Early days of course but this is the shape of our future, particularly now that the light of day is shiningg upon many of the industries more egregious practices.
An interesting note here. 30 percent of patients doing their own research get it right. However the actual improvement from a medical professional is twice that or around 70 percent. That must be expected as he will see the local diseases in his day to day practice and have obscure knowledge as well.
The problem though is that 30 percent of the time he misses. That is a terrible number and it loudly tells us that all patients must themselves be engaged in understanding their health. Proper diagnostic teaching needs to be brought down to the public at large.
How Real-Time Diagnostics Could Help reduce Hypochondria
By Molly Fosco
A growing set of researchers and physicians are developing more accurate,
quicker medical diagnostics than ever before, paving the path to a
future where we may soon be able to test our symptoms in real time.
The ability to diagnose disease is becoming faster and more accurate. Will this lead to greater peace of mind?
You feel a horrible stomachache coming on. Are you
imagining it? You didn’t eat anything unusual and you don’t feel sick.
What could be causing the pain, and how can you make it go away? Now
imagine having a medical device that can quickly read your sweat and
tell you whether your symptoms are serious and how to best treat them.
Biopsy
results can take seven to 10 days, and even simple STD tests take at
least 24 hours. Waiting to get a diagnosis can be incredibly stressful.
Now, a growing set of researchers and physicians are developing more
accurate, quicker medical diagnostics than ever before, paving the way
to a future where we may soon be able to test our symptoms in real time
and avoid what we all know as hypochondria.
Scientists
at University College London Hospital (UCLH) are working with Google’s
DeepMind artificial intelligence to design a system that will analyze
brain scans faster than doctors can. The technology has the proven
ability to accelerate head and neck cancer diagnoses.
Genomic Health in California has developed a genetic test called
Oncotype DX that enables oncologists to predict how breast cancer
patients will benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy, avoiding unnecessary
treatment.
Launched in 2014, the test has now been used by nearly 1 million early-stage breast cancer patients in more than 90 countries, giving their physicians the ability to personalize their treatment plans.
Launched in 2014, the test has now been used by nearly 1 million early-stage breast cancer patients in more than 90 countries, giving their physicians the ability to personalize their treatment plans.
If you’re starting to get a cold, or you’re starting to get asthma, it will [intervene] before it becomes chronic.
Antonio Tricoli, Australian National University
In
2018, Kaiser Permanente developed a calculator for health care
professionals that can predict the occurrence of early-onset neonatal
sepsis, a bacterial infection that can develop in newborns. The tool has
already been used more than 750,000 times and has been
shown to reduce antibiotic use in infants by 50 percent. And in June
2018, researchers at the Nanotechnology Research Laboratory of
Australian National University (ANU) announced that they had designed
small optical sensors that they will build into a wearable device,
which will medically diagnose health conditions in real time. The
sensors — 50 times smaller than a human hair — are designed to respond
to changes in the biomolecules from your breath or your sweat, to
identify illnesses and eventually recommend proper treatment.
“Once
the wearable sensor can measure important biomarkers, you [will] see
patterns,” says Antonio Tricoli, leader of the ANU team. “If you’re
starting to get a cold, or you’re starting to get asthma, it will
[intervene] before it becomes chronic.”
Though the WHO
dropped the term ”hypochondria” in 2013, the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders recognizes the medical condition now as
somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder. According to WHO,
between 1 and 5 percent of the global population, or between 77 million
and 385 million people, are estimated to suffer from health anxiety in
some form. The condition most commonly emerges in people between the
ages of 20 and 40.
For those with health anxiety,
searching on their own online about their symptoms isn’t always smart. A
2016 study in the respected journal JAMA found that people who checked
their symptoms online got the right answer the first time just 34
percent of the time. Doctors, on the other hand, were right 72 percent
of the time. Researchers and organizations developing these advanced
diagnostic tools agree that accurate health data coming from a medical
professional can serve to reduce health anxiety.
The
market and the demand for simple and efficient diagnostics has drawn
companies of all shades to the industry — including dubious ones.
Notoriously, Elizabeth Holmes and her biotech startup Theranos developed
a portable device that claimed to diagnose illnesses such as autoimmune
diseases and thyroid conditions, among others, using only the blood
from a finger prick. In 2015, investigations by The Wall Street Journal
revealed that the device did not work as the company alleged, and Holmes
now faces criminal fraud charges in a California federal court.
Still, the odd bad apple hasn’t kept other scientists from innovating.
The
ANU sensors, for instance, will not need a blood sample to operate,
eliminating all invasive procedures. What’s more, they will not require
batteries, wires or lab equipment, making them versatile and accessible.
“The cost for medical diagnostics is very expensive,” says Tricoli.
“But with miniature technology, we can eliminate [some of the cost].”
UCLH
and DeepMind began their partnership in 2016. Two years later, the
project is well on its way to an AI system that can analyze head and
neck scans with accuracy close to that of a clinician, and in a fraction
of the time needed by conventional methods, meaning patients are
getting the most appropriate treatment much faster.
Similarly,
the Oncotype DX test developed by Genomic Health gives oncologists the
ability to diagnose the specific type of breast cancer a patient has and
predict the likelihood they will benefit from chemotherapy. The test
shows whether the breast cancer patient can be treated with hormone
therapy alone, sparing them the adverse effects of chemo.
Predicting
risk in conjunction with providing diagnosis can be useful too. Kaiser
Permanente’s online sepsis risk calculator avoids the use of unnecessary
antibiotics for sepsis in newborns — a condition that is rare now.
“Before the risk calculator, about 5-10 percent of live births would be
treated for sepsis,” says Dr. Michael Kuzniewicz, director of the
perinatal research unit at Kaiser Permanente. Now, antibiotic use has
been halved. This also eliminates the need to wait for a blood culture,
something that can be very disconcerting for new parents, Kuzniewicz
says. “It gives both parents and physicians peace of mind.”
Not
unlike Tricoli, Lexington, Massachusetts-based biotech company
Quanterix is focused on using biomarkers to more accurately diagnose
patients. A technology developed by the company in 2013, called Simoa,
measures biomarkers in blood to predict and detect disease at a much
earlier stage than conventional methods. Simoa is currently being tested
in several therapeutic areas, including oncology, neurology, cardiology
and infectious disease. Quanterix CEO, Kevin Hrusovsky, is proud of his
company’s advancements but is skeptical about how quickly new
diagnostic technology can scale. “Funding is one of the biggest
obstacles,” Hrusovsky says. Quanterix was able to pull off an IPO in
about 10 years, but this is unusual. Interestingly, there is what’s
known in the biotech industry as “the Theranos effect.” Investors are
much more adamant today that bio and healthcare-focused startups prove
the science behind their technology. Quanterix does this by publishing
all of their research in peer-reviewed journals, securing third-party
validation.
But
while Quanterix is diligent in developing their technology, Hrusovsky
remains skeptical about the meaning of “real-time” diagnostics. With
cancer, for example, there are very high occurrences of false positives,
Hrusovsky says. “Sometimes you don’t know right away if the cancer is
lethal. Could ‘real-time’ diagnostics create more false positives?” he
asks.
That’s something many in the industry are thinking
about. Genomic Health, UCLH and DeepMind are tailoring their technology
to ensure that the right treatment plan is part of the diagnostics
process. Tricoli agrees that the efficacy of treatment should be a
priority. “That’s the final aspect in this,” he says. After receiving
treatment, you should “know within weeks if it worked,” he adds.
Once enough of these technologies do work, hypochondriacs may need to find something else to worry about.
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