high speed science
High Speed ScienceFDA approval is slow. Something needs to change.
Example: Working in both research and the practice of a retina specialist, it's taken over 2 years for a phase III trial to get approval for a drug called Lucentis. Lucentis is already FDA approved for the treatment of CNV secondary to age-related macular degeneration, so the thought behind these studies was to evaluate if Ranibizumab(Lucentis) would also work for the treatment of a central retinal vein occlusion (CRUISE study) or a branch retinal vein occlusion (BRAVO study). Finally ending with the HORIZON study. Lucentis may prevent blood and fluid from leaking out of the vessels and into the retina and may potentially help preserve vision in people with retinal vein occlusions. The problem here is that in our clinic we've already been treating patients with Lucentis for occlusions for years, so why is it that FDA approval takes so long, when we know it works? After reading Thomas Goetz's article in Wired, I realized that there can be new models to compete with the gold standard of research: Basically, just get an overabundance of data, then do a google search :) Science advances: the human genome has been unlocked, we can swallow tiny pillcams (developed by a surgeon and GI guy over drinks apparently) and we can weave electronics into medical gowns to wirelessly know a person's health issues and whereabouts... so why not just map every chromosome in everyones body? Goetz summarized Sergey Brin's inescapable Parkinson's battle along with his wife's DNA company to conclude that over a few clicks, a researcher can come to the same conclusions as a 10 year NEJM study.
My thoughts: everyone spit in a cup and get our DNA analyzed, tweet or somehow update your current medical conditions, symptoms, etc. to find correlations. We'll find out about our own propensities for disease and then be able to address our own unique health risks. With science booming, I'm sure DNA analysis will be as common as pregnancy tests soon (they already have HIV tests at Walgreens)The only problems I see: HIPPA... medical ethics of course. But with people tweeting about their cat's pee smelling bad, I'm sure they wouldn't mind updating their status if their own smelled bad too!
