The End of Illness - Doctor David Agus

Thanks a lot Doctor David Agus for being here with us this morning We are super excited to start this series of Google Hangouts with you Since we don't have much time, let's go straight to the point. Brandi and Doctor Rahman are two of the producers of the healthcare track of Hack for Big Choices and they have few questions for you so let's start! One of the common thing that raise your work is try to transform the power of personalized medicine I think there's some confusion within the medical community and without If you could talk to us about what that exactly means to you and speak to young entrepreneurs who are looking for to develop supportive services for the medical community in this regard What are the necessities and opportunities may help this concepts to develop and gain great traction? It's a great question. The world of personalized medicine is taking off multiple directions and means many things to many people If I treat you based ethnicity, presumably that's personalized medicine. but what really mean is "precise medicine" which is the next step. precision medicine I think there's some confusion sorta within the medical community and and without I'm regarding his term personalized medicine so if you could kind of talk to us about what that exactly means to you and and and and speak to you are young entrepreneurs the future leaders looking to develop supportive services for the medical community in this regard I'm witness says these are opportunities do you believe me help this concept to develop and gain greater traction to great question I mean the where personalized medicine is taken of a multiple directions it means many things to many people I'm you know if I treat you based on your ethnicity presumably that's personalized medicine to but what it really means in Kop recision medicine which is the next step and precision medicine is looking at your makeup the technologies that we have to try to get better treatment tailored to you historic in somewhat reduction straight use what technologies we have like sequence in your DNA sequencing the DNA is cheap 1975 in the months and owning a report it was a hundred fifty million dollars to seek with 1g well today cost pennies to sequence G so it is scaleable Chi technology we can learn something about you as an individual but is one small piece to the puzzle you really important point I want to bring out his chin something called coarse graining which is it concert from physics or photography where you take the lead to the camera you make it really really blurry just see the outline of the human well that's the out at a humid need get finer finer grain it's you all the details well the idea is that reaching Harley in element the coarse-grained element to biology in personalized medicine the climate modelers do it by looking at the shape the clout in Iran to go up twenty thousand feet and measure the wind speed and temperature they just look at the shaper the clap it's all just measuring for example how much I moved during the day with the device that's a coarse-grained element and that may be just as important as me my DNA in correlating to health where particular outcome about health and so we we challenge the entrepreneurs is think differently don't think like everybody else jump on the bandwagon everybody sequencing DNA today think differently in maybe that measuring for example heart rate variability is more important than secrets in your DNA know we relax your heart rate is exactly even bank and that your little bit stressed it up by one or two milliseconds when you're very stressed it's off by a lot more it so their devices now they can look it's green when you're relaxed yellow when you're a little stressed read when you're very stressed it was a good mood ring at the old days but it's got real science behind it and that coarse-grained element can be work or and measuring all your blood actually looking at your DNA so we challenge you to be different and measure it different aspect %uh each of us so that we can actually make health care better my K well when I say thank you again for joining us in taking the time to meet with us today donna i read your book and unless i've seen mayor Charlie Rose interviews and on I really and what message that you're getting across about us you know taking a look at the whole picture of treating a shed and you know there's a couple things you mention your book that I was hoping I could it maybe expand a little bit on for me or I'm one of them was I'm talking about you know Research Group N and citizen scientists um peer to peer review and on my question is do you think that will be getting to a point where patients will be empowered and engage your kinda get some feedback and join and I'm discussed some of these I'm so the research are not we better YUM hum you know missin immediate future treating disease a cure diseases can be with all of us is going to change from the bottom up not the top down and so historically its we docs make decisions are made to feel change and obviously we didn't do that could have a job and so whether it is citizen scientists it be the patient group where the family members a patient's we have to start to do things differently and that requires a couple a substrate changes first rate one is we need to do with price so we need to figure out a way so that the privacy laws don't really black all of us if I told you log into wells Fargo & you know I here bill you wouldn't think twice if I told you got your doctor's office take your health care information is sent it to somebody else people cry foul we need to figure out a better way so that we can all understand what are the risks the benefits sharing data and that really goes to the key component that's missing now which is standard I stayed elements we can all share in learn together if we all use the same language but historically we have it in our field you called a broken leg you call a fractured leg so matter how much hard work you do the databases don't talk indeed on iraq we need to agree on one of the common data on its common language for all issues right now they're six dominate ones in the country somebody has to take a stand and say listen everything going for is gonna be with one said elements and then we can all share withdraw your act into how we do it there needs to be transparency with who we are and what we are what are the biggest problems we face now was hearing healthcare information is it gets corrupted because somebody comes in acts like there a piece with the disease are part of a group in actuality there a sales person trying to sell something and if they take this a said the patient I had this drug in it changed my life then there likely to get your supporters in buying the drug well that's not what this information needs to be use for to the needs to be awaited verify identify use comment data elements all start to speak the same language with real crime see in we're gonna make a difference your other ways other fields have done is to have a broker in the middle so that there's somebody there verifies identities and at the same time is able to ensure privacy by sometimes take not identifiers right means that things about you see your information can be used by the researchers for other citizen scientist to make progress in a disease every patient I have I say listen do you want your information to be part of the QR for your children and grandchildren I have never had somebody see no thank you I totally agree with you that day identify patient data come the more people that are willing to share that bigger changes that we can make and i think thats I'm once we have that system in place we're really going to see transition for Asian Age that Sam and down so many other questions I had for us. I'm