The World in 2030

40 The World in 2030
(at least, of those patients lucky enough to be living in the
developed world).
In ‘Extreme Future,’ James Canton describes the coming
medical revolution in the following way:
Speculation about disease and treatment will give way
to a more precise, predictive and health-enhancing
type of medicine: Longevity Medicine. Medicine that
has, at its core, an ability to peer into the genomic
map of a specific individual, from birth to death.
Doctors will have an unparalleled diagnostic tool: a
person’s own DNA. The next stage will include engineered
disease prevention, health promotion and life
extension. 75
In addition to such a powerful approach to diagnostics,
gene therapy 76 will harness the power of gene identification
to produce new drugs and treatments many times more
effective than present therapies.
Stem cell research 77 is another exciting new development
that promises to revolutionise medicine. A stem cell is a
basic embryonic human cell which has the ability to grow
into almost any kind of cell. A number of stem cell therapies
already exist, particularly bone marrow transplants 78 that are
used to treat leukaemia. 79 In the future, medical researchers
anticipate being able to use technologies derived from stem
cell research to treat a wider variety of diseases including forms
of cancer, 80 Parkinson’s disease, 81 spinal cord injuries, 82 and
muscle 83 damage, amongst a number of other impairments
and conditions.