Predictive Precision Medicine: Your Best Friend and Financial Planning Guide
As health metrics and longevity continue to rise worldwide, we are confronted with a new set of challenges that threaten to disrupt not only individual lives but also the economic stability of communities and nations. Chronic, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular ailments, diabetes, chronic respiratory conditions and cancers are becoming increasingly prevalent, even among the young, and concerningly in children.
These chronic conditions are not only the leading causes of disability and premature death, but they also impose a significant financial burden. The direct costs associated with managing chronic diseases—such as ongoing medical care and treatments—are compounded by the indirect costs incurred from lost productivity and reduced labour capacity, both for the sufferers and their caregivers.
The Epidemiological Challenge in India
In India, the scale of chronic disease is staggering:
Thanks to our genes, we also get NCDs a decade before our Western counterparts—around the age of 50—when a person is at their economic peak. But, the most concerning news of all is that NCDs have doubled in children over the past decade. This number increases not just the overall population with NCDs but also their likelihood of complications, associated loss of income, and treatment costs.
The data forewarns us to not just take charge of our health but also thwart the profound economic repercussions triggered by these diseases. In the absence of an adequate financial mechanism, the treatment and care of NCDs can leave a household employing drastic financial measures to manage the cost of treatment and care, including depleting savings, incurring debts, or liquidating assets—strategies that can lead to long-term financial instability and even poverty.
For financial planners and advisors, understanding these impacts is crucial. It helps integrate health considerations into comprehensive financial planning, providing clients with strategies that account for potential health-related financial risks. Predictive precision medicine, with its focus on preventing diseases before they manifest, offers significant insights that can be used to enhance financial planning. This approach allows for a nuanced understanding of potential health risks, enabling better management of financial resources and more informed decision-making.
Understanding Predictive Precision Medicine
Predictive precision medicine is a visionary approach that rests on the principle of the “five rights”—the right patient receiving the right treatment at the right time, in the right dose, and via the right route. This concept might seem straightforward, but it’s a radical departure from traditional one-size-fits-all medicine. It hinges on understanding each person’s unique health blueprint, incorporating their genetic data, lifestyle choices, and even their living environment into their care plan. This not only helps understand what’s wrong but also why, leading to highly specific and effective steps for prevention and treatment, should the need arise through omics—genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and others—and disease patterns picked up through deep machine learning from large data sets.
The “Five Rights” Principle of Predictive Precision Medicine:
- Right Patient: Formulated for the individual’s unique genetic and molecular blueprint.
- Right Treatment: Targeted therapeutic solutions addressing root pathological mechanisms.
- Right Time: Early preventive deployment before irreversible clinical damage occurs.
- Right Dose: Pharmacogenomic titration preventing toxicities or ineffective under-dosing.
- Right Route: Optimal physiological delivery minimizing systemic side-effects.
How it Works
Managing Heart Diseases: Beyond Broad-Stroke Risk
Take, for instance, the management strategy for heart diseases. Traditional preventative strategies, such as monitoring vital health markers like blood pressure, blood glucose, and cholesterol, or promoting lifestyle changes, do not resonate even among high-risk individuals until symptoms manifest and it is too late. This issue is critical in the context of heart attacks that can occur suddenly due to unseen, silent factors like plaque buildup. Such catastrophic health emergencies not only threaten limb and life but also introduce significant financial burdens unexpectedly.
Historically, risk assessment for heart disease has been a broad stroke, categorising individuals into ‘high’ or ‘low’ risk based on general factors. This method, while helpful, is imprecise—out of a hundred people deemed ‘high risk’, while 80 would develop disease, 20 might face a heart event. In the ‘low risk’ group, only five may suffer a heart attack, but they might not be ready because of being deemed low risk.
Predictive medicine refines this approach, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning are at the heart of this revolution. These technologies delve into health data, discerning risk patterns with a precision unattainable by traditional methods. AI’s capability to analyse complex data—from ECG abnormalities to lifestyle factors—and compare them against large data sets enables a highly personalised risk assessment, helping doctors identify individuals who truly stand at the precipice of fatal heart events, targeting prevention efforts where they’re needed most, and improving compliance.
The Present and Future
While one may believe predictive precision medicine to be a thing of the future, the fact is that many streams of medicine have been passing on its benefits to patients for many years now.
Oncology: Precision Treatment in Breast Cancer
Take, for instance, breast cancer—the most common cancer among women in India accounting for 25% of all cases. While this cancer is becoming more and more common among young women, it is also becoming increasingly treatable, improving survival rates and longevity. Care of women with breast cancer is being improved with precision medicine that helps tailor treatment to the molecular characteristics of individual tumours, including the size and spread of the cancer and the patient’s menopausal status.
One such cancer is HER2-positive breast cancer, wherein the HER2 protein is higher than normal helping cancer cells grow quickly. These cancers tend to grow and spread faster than breast cancers that are HER2-negative, and are much more likely to respond to treatment with drugs that target the HER2 protein. The knowledge that certain tumours are hormone-sensitive has been guiding doctors in choosing targeted drugs for breast cancer for about 30 years now.
The scope of predictive precision medicine extends well beyond cardiac and cancer care. It encompasses all areas of health, including neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Autism; mental health conditions helping choose more effective medicines; management of infectious diseases, and even road mapping the health of a newborn. Genetic indicators can forewarn of future health risks, guiding parents to take measures ranging from lifestyle adjustments to screenings, clinical interventions, and enhanced financial planning.
Significance for Chartered Accountants and Financial Advisors
Integrating Health Analytics into Financial Advisory
For chartered accountants and financial advisors, an understanding of predictive precision medicine is crucial—not only for planning their own finances, but also for advising their clients effectively. As this field advances, the insights gleaned from predictive health analytics can significantly inform financial strategies in several ways:
- Forecasting Health-Related Liabilities: By anticipating potential health crises through predictive analytics, CAs can better forecast and plan for the financial impacts of health-related expenses, incorporating these considerations into comprehensive financial planning.
- Maximizing Preventive Healthcare ROI: By advising clients on the financial benefits of investing in predictive health measures, CAs can help them avoid the high costs associated with late-stage medical treatments, thereby promoting both healthier lifestyles and financial savings.
- Navigating the Healthcare & Insurance Landscape: As predictive precision medicine becomes more integrated into mainstream healthcare, its implications on insurance, healthcare costs, and individual savings will grow, making it an essential area of expertise for financial professionals looking to provide holistic advice.
Understanding these dynamics allows chartered accountants to offer more than just financial guidance; it enables them to advocate for a proactive approach to health and financial well-being that aligns with the evolving landscape of personalised medicine.