Why is cure better than prevention

Also the Obesity Health Alliance and as such we have helped strengthen the case for stronger legislation on unhealthy foods. See also: Prevention is better than cure. Without safe staffing levels in place, nursing staff are struggling to provide patients with the safe and effective care they would like to, and which patients deserve. The Government announces the Advancing our health: prevention in the Green Paper. The RCN notes that the consultation has been buried in the dying days of the current Government after substantial delays.

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Many countries are seeing a rise in the incidence of Type II diabetes. This has a long asymptomatic period during which it can be detected through blood or urine tests. Diagnosis at this stage makes it easier to prevent complications such as nerve damage, kidney problems and strokes.

There is also evidence that, through changes in diet and weight loss, some diabetics can put their condition into remission. But, given the importance of detecting potentially damaging latent conditions, the survey also sought information from respondents about the frequency with which they underwent a medical check-up. It is encouraging to. However, it is also important to understand what drives the respondents to undergo a regular medical check-up.

The role of the employer can also have a significant influence. Age does influence the likelihood of an individual having a regular health check. This may be due to national health screening programmes targeting those at greatest risk, which is often, though by no means always, the older generation. Furthermore, the older generation is more likely to have developed conditions that require regular screening. That so many people willingly, or with the coercion of their doctor or employer, engage with their health is encouraging but it still leaves around a third of respondents who do not see the need.

Notably, respondents in certain countries are more likely to leave a visit to the doctor until they are ill.

Understanding the reasons for their reluctance can help to overcome these obstacles and encourage them to engage more actively with their health. The answer to overcoming these barriers May lie in technology. A number of technology companies are working on systems and equipment to facilitate health management through convenient monitoring and reporting of health data.

Some are designed to track markers and treatment for specific conditions such as those that track blood pressure and heart rate in order to monitor stroke risk or those tracking the metrics associated with Type II diabetes. The obvious example is cancer: effective treatment of early stage cancers can dramatically improve prognosis.

Screening is also an example of how population-based prevention programmes can deliver for citizens across the social spectrum, regardless of income or health literacy which can otherwise exacerbate inequality of outcome. I realise this is not breaking news. The rest goes on cure and care. As rates of diabetes, heart failure and other chronic conditions continues to rise, and our populations age, it is time that we shifted our thinking to focus on prevention of disease and prevention of disease progression.

As an economist, waiting until people get really sick and need costly interventions seems wasteful; as a citizen, it is frightening. However, I am encouraged by rapid advances in in-vitro diagnostics IVDs. Clinicians can learn a lot from simple blood and urine tests; advances in genomics mean diagnostic information can inform precision medicine; and sensors are unleashing a revolution in remote monitoring.

My concern is that we continue to view these technologies through the wrong lens. Instead of focusing on the value of information they provide and the potential long-term savings, a short-term perspective on costs prevails. This lack of financing stifles investment in diagnostic tools and the research that leads to future innovations. The value of diagnostic information VODI is the topic of a review article by a large number of international researchers and experts.

The group recommends establishing a holistic VODI framework that accounts for the full range of benefits of diagnostic testing for patients, health systems and society. On the basis of this paper, MedTech Europe organised in October a workshop in Brussels, where a group of stakeholders representing patients, health professionals and industry discussed the value of diagnostic information, and broadly supported this value concept.