1st Edition
by Lloyd Minor (Author), Matthew Rees
Today we are on the brink of a much-needed transformative moment for health care.
The
U.S. health care system is designed to be reactive instead of
preventive. The result is diagnoses that are too late and outcomes that
are far worse than our level of spending should deliver. In recent
years, U.S. life expectancy has been declining.
Fundamental to
realizing better health, and a more effective health care system, is
advancing the disruptive thinking that has spawned innovation in Silicon
Valley and throughout the world. That's exactly what Stanford Medicine
has done by proposing a new vision for health and health care. In Discovering Precision Health, Lloyd Minor and Matthew Rees
describe a holistic approach that will set health care on the right
track: keep people healthy by preventing disease before it starts and
personalize the treatment of individuals precisely, based on their
specific profile.
With descriptions of the pioneering work
undertaken at Stanford Medicine, complemented by fascinating case
studies of innovations from entities including the Chan Zuckerberg
Biohub, GRAIL, and Impossible Foods, Minor and Rees present a dynamic
vision for the future of individual health and health care. You'll see
how tools from smartphone technology to genome sequencing to routine
blood tests are helping avert illness and promote health. And you'll
learn about the promising progress already underway in bringing greater
precision to the process of predicting, preventing, and treating a range
of conditions, including allergies, mental illness, preterm birth,
cancer, stroke, and autism.
The book highlights how biomedical
advances are dramatically improving our ability to treat and cure
complex diseases, while emphasizing the need to devote more attention to
social, behavioral, and environmental factors that are often the
primary determinants of health.
The authors explore thought-provoking topics including:
- The unlikely role of Google Glass in treating autism
- How gene editing can advance precision in treating disease
- What medicine can learn from aviation
Discovering Precision Health showcases entirely new ways of thinking about health and health care and can help empower us to lead healthier lives.
