Affiliation:
1. Center of Excellence in Genomic Medicine Research, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
2. Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Helsinki, Universitetsgatan 2, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
3. Forensic Science Institute, Radford University, Radford, 24142 VA, USA
Abstract
Despite the significant achievements of current healthcare systems (CHCSs) in curing or treating several acute conditions, there has been far less success coping with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), which have complex roots and nonconventional transmission vectors. Owing to the impact of the invisible hyperendemic NCDs and the COVID-19 pandemic, the limitations of CHCSs have been exposed. In contrast, the advent of omics-based technologies and big data science has raised global hope of curing or treating NCDs and improving overall healthcare outcomes. However, challenges related to their use and effectiveness must be addressed. Additionally, while such advancements intend to improve quality of life, they can also contribute the ever-increasing health disparity among vulnerable populations, such as low/middle-income populations, poorly educated people, gender-based violence victims, and minority and indigenous peoples, to name a few. Among five health determinants, the contribution of medical care to individual health does not exceed 11%. Therefore, it is time to implement a new well-being-oriented system complementary or parallel to CHCSs that incorporates all five health determinants to tackle NCDs and unforeseen diseases of the future, as well as to promote cost-effective, accessible, and sustainable healthy lifestyle choices that can reduce the current level of healthcare inequity.
Subject
Health Information Management,Health Informatics,Health Policy,Leadership and Management
Reference115 articles.
1. The Flexner report―100 years later;Duffy;Yale J. Biol. Med.,2011
2. Medical education in the United States and Canada;Flexner;Bull. World Health Organ.,2002
3. Nightingale, F. (1863). Notes on Hospitals, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green.
4. Summary report of the experiments conducted at Pouilly-le-Fort, near Melun, on the anthrax vaccination, 1881;Pasteur;Yale J. Biol. Med.,2002
5. First cure for diphtheria by antitoxin as early as 1891;Oedingen;Ann. Sci.,1997