The BioBusiness Revolution 1: Healthcare and the Biomedical Sciences: Past, Present, Future
The lesson started off with a video which portrayed how the future medical care and arena could be like. Machines which act like an X-ray machine allowing the doctors to see what is going on in our bodies instantly, a digital clock which reminds you to take your medicine and which medicine to take , a digital wallet etc. These were just few of the many examples showcased in the video. I find these innovations to be very ground-breaking because I believe that it would bring a whole new change to the way we live our lives. Given the current ageing population and the exponential increase in people having health ailments, the digital clock would come in handy for them. Moreover, it will reduce the probability of the elderly not consuming their medicine on time and consuming the wrong dosage. A digital wallet would bring much convenience to us since we would be required to bring out cash in the future anymore. Also, we could just easily browse through the cards that we own on the screen of the digital wallet instead of rummaging through the piles of card we have in our wallet. Hence, payment methods would become quicker and more favourable. However, I feel that the problem of over-reliance will surface over time as people embrace and get used to this technology. Despite that, the innovations in this video were really interesting and I would certainly love to see being implemented in the future!
“We won’t stop being sick until we stop making ourselves sick.” This was a quote from the video showed by Prof Gurinder which I find to be really thought-provoking. There is certainly some truth to this statement made by Bill Maher. Although it would be unfair to put the blame of all the illnesses Man are experiencing now to Man themselves because some of these (e.g. cancer) are caused by gene mutation or inheritance of these recessive genes, most of it are being caused by Man’s unhealthy lifestyle and eating habits. Due to the easy accessibility of food and the greed of Man, they are consuming more than what they actually need. Over the years, the number of obese people has grown exponentially and it will continue to grow. Thus, it is Man’s fault that they are experiencing these health ailments. If they had eaten adequately, they would not have ailments like diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol etc. Controlling eating habits itself would not be useful. They need to exercise at least 3 times a week as well. However, given the fast paced life of today, they are often unwilling to sacrifice some time to do exercise because they feel that time is money and the time spent exercising could have better spend in areas like say a meeting to discuss a proposal. Hence, it all delves down to Man’s willingness to step out of their comfort zone – consuming 2 portions of fruits and vegetables everyday on top of their healthy males and allocating sufficient time to exercise as well. Until they do this, they will always be “making themselves sick.”
Of the 7 readings we were given this week, I found reading 4 to be the most insightful one. It is an article titled “Will Disruptive Innovations Cure Health Care?” The article starts off with the example of a new low-intensity X-ray machine which costs only 10% of the conventional X-ray machine. Amazing? The next question that came to my mind was that if such an innovation exists, why isn’t it being used to benefit Man? I guess it is because of the nature of this innovation – it is a disruptive innovation. As discussed in class, disruption innovation is an innovation that disrupts the market forces. The big companies or the parties involved are unwilling to embrace this new technology because they are afraid that this innovation will threaten their market power and jobs respectively. Instead they set many high barriers of entry to prevent these low-cost alternatives from entering into the market. I felt that it is very selfish of them to do so because they are depriving the people who can’t afford the current technology of a chance of getting treatment. Should such low-cost alternatives be available to the people, maybe more people would have been able to seek treatment and thus they would be treated earlier and in turn recover faster before the problem complicates. Therefore I think that companies should take an altruistic approach towards disruptive innovation and not cater to their self-interests solely.
Also I feel that these disruptive innovations would be able to increase competition among the companies. This would bring about better products as the various companies compete to invent the best innovation to capture the most market share which brings them immense amounts of profit and revenue – ultimately what they are looking for. Hence I feel that everyone should be open to disruptive innovations. We might not like it at first, but as long as it brings us immense benefits…Why not?
Overall, I would rate the session 7.5/10.
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