Bye Bye Sickness, Hello Health.
In this article, Gary Kelly discusses the implication of new medical science, such as genetic screening for disease
It’s not all that long ago when the word “trolley” had an innocent meaning. As a young child it meant an adventure at the supermarket with your parents. As a young adult it meant getting very drunk with your friends, however today it’s most common usage has a much darker meaning.
When you watch the news, there is generally always a segment on hospital overcrowding. The knock-on effect of overcrowding is we have people on trollies. There are over 500 patients at the moment on trollies in hospitals around Ireland. Trollies means prolonged suffering, unfortunate waiting for treatment, it no longer has an innocent meaning.
It is obvious our health service is not just bursting at the seams but an out-of-date business model. Patients on trollies are what we DO know about; imagine the stuff we don’t know about? But what if the future of the health service is not combating sickness but preventing it? Could we be on the brink of the next stage of medicine or even human evolution?
The concept is fascinating, genetic research is coming to the point where we can pin point genes that can be dispose someone towards cancer or heart disease. We are quickly approaching a time when what were family diseases can be wiped from the blood line. The era of biological-technology will prevent people from getting sick before they get sick.
Perhaps, a future is possible where our hospitals will be solely for the mechanical ailments. In this field too, we are progressing greatly. This week in Austria, they had their first bionic transplant and they didn’t just do one transplant, but three (see here). Three guys got bionic hands and I have to say they look quite convincing; the clever bit is they control these hands with their minds, using nerve endings and muscles taken from their legs; and it doesn’t stop there though, the blind are given sight, major organ transplant operations are common place, let’s not forget plastic surgery.
So is this the new tomorrow? Not combating sickness but preventing it? Maybe then, we will finally, have enough trollies.
