for their patients. Big data, new technologies and people-centred approaches in healthcare are promising new predictive, diagnostic and therapeutic approaches that are becoming even more personalised. Personalised medicine allows patient stratification (i.e. division into subgroups), which facilitates tailoring the right therapeutic strategy for the right person, at the right time.

Also termed precision medicine, it builds on information about how genes are expressed, a specific person’s heritage and lifestyle and their specific medical profile. Personalised medicine addresses the challenge of medicines that are not effective in treating many patients. Gene sequencing can identify a person’s individual disease risk and be used to plan a more personal treatment plan. Applied even earlier, it can find genetic markers that determine predisposition to disease and encourage screening, helping to deliver timely and targeted prevention. Applied late, the specific molecular profile of a cancer can be mapped - ensuring an effective treatment plan is undertaken.

Nanomedicines use nanoscale materials to deliver a drug to a specific site of a disease. They hold great promise for implementing personalised medicine, as they might specifically target diseased tissue: certain nanomedicines only release the drug upon stimulation (temperature, pH, hormones) and for specific conditions in a body.
Personalised medicine addresses rising healthcare costs due to increasing numbers of chronic diseases and an ageing population. It is of relevance to all, but special importance to rare disease patients and patients of cancers with low survival rates. As many national health insurance systems are decreasing their coverage of some treatments, it will be important that systems are adjusted to allow for personalised medicine treatments.

This Trend is part of the Megatrend  Shifting health challenges

Manifestations

Developments happening in certain groups in society that indicate examples of change related to the trend.

Custom medical devices

One of the growing trends in the medical device industry is custom-made medical devices (CMMDs). These are prescription products made under the responsibility of a doctor, with specific design characteristics. They are intended for use by a single patient, exclusively to meet their individual needs. Examples include: hard prostheses to replace body parts; a facial prosthesis; a dental crown or other implants specifically designed; realistic functional prototypes (i.e. new product designs), or other advanced medical tools.

A range of technologies make these products possible, including additive manufacturing (3D printing) which is radically changing the way in which products are produced. (CMMDs do not include patient-matched medical devices, ‘adaptable’ medical devices, or other mass-produced medical devices).

Signals of change: EP, C|Net, EC

Personalised diets: we are what we eat

Our diets will change in the future. Advances in nutrigenomics (which connects the human genome to nutrition and health), is leading to more personalised diets based on individual profiles, taste and health needs. What we eat affects our gene expression, and vice versa, i.e. our genetic profile influences how our body responds to what we eat. Personalised nutrition looks at the complex interaction between nutrients and genes and aims to create tailored diets that complement a person's unique genetic profile and health needs. Not only will this optimise the health of the individual, but it could also contribute to preventing obesity and diabetes and other increasing health challenges.

The sustainability of the planet is another driver leading to changing nutrition habits. Many are choosing to reduce their meat and dairy consumption, or are becoming vegetarian due to the unsustainable impact meat production has on our planet. Lab grown or cultured beef and chicken for e.g. are coming on to the market. These are products obtained by culturing and harvesting animal muscle cells that are placed in a large bioreactor to grow, i.e. without the loss of a forest or animal and with significantly less CO₂ emissions.  

Signals of change: Food Navigator, The Irish Times, Good Meat, The Guardian, Businesswire

Targeted health promotion

Health promotion campaigns encourage and enable populations to take control of their own health and improve it themselves by adopting a healthy lifestyle. Health promotion means giving people encouragement, information and resources. It improves access to knowledge, skills and capabilities and can involve changing social and environmental conditions and systems that affect health. Health promotion has been instrumental in combatting COVID-19.

Targeted prevention strategies focus on people with the highest risk of functional decline and those with specific age-related diseases. Many share common risk factors - such as socioeconomic status, low education level, physical inactivity, smoking, harmful drinking, hypertension, isolation or depression. Thus tackling these (predictive) risk factors is promising for a healthier future and offers opportunities for healthy ageing. Campaigns to promote sport, a healthy diet, or stronger social intervention offer preventative care and are on the rise. They are increasingly needed to counteract rising chronic disease burdens in rising and ageing populations. Different strategies work at different stages of life, but compliance increases when there is a sense of urgency. Digitalisation (data and technology) offers opportunities for future health promotion. Participatory mechanisms are increasing and citizens are becoming more engaged with their own health management.

Signals of change: WHO, EC, SAPEA, EC

Interesting questions

What might this trend imply, what should we be aware of, what could we study in more depth? Some ideas:

• What if all health decisions, namely on prevention and lifestyles, become about individual choices; in other words, targeted health promotions become used to drop all the responsibility on the individual. Is it fair to expect an individual to shoulder the responsibility for his or her own future health?

• What if increasing allergies are accelerated alongside alternative high protein diets which are recommended

• What if there are unexpected long term consequences for child development (from alternative diets)?

• What if only rich people can afford medicine to live?

• What if healthcare costs increase faster than the systems can handle? What if increasing allergies are accelerated alongside alternative high protein diets which are recommended

• Where will most tech-driven innovations originate and who will fund and profit from them?

• How do we ensure honest, nutritionally sound (protein) benefit if we encourage people to eat more lab grown chicken, pork and beef and give food companies even more control over health.

• How can we drive social change, to change healthcare models into more preventative systems?

• What if all health decisions, namely on prevention and lifestyles, become about individual choices; in other words, targeted health promotions being used to drop all the responsibility on the individual.