Molecular biology for new, better model for healthcare in Sri Lanka

Faiz MARIKAR

HEALTH CARE: Today we have many tools to help improve material lives - more power, more connectivity, and more control over our human and natural environment than ever before, but we seem to struggle with many of the big issues.

Like big pharmaceutical companies, healthcare system is controlled by a small number of entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka.

In terms of molecular biotechnology, we live in a whirlwind. In 1991 the Genome Data Base (GDB) at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine was selected as the central repository for mapping data from the Human Genome Project, and was funded by the NIH (National Institutes of Health) and DOE (Department of Energy).

Its goals were to promote better data acquisition, map representation and full integration in the collection of genome databases. GenBank is the NIH’s database of all publicly available nucleotide and protein sequences, and it can be accessed freely.

Paradoxically, while we have reached the global limit in terms of availability and use of unlimited genomic data, we find ourselves blessed with powerful new molecular biology.

We as Sri Lankans need to use the glut of these invisible assets to help solve the visible limitations of the other and help tackle the major challenges of the next 50 years.

First, we have growing epidemics, centered on capital Colombo, not just of AIDS/HIV, but of Dengue, Hepatitis C Virus, and measles. Second, access to healthcare is far from universal, and this is not confined to those countries that cannot afford it.

Fact is we as a developing country can afford this technology for better healthcare systems. We do not have to look far from here to find a medical system that provides Sri Lankans with dramatically different levels of coverage and life expectancy.

Tropical diseases have been largely neglected. I don’t criticise the healthcare industry for this - if only every industry were as successful in delivering what its customers want.

But, I do question whether the shortcomings we face in healthcare are actually the sign of an incomplete and immature model? The Government should be involved in this point and form a national policy towards better healthcare by molecular biology techniques.

Today, almost all our healthcare resources are focused on the treatment of post-symptomatic illness. The more sophisticated the economy, the more patients have access to intensive investment to optimise late-stage treatment outcomes.

But, this arises at a time when the treatment options are narrower, costlier, and a successful outcome is less likely. By the method of molecular biology techniques diseases can be predicted before early symptoms, less costly, and outcome is 100 per cent accurate.

It is the forging together of biology, bytes, and broadband that will make a revolution that will not just be heart of healthcare, but of the interlinked development of our overall economy.

As we move further into the 21st century, people will be able to benefit from more personalised lifestyle choices, with molecular biology which they will need to feel knowledgeable and empowered.

(The writer is Senior Lecturer, Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Sri Lanka institute of Information Technology, New Kandy Road, Malabe)