I'll nutrition and preventive care so maybe we can catch on to bed on how the environment and I'm in nutrition plays a role in and Prevention house and what we can do to you kindness improve yeah so it big big topic but real an important you know we did a story with Charlie Rose night yes six people who were where it was really a great deal any other two major centres at Harvard and I'll London showing that the closer you live near the airport the higher your risk was a party's this was really well control for socioeconomic factors and very well and so this stress and hearing the planes land all the time raise blood pressure raise heart disease in the British to actually raise death rates and so when you go to your doctor right now it's what's your cholesterol what's your way in the future the doctors who say we should today start to say where you live what's your environment is their stress there just like neds to you what do you eat what's your meal schedule what supplements you take all those going to risk whether he elevated risk for lower-risk your cholesterol value is a relative risk value if your cholesterol values up doesn't mean you're gonna get heart disease it means you're higher likelihood and have rich it's down doesn't mean you're not going to get heart disease major slightly lower risk an average it so all these factors billion and so in the end that was can be true personalized medicine as we take into account your environment your diet the things you do during the day as well as you genetics in your lap you know most I mean diseases heart disease cancer and Alzheimer's their only 50 percent genetic the fifty percent environment you could blame your parents for a half but the other half your rent controls so maybe many seniors economy our heat Miami spec are our nice I'm no question and then to do it in a fashion that regards data every time there's a very well-done study really has been replicated in really make sense we have to say this is validated sites we had to resort to peddle need act on and so what we're doing now unfortunate through the media is retreating everything the same poor study in a great stay wit reading the same with the scene had a press release and at some point we'll have a right to do whatever we want we can smoke we could drink so we can sit on the council day but it somehow we have to do the right thing and we have to say with scientific data hit critical mass we need it act on it and we need to create movements to act i in order to change health care it's what's necessary health care in the United States is each year and a half percent of gross domestic product it is growing it is one of the biggest problems we have in the action we take his all-around healthcare finance we need to start taking action around health care that hasn't happened yet well thank you so much for sharing are all the smokin siphoned gas and II who will be home for a pretty fast pattern over the coming months so we are our project in school haha could be chances because you wanna how meaning correspondent people who are around the world to use their past me each ICAC get back to her not her education in our Design Inc marks room %uh I will have to ask you what is being your RBS Chinese rather have the required to use less your comment and you're not rich renew my biggest choice your BS make run you are you waiting for make has been hard for them to make that that chance we know how important for us you know I been a cancer researcher and doctor for many years and historically the doctors in one domain I'm in the lab minute arrest forty people my laboratory developing new drugs in new technologies I treat patients and so the choice to actually start to be a spokesperson to work with the media wasn't very different thing for somebody in my situation to do it was very still scary many which is the doctors push you aside when you start to work with the media but it really is my obligation to educate you know I started to look and say I can make the changes in the laboratory develop new drugs and treatments that's great but at the same time I don't question the things we know whether it be changing behavior understanding in room really a comprehension of Science that happen done fall impact that I need to and so I made the decision to actually work with the media to do CBS is twice a week or once a week some weeks you know with Charlie Rose the team in CBS's more you try to make a difference and a lot of people look down on it but it to me it's my obligation I have to push in this is a way we can make a big impact on society when cases I have great message so yeah few minutes left I have a brand new room on Yahoo ok anything I think that's lost internet echoes you have a real quick question um wanna be a won the primary topics that where we're looking to address in a in terms over the hackathon no there we're putting forward is the idea ever confronting depression and helping to bring out mental health issues more out of the shadows and into the forefront as far as a a a ideas that day that young people can think about it in terms of developing ideas in the medical the medical spear um can you speak a little bit about it so the effect that depression educ I'm on your your particular patient population um that are necessarily often Associated a without with traditional depression I'm so there to assets under pressure one is I mean you're right it is an enormous drain on society end on the individual and on their family and it's a topic that we need to bring out to the open it's a we can talk about it all we want it's not make much of an impact as if we develop the technology to assess its the hardest part about depression is is that it's a moment in time when I talk to a patient so I say how you feeling alright today even though the last 29 days they were depressed and not contributing like the but to their family and society so if we had while long-term metrics for and technology actually use to quantitative we will be able to improve the feel better and get better ways to treated to prevent it and to deal with it you know I dude pressure right now is he very qualitative think you ask a couple of questions you get answers back when you're depressed your hope he feels differently so there should be ways we can measure that both initial my heart in the long run you know the diabetes world changed when we were able to develop my test the scheme in 90 day average in the sugar makes everybody the day before they go to the doctor to eat the right thing they do the right thing in a blood test looks great but by that 90 day average we transform how we deal with people with diabetes well wouldn't it be neat if we had same thing to measure mental health and I think technology is really good allow us to be quantitative to develop drugs better use them in the right person use behavior modification better and develop ways to actually change the way we think and behave and so we have been focused on that historically if you look at the percentage of Thank you guys for what you are doing we need people like you in the space. We are generating tons of data every day but we never use it. We never can prove what we do and we need you to do it! When John Kennedy said " We are gonna put a man on the moon", people thought he was cazy one year later Neil Armstrong step on the moon, when the average age when Neil Armstrong step on the moon, a missile command was 27 years old, which means those kids where 18 years old when Kennedy made his proclamation I can say whatever I want but is your generation that actually make the difference. We need you on our domain because we are not doing that well right now. You have all my resources and our team to help move field forward. Thank You! Thank you so much, have a great day. Thank you, bye bye Doctor David Agus