I spent last week in Palm Springs at a resource investment conference. Despite the fact that junior gold miners are the best performing sector this year, the attendance was thin.
This gave me plenty of time to talk to rich old guys from Vancouver, and it lead to some startling discoveries…
At one point, I found myself talking to a gentleman with enough money to send an expert around the world to find a cure for his health.
You see, years of long workdays and chicken fried steak finally caught up to him one day in the form of a massive heart attack. A quadruple bypass and some new ideas about exercise have since changed his life.
But that was just the start. This guy didn’t just want to live — he wanted his old self back.
He told me he was signed up for a study that would blast stem cells created from bone marrow into his heart with a catheter.
Preliminary studies have indicated that this treatment would reverse the damage done to the heart muscle within six months. The phase two trial was finished in December, and if the data still looks good, it will move on to phase three this year.
I found this to be pretty amazing. And given what I know about the rapid growth of technology and computing power, I believe the speed of new medical fixes is about to go into overdrive.
Here are seven of the most dynamic heath trends of the next three years, and they’re all based on one philosophy: Do nothing and benefit.
Move Over, Dr. House: Artificial intelligence is here. It won’t be too long before you have more intelligent computing power in your phone than in your brain.
As I write this, supercomputers are being used to diagnose diseases. They can run millions of scenarios, sort the trillions of data points in your personal genome (the toxicity of the paint in your house, what you eat for breakfast, what your grandma died of), and then help a doctor pinpoint what is making you sick.
Robotic Limbs: Look for new systems that allow you to control pain remotely or move cyborg hands, feet, or even outside systems.
Organ Fax: Organovo, a California-based company, has printed a human liver that will test drug toxicity. This isn’t an organ for transplants as of yet, but it is getting closer.
Plus, when you test drugs using an individual’s DNA on an individual’s petri-dish liver (or cancer sample), the improvement in workable drugs becomes an actual reality.
And soon enough, if you need a new organ, you can have them fax you one.
The Blind Will See: My 75-year-old father just had eye surgery where they sucked the fluid out of his eyeball — getting rid of all the “floaters” and little bits of stuff that marred his vision — and put in a new artificial lens. Now, he can see distance without glasses and drive even at night.
For the record, I’ve never seen him without glasses in my life… and I’m not a young man. That’s what is happening now. In the future, already tested microchip implants will help people regain sight.
Stroke Me, Stroke Me: Brains will be fixed. If you have Alzheimer’s, are punchy from a boxing career, or had a stroke, there is hope. A microchip with a matrix of fiber-optic wires will bridge damaged areas, stimulate nerve centers, and enhance your life.
5K Charities Go Out of Business: There will be no more birth defects. It now costs less than $1,000 to map your specific DNA, so doctors will soon know before birth — for good or ill — what problems a baby will have. They will fix the ones they can and reduce the risks of others.
The future is a place where medication is DNA-specific. Designer babies are already here. They will get bigger, faster, and stronger.
What’s Wrong With Me, Doc?: There will be new patient-physician interaction technologies. The last time I went to my doctor, I waited in the lounge for an hour and talked to him for maybe seven minutes. In this time, he evaluated my records, looked over my vitals, and came up with an effective treatment.
In the future, the first two tasks will be done before I go to his office. It will also be more effective, and we will have better, long-term data via our phones. One company is working on a temporary tattoo that will effortlessly record your biometric data for two weeks.
Over at Technology and Opportunity, we are finding companies that lead the industry in these technologies. The current market sell-off has allowed us to buy cheap and lock in some solid profit opportunities.
Good hunting,
Christian DeHaemer
Check us out on YouTube!Christian is the founder of Bull and Bust Report and an editor at Energy and Capital. For more on Christian, see his editor’s page.
