Healthcare Revolution: At-Home Care Is Here To Stay
When is the last time you had food delivered to your door, to avoid the effort of driving to a restaurant, sitting down, ordering, and waiting, wasting that precious time? If you’re anything like the majority of metropolitan Americans, that must have been some time in the very recent past.
Now, in the age of infinite connection, at-home delivery services are storming the streets, bringing anything from groceries to food orders to all kinds of other services right towards your front door. From UberEats to Handy to Postmates, the consumer world is gravitating towards delivery. That’s no surprise. What is surprising, on the other hand, is that the healthcare industry seems to be following along a very very similar trend.
As a matter of fact, the last two years have marked the biotechnology industry with some of the biggest advancements the field has ever seen. From big to small, from Pfizer to 23andme, the bulk of ventures focused on novel commercial applications of biotech have greatly proliferated thanks, in part, to the advent of Big Data analytics and artificial intelligence. Yet, not only are they integrating the most cutting edge technology to the development of their product, they are heavily moving towards at-home services. The fields of diagnosis, treatment, care, and pharmaceuticals appear set for a radical change.
DxTerity, one such company, has seen immense growth within the last two years. Its platform, which allows for at-home genomic monitoring, a way to understand your autoimmune environment from RNA, has revolutionized patient care for those suffering from immune-mediated diseases like Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Arthritis, and even cancer. Their service, which offers an at-home test and seal kit, which can easily be mailed off to the necessary laboratories, renders constant, precise genomic monitoring possible without expensive trips to the hospital, rendering itself available to all those confined to domestic walls, as explained in the video below:
The company follows the lead of other leaders in at-home genetics, like Ancestry.com and 23andme.com, who offer at-home DNA testing kits, that are then mailed and sent to a facility that analyzes the information, and uploads the data to a secure server. DxTerity’s concept works very similarly, but what they send is an at-home testing kit which, instead of DNA, collects RNA, which is then shipped off and analyzed. The amazing thing, here, is that their platform is not focused on personal genetics, but rather on diagnostic markers for autoimmune diseases.
Many other industries, like the pharmaceutical one, also seem quite keen on the at-home care concept. The fresh, secure delivery of pharmaceuticals allows professionals to monitor the prescription process and deliver the appropriate medication right to the front door of all its customers. Some front end innovators, like those giving the TED Talk below, even predict that we will soon be able to 3D print ad-hoc medication in our own homes!
Without a shade of doubt, the industry is set for a dynamic wave of change. Diagnosis and monitoring will be completely renewed, allowing for patients to be monitored, tested and diagnosed in the comfort of their own home, avoiding monstrous medical bills, and the immense strain such procedures might have on an individual.
For many patients, particularly those suffering from diseases that impede movement to some degrees, the removed necessity of heading to a hospital for simple testing and diagnosis is fundamentally important. When integrated with artificial intelligence and machine learning, the chances of the concept completely revolutionizing the industry seem only the greater.
