Video / Articles by Patrick Dixon - 24 million requests in year - 10 million visitors - Conference Speech/Event?
The
Future of Medicine and Health Care in the Third Millennium - and videos
How scientists will slow down or stop ageing in humans - Video
Comment by Dr Patrick Dixon on science of ageing, health care, life expectancy, medical advances, pensions, retirement, lifestyles and government policy.
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A revolution is taking
place at every level of society and doctors are struggling to
keep up. Advances in medical knowledge are outstripping the
capacity of a physician's brain, with most knowledge redundant in
less than a decade. New
drugs, new treatments, new technologies, new diseases - this
means new medicine. Old models of care will not survive without
radical change over the next decade.
At the heart of new medicine is the genetic
revolution. Tools available now and already widely used
in animals give today's scientists the power to alter every aspect
of life on earth, with the potential of redesigning
the human race.
Such open doors raise unsolved ethical
dilemmas at a time of moral confusion and uncertainty.
At
the same time, single issue focus groups such as pro-life (anti-abortion)
and animal rights will be increasingly powerful, influencing not
only medical practice but also new investment by drug companies.
Yet the more technology
advances towards a virtual
world, the more touch and emotional health become important.
The lesson of history is that the more affluent we become, the more
stressed and emotionally vulnerable we feel.
Expect the current growth of holistic practice to
continue, with further erosion of respect for treatments developed
using traditional logic / science methodology. Alternative
medicine, based on belief systems as much as objective data, will
gain further ground as a third millennial generation becomes increasingly
sceptical about the benefits of unchecked scientific progress.
There will be more emphasis on such things as pain
relief and less on cure - since increasing numbers will face
many years of old age with chronic problems.
There will be a growing gulf between hundreds of millions
lacking even the barest essentials for survival, and a superclass
spending ever more on exotic care packages designed to ensure ultra-long
active life, whatever the cost.
Future of biotechnology, genetics, health care, pharmaceutical industry Dr Patrick Dixon lecture to biotech venture capital investors about future medicine and health care, gene therapy, biotechnology, and the pharmaceutical industry. Dr Dixon is a physician and trends analyst.
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Chips and genes will combine to produce bionic people
by 2030, with the first digitally enhanced human beings by 2020.
We
are already able to link computer chips to human cells such as nerves
to help those who are paralysed. The next step will be to implant
biochips which control blood sugar levels, helping diabetics. Beyond
that, biochips will be implanted directly onto the surface of the
brain, to restore sight, hearing, movement or enhance memory and
intelligence. Early work has already been completed in animals,
fusing living nerve tissue with the surface of a chip, allowing
nerve impluses to activate a computer pathway, and a computer to
activate brain cells directly.
Computers and genetics are the two great technologies
for the first decades of the next century. Computers change how
we live, but genes can change what we are. Both these technologies
will be used to create designer people, with enhanced characteristics.
At the same time there will be a backlash against making "unnatural"
children and adults.
Other extraordinary possibilities facing tomorrow's
adults will be the ability to transplant
human heads onto new bodies - already achieved in quadraplegic
monkeys and one US scientist ready to start in humans, cloning
for spare parts, humanised
animals as organ factories, "magic
bullets" for cancers, entire drug factories contained in
the cell of a single microbe, viruses built to correct gene defects
in people, new genetically modified
foods such as bananas containing vaccines and other medical
ingredients, continous bio-monitoring of human body functions such
as blood glucose by implanted electrical devices that need no batteries
and last a lifetime.
Doctors will be forced to consult computers for advice
before making any important decisions about treatment, with the
risk of being sued for mismanagement if they don't. These diagnostic
robots will draw on global research to offer expert opinion, which
few doctors will dare to ignore. Medical training will shift from
what people know, to getting accurate data on which robots can make
decisions, and providing "high-touch" emotional support.
Skilled surgeons will always be at a premium, together
with hands-on carers who will be increasingly community based, with
highly specialised qualifications. Remote surgery will
be a regular part of every specialist centre's routine, whether
tele-conferencing advice to surgical teams, or actually controlling
surgical equipment remotely.
The line between doctors and nurses will continue
to blur as nurses are authorised to make more decisions. As a result
nurse training will get longer and top-grade nurses will be more
expensive. At the other end of the scale, we will see the return
of nursing auxillaries: low cost care assistants with vital front-line
roles.
A new generation of smart drugs will change society
by 2015, improving sex lives, intelligence and slowing down the
ageing process.
