Making Medicine more Predictive

A new technology is being developed that could eventually make sick days vanish, and allow diseases like cancer and diabetes to be diagnosed before symptoms arise. This scenario could become reality with the research work being pursued by institute scientists toward a futuristic piece of equipment designed to transform medicine. This technology, called Doc-in-a-Box, will be analogous to having a personal doctor in every house—except that conventional doctors do not make house calls before you get sick.

The Doc-in-a-Box technology is envisioned to become a commonplace feature in medicine. The implementation of a daily-use health monitoring system would give doctors a powerful new instrument for diagnosing and treating disease. By following the day-to-day fluctuations in blood-borne molecules, the technology will rely on detecting predictive biosignatures of disease that can inform individuals when they are becoming ill. The Doc-in-a-Box detection platform will be able to sense changes in biomarker levels before the person even knows they are ill.

Physicians have shown that early detection is a key to not only prevention, but also the successful treatment and management of many serious health conditions. For example, pre-tumor cells associated with cancer are much easier to eliminate than a solid tumor mass. Early treatment can also reduce the magnitude of damage to the body by the disease, improve drug response and decrease a person’s recovery time.

Not only will early detection improve disease treatment, it also holds promise in dramatically reducing the current financial burden on the healthcare system. In the U.S., one out of every seven dollars is spent on health care. Seventy percent of these health care expenditures result from the management of chronic conditions like heart and pulmonary disease, cancer, diabetes and depression.

Doc-in-the-Box is an ambitious, multidisciplinary project requiring the collaborative expertise of scientists and engineers across many fields: proteomics, immunology, molecular biology, chemistry, computer science, and clinical care. The ultimate realization of this technology has the capacity to revolutionize the interaction between patients and doctors, empowering every individual to successfully manage their health as never before.