The Age of Scientific Wellness: Why the Future of Medicine Is Personalized, Predictive, Data-Rich, and in Your Hands

Hood developed the DNA synthesizing technology that made the Human Genome Project possible; Price is the chief science officer of Thorne HealthTech. Both have authored hundreds of scientific papers. In this book, they bring together systems biology and big data to describe the future of health care. Their vision involves eliminating chronic disease, reassessing biological age, analyzing gut microbiomes, and using AI to manage large-scale genomic sequencing. The current system prioritizes fighting symptoms once disease is well-established, but the authors propose optimizing both physical and mental wellness early on and continuously through a patient’s life. A historical review of the U.S. health care system sets the stage for outlining a new paradigm, “4P Medicine”: Predict, Prevent, Personalize, Participate. The current state of research on several conditions (such as immune disorders, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and cancers) is also discusses. While briefly addressing the obstacles to implementing the authors’ proposed changes—privacy, cost, equitable care, and more—there is little discussion of overcoming the challenges to the current system that would make this transformation a reality.