Discovering Precision Health
Predict, Prevent, and Cure to Advance Health and Well-Being
1. Edition March 2020
288 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Today we are on the brink of a much-needed transformative moment for health care.
The U.S. health care system is designed to be reactive instead of preventive. The result is diagnoses that are too late and outcomes that are far worse than our level of spending should deliver. In recent years, U.S. life expectancy has been declining.
Fundamental to realizing better health, and a more effective health care system, is advancing the disruptive thinking that has spawned innovation in Silicon Valley and throughout the world. That's exactly what Stanford Medicine has done by proposing a new vision for health and health care. In Discovering Precision Health, Lloyd Minor and Matthew Rees describe a holistic approach that will set health care on the right track: keep people healthy by preventing disease before it starts and personalize the treatment of individuals precisely, based on their specific profile.
With descriptions of the pioneering work undertaken at Stanford Medicine, complemented by fascinating case studies of innovations from entities including the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, GRAIL, and Impossible Foods, Minor and Rees present a dynamic vision for the future of individual health and health care. You ll see how tools from smartphone technology to genome sequencing to routine blood tests are helping avert illness and promote health. And you'll learn about the promising progress already underway in bringing greater precision to the process of predicting, preventing, and treating a range of conditions, including allergies, mental illness, preterm birth, cancer, stroke, and autism.
The book highlights how biomedical advances are dramatically improving our ability to treat and cure complex diseases, while emphasizing the need to devote more attention to social, behavioral, and environmental factors that are often the primary determinants of health.
The authors explore thought-provoking topics including:
* The unlikely role of Google Glass in treating autism
* How gene editing can advance precision in treating disease
* What medicine can learn from aviation
Discovering Precision Health showcases entirely new ways of thinking about health and health care and can help empower us to lead healthier lives.
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction The Power of Precision Health 1
Chapter 1 The State of U.S. Health and Health Care Delivery 15
Chapter 2 There's More to "Health" Than Health Care 33
Chapter 3 The Innovation and Disruption Powering Progress in Health 43
Chapter 4 Fundamental, Discovery-Focused Research: The Foundation of Biomedical Breakthroughs 111
Chapter 5 Peering into the Future: Leveraging The Powers of Prediction to Help Prevent Illness 147
Chapter 6 Prevention as a Pathway to Health and Wellness 177
Chapter 7 Curing Disease with More Precise Medical Therapies 207
Conclusion Achieving Precision Health: The Opportunities--and Challenges--Ahead 237
Notes 243
Index 259
"If you're only going to read one book about the future of individual health and health care, this book is it. Lloyd Minor showcases how technology and biomedical innovation are bringing greater precision to predicting, preventing, and curing disease." - Ann Lamont, venture capitalist and health care investor
"Stanford Medicine's leadership in the movement toward Precision Health is one of the university's most promising contributions. In Discovering Precision Health, Lloyd Minor masterfully shows how this vision is already transforming health care, creating a new paradigm for health and well-being." - Marc Tessier-Lavigne, President, Stanford University
"Much has been written about the need to have a health care system more focused on preventing disease, as well as the need to leverage recent technological advances in consumer-focused devices, digital technologies, data science, and artificial intelligence. What sets this book apart is its breadth and depth." - Health Affairs
"This is an outstanding contribution to the world of medicine detailing an exciting way forward to change the thinking from medical care to maintaining health. It is provocative reading for all." - Doody's Review Service
MATTHEW REES is the president of Geonomica, an editorial consulting firm in McLean, Virginia, and a senior fellow at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. He has worked as a speechwriter at the White House and a journalist for the Wall Street Journal and the Economist.