The
anti-impotence pill Viagra
is the archetypal smart drug, and is a fore-runner of hundreds of
others. Within 14 weeks, two
million men in America alone had taken Viagra, the vast majority
using it purely for recreational
reasons. Drug companies woke up to a vast new market for performance-enhancers,
as people strive for the ultimate in physical perfection and personal
enjoyment. There will be a shift in emphasis by researchers from
treating disease or preventing it, to enhancing normal life.
Every aspect of human life will be targetted with
smart drugs: all designed to improve lives of people who are perfectly
healthy.
A new branch of "designer" medicine will
develop, which is neither treating nor preventing disease, but merely
satisfying an insatiable appetite for human pleasure and achievement.
It will be highly controversial and its practitioners will be shunned
by the rest of the medical profession.
For example, students will be able to add the equivalent
of 20 points to their IQ in exams by using memory enhancing, and
other stimulatory drugs developed for Alzheimers, while drugs will
also be available to let people eat as much as they like without
ever growing fat. Others will slow down the process of ageing beyond
anything we dream possible today.
Smart drugs will raise huge moral dilemmas because
they will be widely used in wealthy nations at a time when millions
are still living in terrible poverty in most of the rest of the
world. And of course, addiction
to a variety of substances will continue to be a major problem,
in the medical profession
as well as the rest of the population.
Human-monkey creatures will be born early in the third
millennium
Gene technology will give today's children the ability
to redesign the human race and all other life on earth, with some
bizarre and disturbing results including the creation of creatures
that are half monkey, half human.
We need a sense of history to understand the future.
When we look back over the last two decades at the acceleration
of genetics, we begin to understand the vast powers that gene technology
will give us beyond 2000.
Using today's technology we already have the power
to create humonkeys, creatures which are half monkey, half human.
Will such an animal have human rights? Could it be prosecuted for
murder? Would it have a soul? These are profound philosophical,
ethical and spiritual issues we will have to face early in the next
millennium.
We can clone
hundreds of identical animals -- and humans
in future. We can produce designer animals to order, many containing
human genes. We have added scorpion poison genes to cabbages to
kill caterpillars and other insecticide genes to potatoes to kill
Colorado Beetle. We have added human genes
to cows, pigs, sheep, fish, rats, rabbits, and bacteria. Using
today's technology we will soon be able to produce human
breast milk from cows.
Every step will be justified with promises of health
benefits or increased food production.
We need this technology, but we also need to regulate
its awesome power. Gene accidents or biological
warfare could unleash killer viruses a thousand times more deadly
than HIV, while genetically
modified fish, if released into the sea, could profoundly affect
life in the oceans.
The lesson of history is that whatever can be done,
will be done, sometime, somewhere, by someone. However regulation
makes abuse less likely. We urgently need a biotech
summit and which every aspect of gene technology is discussed
with the aim of reaching agreement across as many nations as possible
about, for example, the birth of human clones.
Gene researchers have consistently understated the
progress of their work, to avoid alarm and prevent interference
but as recent events have showed, yesterday's science fiction is
today's reality when it comes to biotechnology. More
on the future of medicine.
Are you ready for the future? 500 key expectations
for CEOs, executives, professionals, health care workers and all
those concerned about the future. 200 challenges to management beyond
the millennium. 150 personal challenges. Watch
Dr Patrick Dixon talk about FUTUREWISE.
Futurewise... Planning to change tomorrow
Futurewise... Making choices that will last
Futurewise... Understanding trends in order to be
in control
Futurewise... Thinking ahead at every level, personal
and corporate
Futurewise... Securing of the future for yourself
and your family
Futurewise... Taking of the broad view, plotting for
contingencies
Futurewise... always staying one step ahead
Futurewise... How Futurewise are you?
Futurewise... How Futurewise is your company, hospital
or professional practice?
Video / Articles by Patrick Dixon - 24 million requests in year - 10 million visitors - Conference Speech/Event? 
At
the same time, single issue focus groups such as pro-life (anti-abortion)
and animal rights will be increasingly powerful, influencing not
only medical practice but also new investment by drug companies.
We
are already able to link computer chips to human cells such as nerves
to help those who are paralysed. The next step will be to implant
biochips which control blood sugar levels, helping diabetics. Beyond
that, biochips will be implanted directly onto the surface of the
brain, to restore sight, hearing, movement or enhance memory and
intelligence. Early work has already been completed in animals,
fusing living nerve tissue with the surface of a chip, allowing
nerve impluses to activate a computer pathway, and a computer to
activate brain cells directly.
The
anti-impotence pill 
