How new technologies can help improve the nation's health
A simple test for the genetic risk of
cardiovascular disease
has been developed which, alongside the current risk assessment by GPs, could prevent 20,000 cases of CVD over 10 years, it is claimed.
Seven million people in the UK live with the disease and it is responsible for one in four deaths. 40 to 55-year-olds are already assessed by their GPs for their risk of developing CVD and sometimes put on statins (which lower cholesterol levels in the blood) – as a prevention. But it is a calculated risk.
Professor Ahmet Fuat led the trial into the new test – called 'the Health Insight Test.' He found that in 13% of cases it significantly changed the risk of CVD.
'So some
patients
, the risk was downgraded. Some patients, around 8%, it was upgraded to high or very high, and the patients then were able to make a better judgment and decision on what they did, ' he said.
This could be by taking statins or modifying their lifestyles.
What they found out most of all from the trial was that the test fitted in well with the way GPs currently work.
However the test, which has been approved by the medical regulator the MHRA, is yet to be taken up by
the NHS
and is only available through a private insurance provider. No figures have been made available as to how much it would cost the NHS.
Genomics are the Oxford based company behind the new test. We asked their CEO Professor Sir Peter Donnelly how likely he thought it was that the NHS would take up his innovation?
'It fits in very well with the Secretary of State's focus on moving from sickness to prevention, on the idea of us being much better at understanding individualised risk and personalising healthcare. So this plays absolutely into that, and it has substantial benefits in terms of preventing disease.'
Prevention is one of the three shifts that will be in the 10 year health plan the government is due to publish shortly and we understand within that, one of the sections will be on personalised medicine, using technologies like genomics.
The issue for the NHS will be ensuring new technologies are able to make their way from the drawing board to the frontline.
Tim Horton, from the think tank the Health Foundation, said the litmus test for the 10 year plan is not simply to champion innovation but to have a more sophisticated approach to making it happen at scale around the NHS.
'It is not just having the technology that gets you the benefits but implementing it and using it effectively in the real world,' Mr Horton said.
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