Context: New frontiers open up in biotechnology, and the use of health data can further preventive healthcare.
New possibilities in healthcare: Biotechnology and genomic medicine and leveraging millions of data points
Messenger-RNA technology applications: Success of COVID-19 vaccines like Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax vaccine using mRNA technology calls for further applications such as cancer cure.
Renewed interest in the study of viruses: Useful viruses can be developed Eg. Bacteriophages can be used to kill multidrug-resistant bacteria.
Preventive healthcare: Data captured by wearable devices can provide vital inputs to preventive healthcare, particularly in non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.
Way forward
Leverage advantageous position of India: India has the manpower, biodiversity and different agroclimatic conditions for all kinds of interventions in animal, including human and plant biological systems.
Central government shall come up with appropriate and enabling regulation to set ethical standards and norms of propriety.
Revamp healthcare business model: Shift from paying hospitals to treat people if they fall ill to paying healthcare providers to keep people healthy and treat them if they fall ill.
Best placed states to try out such model like Kerala and Tamil Nadu – their levels of literacy and democratic agency are relatively high, and the government machinery works.