Intelligent medicine represents a new dimension of health care based on the integration of technology, communications and medical products. Like all areas of innovation, this emerging field overlaps with other entrepreneurial initiatives, and the various buzzwords can create a very muddy picture of what should be a clear and exciting vision of the future of health care. In the case of intelligent medicine, the field shares certain goals and characteristics with personalized medicine, targeted therapeutics, consumer-directed health care and mobile health. Others have coined the term “Health 2.0″ as an umbrella under which many of these initiatives (all focused on making therapeutic products and treatment more patient-specific and improving therapeutic outcomes) can find a common home. So why add a new term into the mix?
Most of these other efforts are focused on adding something around a medical product, such as a related biomarker, a linked computer, or a new service. In contrast, intelligent medicine is about embedding the biomarker, computer and service into the medical product itself. We want to make the product smart, not just try to bolt smarts onto a still-dumb product. Think of a standard drug tablet that has embedded within it a tiny, digestible microchip that can communicate specific information about the therapy and your individual response (Is the drug making you better? Is it actually hurting you?)…that’s the idea. Now this isn’t very new in most other industries and products; our cars, phones, toys and even our toasters are all intelligent. But the drugs, medical devices, and hospital tools upon which our health and the well being of our loved ones depend every day? All dumb as a sack of hammers. The technology required to change this, to make existing medical products into intelligent medical products, exists today. Some of it exists at my company, Proteus Biomedical, and I will be shamelessly writing about our efforts on this blog. As with all good ideas, we are not alone, and I will also explore the exciting and inspiring work under way at many other companies, research institutes and online communities. Meanwhile, please enjoy the video on Proteus Intelligent Medicine found in the information box on this page, and let me know what you think.
