Prevention and Wellness vs Precision Medicine
While President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative was important and complementary to other programs, a national focus on Prevention and Wellness could have an even greater impact on both public health and economic growth, in my view.
The Precision Medicine Initiative was launched in 2016 with a $215 million investment. Its purpose was to accelerate the pace of innovation and gain better insights into the biology of diseases that didn’t have a proven means of prevention or effective treatments. The program took into account an individual’s genes, environment, and lifestyle to personalize drug treatment.
This might seem like a gift to the pharmaceutical industry, and in some ways it was. But it had the desired effect of speeding innovation in important areas. With the resulting research shared equally among all drug companies, the program helped reduce, or at least contain, drug prices by encouraging competition.
Prevention and Wellness
Modern Health Talk applauds the government funding of Precision Medicine and sees it as complementing other public health initiatives, because public health officials have known for decades that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This saying comes to us from none other than Benjamin Franklin.
Policies that prioritize prevention, wellness, and overall health are important too, even more so. Besides saving on the need for expensive medicine and medical care in the first place, they can also lead to much greater workforce productivity, increased lifetime earning potential, and better global competitiveness and GDP.
Sleep Wellness as a Pillar of Health
Those benefits, in my view, should be large enough to get the attention of politicians and encourage them to focus on the three pillars of Health: nutrition, exercise & sleep. The challenge is to encourage healthy behavior among a population distracted by other priorities. Take Sleep, for example. The amount and quality of sleep that people get directly affects their health; and insufficient sleep is tied to dramatically higher risks of obesity, diabetes, heart & kidney disease, cancer, stroke, and even Alzheimer’s. That’s why the CDC has labeled sleep deficiency “a public health epidemic.”
But sleep also impacts safety (e.g. automotive & industrial accidents) and performance in school, work and sports. Quality sleep is tied to improved alertness, attention, creativity, decision-making, focus, judgement, learning ability, mood, reaction & recovery times, working memory, and more. To encourage better sleep habits and other healthy behaviors, we need policies for teaching people of all ages about the short- and long-term effects of their lifestyle decisions and put it in terms they can relate to.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Wayne Caswell is a retired IBM technologist, futurist, market strategist, consumer advocate, sleep economist, and founding editor of Modern Health Talk. With international leadership experience developing wireless networks, sensors, and smart home technologies, he’s been an advocate for Big Broadband and fiber-to-the-home while also enjoying success lobbying for consumers. Wayne leans left to support progressive policies but considers himself politically independent. (contact & BIO)
