Sustaining Healthcare Innovation in an Era of Constraint

Rapid progress in molecular biology offers the promise of major gains in the detection, treatment and prevention of diseases and for targeting therapeutic interventions to match the molecular and pharmacogenetic profiles of individual patients (personalized medicine).

Molecular diagnostics, next-generation imaging and miniaturized on body: in-body sensors will assume increasing importance in the healthcare value chain as powerful technology platforms for earlier disease detection, optimum selection of treatment, and for remote, real-time monitoring of treatment compliance and individual health status.

These emerging diagnostic, imaging, and health monitoring platforms will generate data on an unprecedented scale. Academia, industry, regulators, and healthcare systems are ill prepared for the technical, financial, organizational, and cultural implications of large scale computing initiatives in healthcare. Longer term, advances in tissue engineering, synthetic biology, and materials science will catalyze a new era of regenerative medicine and the design of bio-mimetic devices with dynamic physiological traits and self-repair capabilities unmatched by current mechanical systems. Agility in forging new alliances between the hitherto separate sectors of pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, devices, computing, telecommunications, and consumer social media networks will radically reshape the future competitive landscape. Technical innovation has been, and will remain, fundamental to progress in healthcare. However, the anticipated acceleration of new discoveries will also generate complex economic, social, and ethical questions regarding the ‘value’ of innovation, how much new technology society can afford, and how priorities for the allocation of expensive healthcare resources are set.