Abstract

A Platform to Digitize Biology: A Potential Pathway to Exponential Medicine

John T McDevitt, Chair, Department Biomaterials & Biomimetics, New York University College of Dentistry

A major missing link in healthcare today is the absence of the Internet of Biomarkers (IOB); that is, consumer-facing clinical testing capabilities with intuitive and motivating interfaces accessible to individuals, pharmaceutical scientists, and care-providers. While numerous physical silicon-transducers (accelerometers, gyroscopes, GPS) are already integrated into smart phones, one extreme deficiency today is the lack of health-connected biomarker measurements. Indeed, up to 70 percent of current medical decisions are made using diagnostic tests performed in traditional health care settings, using phlebotomists, remote laboratories, and delayed reporting. This inefficient flow of diagnostic information stifles arrival of exponential medicine. Likewise, for patients to actively manage their own wellness, we must surmount this biomarker technology gap.

This talk will feature a description of the Cardiac ScoreCard approach (“Best Scientific Advances Award” by the Science Coalition, “Best of What's New Award” by Popular Science, “AACC Wallace H. Coulter Lectureship Award-2016”) that provides capabilities of assessing early risk as well as monitoring late-stage disease progression for heart attack and heart failure patients. These biomarker-driven tests have the potential to reduce costs radically and decrease wait times for patients in need of regular health monitoring. Expanding capabilities of consumer electronics, big data analytics, and web-aware sensors can create powerful cloud-connected diagnostic instruments for personalized wellness tracking, monitoring and feedback, and behavior modification. In translating information from the IOB fused with the IOT, such information-rich resources have potential to improve in an exponential manner developments related to drug discovery, health policy while at the same time allowing for new options for personalized wellness management.