Why the future of health is digital: Learn more about “systems biology”

Now it is time to follow along for sectors that are known for showing a flat adoption curve like healthcare is. Pharma and health is slow-moving due to regulatory hurdles that make change more difficult. But the time has come: Digital health is here. Companies are collecting patient-insights data, we are on the verge of creating digital twins to enable precision-medicine and individual treatments with less cost and less time to prepare. Diseases that were unstoppable for decades are starting to feel less of an impossible obstacle – The healthcare metaverse is changing our approach to health and life. Innovations could be the only way for humanity to defy all the natural disasters and dangers the following century could bring.

We had science – but not the tools

Currently, Germany is experiencing another blow of COVID. Many politicians state it was not possible to predict this situation beforehand. But they are wrong: Scientists are predicting the future of the pandemic on a regular basis. Behind a prognosis like this hides a field of research that has existed for 100 years but in the past we did not have the right tools to really make use of this scientific approach. We did not have the tools to use data for predicting the future accurately: we couldn’t set up an artificial intelligence or program a machine learning algorithm. But now we have those tools. This is why the field of research called “systems biology” is now gaining importance.

From Sickcare to Healthcare

The big picture is to use enormous sets of data, efficient algorithms and our current knowledge of biology to get a scientific view on the highly complex system called “life”. Then we could better understand what happens in our body as long as we are healthy and what goes wrong when an illness is on the horizon. And with that, today’s medicine – which mainly treats diseases – could change into a more human medicine that manages our health. This transition is what we call “from sickcare to healthcare”.

Ernst Hafen, a genetic scientist at the Zurich Institute for molecular systems biology, states that our understanding of biology today is what our understanding of computer technology was back in times of the Commodore 64. Nobody would have dared to imagine a world where something like a regular smartphone exists 40 years ago.

“In 10 years the world will be a different place – especially in terms of medicine.” – Ernst Hafen

A ground-breaking innovation of systems biology could be what we call a “digital twin”.

A navigation system for your health

The digital twin is a pool of health data equipped with algorithms that will use the data to simulate what will actually happen in the future. You could answer questions like: “What will happen if I change the magnesium concentration in a specific direction – will it be good or bad for me?”.

With the help of a digital twin, it could be possible to design future scenarios in real-time and individually. This will help for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of diseases and could “strengthen the resistance of the entire healthcare system”, writes US researcher.

Overcoming information asymmetry

In areas like healthcare, the patient is always the weak part due to little knowledge of the topic at hand. The doctor on the other side can basically state whatever he believes to be true. The patient has limited options on deciding whether to believe the doctor or not.

One option nowadays is using Google, which is a huge pool of uncategorized and unvalidated data without any direct relation to the patient’s individual problem. It is a place that can cause more confusion than clarification if used incorrectly. Organized data in the form of an individual digital twin that got fed by your own personal health data since you were born (or even before that) is not just going to help doctors making reasonable decisions but it will also create transparency. As a patient, I can see what my digital twin is telling me at any time. This is powerful.

The future of health is digital!

By now, there won’t be a lot of people that doubt that healthcare is changing rapidly due to technology as well. This is one reason why we founded Aescuvest back in 2014.

“We finance innovation with our vision of tomorrow – digital solutions will fundamentally disrupt all areas of healthcare.” – Patrick Pfeffer, Co-Founder & CEO

Our investment focus is Digital Drug, Digital Device and Digital Detection and Diagnosis because we believe these are healthcare’s chances to scale big time in the near future.

If you believe that the future of health is digital as well, make sure to stay up to date on Aescuvest’s investment opportunities. We identify European start-ups with a big potential to solve the future problems of health with digital solutions. Make sure to be part of it!