Conference Presentation, Lecture, Keynote
Challenges in Healthcare Innovation
- Healthcare spending relative to the economy is projected to double over the next three decades.
- Software will increasingly integrate across diverse healthcare verticals, including data analytics, patient engagement, insurance, and services.
- Major technology companies are advancing specific health initiatives: Apple is prioritizing the Apple Watch as a central health use case, Facebook is exploring social networks for clinical trial recruitment, and Google is making broad investments in healthcare and life sciences.
- A convergence of biology, computer science, and engineering will transition biology from an experimental science to an engineered discipline, creating "intelligent" and programmable living medicines.
- Technological advancements aim to accelerate the translation of innovations from the laboratory bench to the patient bedside and enable the development of entire human biological systems.
- Predictive preclinical testing is expected to improve via new organ-on-chip models and whole-human-system models, allowing for early filtering of ineffective drugs and identification of responders prior to trials.
- Clinical trial processes are anticipated to shift toward high-signal-to-noise environments, reducing time from innovation to approval and enabling precision medicine through therapies delivered to the right patient, at the right time, and at the right dose.
- Prevention is emerging as a viable form of therapy driven by a deeper understanding of disease biology and a shift toward value-based care.
- In the next 10 years, a gene therapy-based solution for sickle cell anemia is anticipated to be solved.
- Regulatory bodies, specifically the FDA, are acting as collaborators with the industry, resulting in a year featuring approvals for the first gene therapy, cell therapy, and digital therapeutic, alongside more generic approvals and digital pills with compliance sensors.
- Payers are demonstrating willingness to fund value-driven transformative drugs and diagnostic advancements.
- Biology is expected to transform multiple industries by adopting characteristics of information technology while simultaneously rethinking IT itself.
- The distribution space faces potential disruption from entities such as Amazon.
- Innovation cycles are accelerating across the sector, with biology becoming integral to every industry.