Personalised healthcare technology could cut medical errors, expert survey finds
Financial, technical and regulatory problems are blocking the way
Despite a consensus emerging from industry professionals that personalised healthcare would improve patient safety and save money in the longer term, short-term thinking regarding investment and regulation is holding back progress.
According to a survey carried out by Science|Business and Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet, 80% of respondents believe personalised healthcare will reduce medical errors, 64% believe “improved patient outcomes” would be a major benefit, and 46% think total healthcare spending will be reduced by personalised healthcare approaches in the long-term (15 years), although 58% envisage a short-term rise over the next five years.
‘With the right investment and r&d, personalised healthcare has the potential to be the most significant development in medicine for years,’ said Carl Johan Sundberg, Associate Professor, Karolinska Institutet.
The survey was conducted among a wide range of stakeholders in personalised healthcare across four major EU-markets (Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the UK). The results summarise the opinions of almost 600 academic researchers, healthcare professionals, patient-group representatives, regulators and industry leaders. The study was organised by Danielle Lewensohn, a research assistant and consultant in at the Unit for Bioentrepreneurship, Karolinska Institutet.
But for the technology to be fully implemented and integrated across the healthcare value chain, stakeholders recognised both scientific and structural hurdles that needed to be overcome. In fact, without a ‘basic understanding of human biology and disease mechanisms’, the majority of the stakeholders surveyed fail to see a smooth transformation from the traditional healthcare paradigm to personalised healthcare.
More than 60% agreed that the absence of clear regulatory guidelines is causing a delay in the market authorisation of personalised healthcare products and services, while 45% identified ‘insufficient funding in r&d’ and ‘misalignment between research policy and research conducted’ as very significant barriers. And 80% of respondents believe European-wide co-operation will be necessary for the development and adoption of personalised healthcare.
‘These findings show that personalised healthcare is at an inflection point that will have a profound impact on the effectiveness and cost of future treatments,’ commented Carl Johan Sundberg, associate professor and co-ordinator for science & society at Karolinska Institutet:
‘Personalised healthcare addresses the challenges of the traditional “one-size-fits-all” model when it comes to diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of disease. By combining knowledge about genetics, blood and other biomarkers with lifestyle factors, and through the use of modern information technology, healthcare stakeholders are facing enormous opportunities.
‘However, for personalised healthcare to be successfully developed and adopted, numerous scientific, economical and societal issues must be addressed.’