Medicine and health of 21st Century: Not just a high biotech-driven solution

Abstract

Many biotechnological innovations have shaped the contemporary healthcare system (CHS) with significant progress to treat or cure several acute conditions and diseases of known causes (particularly infectious, trauma). Some have been successful while others have created additional health care challenges. For example, a reliance on drugs has not been a panacea to meet the challenges related to multifactorial noncommunicable diseases (NCDs)—the main health burden of the 21st century. In contrast, the advent of omics-based and big data technologies has raised global hope to predict, treat, and/or cure NCDs, effectively fight even the current COVID-19 pandemic, and improve overall healthcare outcomes. Although this digital revolution has introduced extensive changes on all aspects of contemporary society, economy, firms, job market, and healthcare management, it is facing and will face several intrinsic and extrinsic challenges, impacting precision medicine implementation, costs, possible outcomes, and managing expectations. With all of biotechnology’s exciting promises, biological systems’ complexity, unfortunately, continues to be underestimated since it cannot readily be compartmentalized as an independent and segregated set of problems, and therefore is, in a number of situations, not readily mimicable by the current algorithm-building proficiency tools. Although the potential of biotechnology is motivating, we should not lose sight of approaches that may not seem as glamorous but can have large impacts on the healthcare of many and across disparate population groups. A balanced approach of “omics and big data” solution in CHS along with a large scale, simpler, and suitable strategies should be defined with expectations properly managed.

The role of biotechnology in healthcare: A review of global trends

“…The introduction of key biotechnological tools, such as CRISPR-Cas9 and monoclonal antibodies, highlights their diverse applications in addressing medical challenges. As biotechnology continues to evolve, its integration into healthcare promises a future where treatments are tailored to individual needs, diseases are diagnosed with unprecedented precision, and global healthcare reaches new frontiers of innovation and effectiveness (Assidi et al, 2022).…”

Current Healthcare Systems in Light of Hyperendemic NCDs and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Time to Change

“…Assidi et al [24] reported that cost prohibitive treatments tend to serve a small and often privileged sector of society and only improve quality of life for a few. Concomitantly, these treatments contribute to an ever-increasing health disparity among vulnerable populations, such as low-and middle-income populations, poorly educated people, gender-based violence victims, and minority and indigenous peoples, to name a few.…”

“…Lockdown, isolation of confirmed cases, quarantine of suspects, and social distancing have been among the social measures implemented by governments. These actions, together with lifestyle commitments such as using face masks, frequent hand washing, healthy diet, exercise, and adequate sleep, are considered key tools to reduce the spread of the virus and flatten the epidemiological curve (simpler solutions matter) [24]. Without these social and lifestyle measures that were historically marginalized by CHCSs, the COVID-19 pandemic could have been a population-threatening disaster if it had not been for vaccine development and large-scale production [94].…”

The Biological and Molecular Action of Ozone and Its Derivatives: State-of-the-Art, Enhanced Scenarios, and Quality Insights

“…After all, there is increasing awareness of the inter-and intra-individual variability of treatment outcome. In this regard, the "imprecision medicine" is intrinsic to the complexity of human biology systems, even in the field of the current personalized medicine model [46,47].…”