MRI scans combined with genomics and AI will usher a new era in healthcare, this can be best portrayed by the new developing science-based approaches in 2021 to detect diseases and avoid such pandemics. Covid-19 spread in many countries due to the common disbelief about science, sometimes political manipulation of data, inaccurate information on social platforms fuelled at some of the highest levels of governments.
A survey in the United States demonstrated those states which enforced practices such as social distance/ home isolation, sanitization, using masks had the lowest covid-19 positive cases compared to the other states with relaxed measures!
Science coupled with healthcare show impressive results and the idea that sequencing an individual’s genome can give a reasonable indication of the likelihood of developing a particular disease. In 2021, combining genomics with MRI imaging and machine learning will provide a more sophisticated snapshot of an individual’s health. A research published in 2020 at Human Longevity and the J Craig Venter Institute analysed data from thousand individuals by integrating whole-genome sequencing with advanced imaging and the analysis of blood metabolites, they were able to identify adults at risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, chronic liver disease and more. Furthermore, the study confirmed the importance of multimodal testing, rather than relying just on the sequencing of an individual’s genotype. A lack of phenotype and genotype associations were observed in 5.8% of individuals with pathogenic genetic variants, further suggesting that the identification of pathogenic genetic variants by sequencing alone is not sufficient for a definitive diagnosis.
On the contrary the weakness of the world’s response to the pandemic and the unwillingness to use science for predicting vulnerabilities was witnessed widely. Reluctance of various countries to perform widespread testing on people without any Covid symptoms before they become ill was quite surprising which further exacerbated the pandemic. Hence the recent use of the application of a data-driven multimodal testing approach to detect propensities to diseases in people at very early stages would be quite beneficial.
Hence the multimodal test, the preventative medicine along with strong, knowledge-based leadership and trust in science would be a noteworthy leap to fight the pandemic worldwide!
