Quantum leap innovation from the doctor's point of view
Digitalization fundamentally changes the position of the physician in relation to the patient. The following is an example from the area of the future individualized provision of personalized medicine.
The physician will make a considerable contribution to the use of personalized medicine through extended diagnostics. Diagnostic markers are used purely for disease diagnosis. Predictive markers are used to predict the course of a disease or the response of a therapy. Finally, prognostic markers also permit such prognoses, but in a patient group with a similar clinical picture. If biomarkers are combined with vital parameters determined by the patient himself, completely new and innovative therapy possibilities should arise for the physician by determining an optimal individualized dosage of orally effective drugs. By using 3-dimensional (D) individual tablets, the dosage could for the first time be optimally adapted to the patient and his course of disease. This is currently only possible with infusions or individualised injectable therapeutics.
Furthermore, it is also possible to prescribe drugs that only have a short shelf life (e.g. angina pectoris preparations containing nitroglycerine).
In the future, the individual dosage can possibly be determined by the physician using algorithms and is on the prescription for the patient. Thus, digitization at the interface between physician and patient through data collection and data analysis will make a further contribution to personalized medicine.
The patient therefore comes to the pharmacy as usual with a prescription for a prescription drug. The pharmacist produces the 3D tablets in the exact dosage and quantity required and is thus responsible for decentralised production, packaging and distribution.
Initially, the patient's feedback to the doctor regarding the effectiveness of the 3D tablets in practice will certainly be of great interest for optimizing the dose. In any case, the quantum leap innovation of 3D tablet printing will be a decisive step for the physician in optimizing personalized therapy and medicine. Even if the mass-produced traditional tablets, which can be manufactured in large volumes, will still be needed in the future, a new important field for individualized orally effective medicine is emerging.
As a physician, how do you rate this assessment of the quantum leap potential of the 3D tablet?
Note: the entire article represents the opinion of the author and not that of any of his previous or current employers, and this publication is not supported by them in any way.
Interested in more blogs about 3D printing?
In the previous episode, a quantum leap innovation was explained from a patient's perspective.
In the next episode the quantum leap innovation from the point of view of the health insurer is explained.
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