This week we discussed BioBusiness. It is huge. It covers over 25% of global GDP and 40% of the world’s labour force. Many of us may immediately assume that biobusiness is about selling cures for diseases after some chemical experiments. But it is much more than that. It covers many areas that we didn’t imagine. The area we concentrated on was Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences.
One of the discussions we had which I found interesting was that on how USA spends a large amount on people who are on advanced stages of diseases. This is pretty much a waste of resources as many of these people are near the end of their lives. Singapore on the other hand is actually moving towards prevention, health promotion and wellness care. This does make more sense as many times it has been proven that prevention is better than cure.
Another discussion we had that interested me a lot was about the video by Microsoft and the future of healthcare. It was about making the healthcare system a lot more convenient for people. They had patients who could actually have consultations with doctors through the television. But the question was and is that is it sensible? How much can the doctor be able “check” one through a TV? What happened to the idea of getting one’s blood pressure checked or blood tested? Are some things better off the old way?
Presentations were great. We had a presentation on genetic discrimination. When we hear of something new and different that has benefits we immediately get very excited. But we never stop to think of pros and cons. This presentation helped me gain more insight on such issues.
The presentation on telomerase was like going back in time to a biology lesson. It reminded me of things I had forgotten. If one is able to live forever how would it be? I would not want to live forever. May be I don’t mind. I am not sure. Let’s wait to see if it’s even possible.
Overall I rate the class 10/10 as I learnt a lot.
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