Innovation in healthcare is mostly disturbed by high costs, doctors who don't understand innovation and a culture where progress is not embraced. This situation also exists for the
Amplichip 450. The technology behind this chip is develloped by
Affymetrics a company which is very succesful in innovation within healthcare. Well what is AmpliChip and why is it so special? The AmpliChip can can predict when a patient might respond badly to a particular drug. This is really important because every year 2 million hospitalizations and 1 million deaths are caused by adverse drug reactions according to the
Pharmacogenomics Journal. The AmpliChip costs $500 per test and isn't covered by insurance, yet. The AmpliChips works by determine how quickly the liver processes a drug. It is that some people have liver enzymes that chew up drugs so quickly they hardly have any effect. On other people the proces is so slow that they have the risk of being poisoned by the accumulation. of the otherwise safe chemical. A few patients can't metabolize certain drugs at all and are left with ineffective treatment and unwanted side effects.
Because a technology now exists that could prevent unnecessary deaths, lawsuits could motivate doctors to take advantage of genetic testing
It is a shame that such innovations are not adopted by insurance companies and doctors. We life in a strange world where even the youngest generation of doctors aren't learning much about state-of-the-art pharmacogenetic tests in medical schools. How will we ever innovate in healthcare if doctors don't understand it?
EXTRA FIELD-5:gezondheidzorg, innovatie, persoonlijke medicatie, affymetrics, AmpliChip, verzekering, toekomst, genetica
