Video tutorial: DNAFit’s Andrew Steele on the role of DNA in the future of healthcare solutions
Speaking at the REBA Innovation Day 2018 he said ‘healthy advice’ was constantly shifting and sometimes contradictory with ‘average’ advice often leaving people confused about what to do for the best. He explained the role of genes in terms of how people reacted to anything from their absorption of coffee to their reaction to sprint training.
With preventable chronic diseases likely to be the largest driver of healthcare costs over the next ten years he explained the need to engage people with the correct advice for them not just the average. “There’s a whole spectrum to personalisation through DNA technology from the heavy end such as cancer screens to how you react to certain pharmaceutical drugs to disease risk,” he said.
“We have to move away and reframe that conversation to say we know there’s an average advice and that’s fine IF you are the average. If you are not the average we need to know that too so that we can better deviate and personalise from the average advice to give more effective advice for the individual,” he said.
This video was recorded at the REBA Innovation Day 2018, held in London on 22 November.
