Seven Big Ideas From Spotlight Health

A few of us from Health Affairs were lucky enough to attend Spotlight Health at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado. Besides seeing Elmo, what were some of the most interesting takeaways?

Here are just seven of the ideas that surprised us, impressed us, and even made us reexamine what we thought we already knew.

1. From What Science Tells Us About Beating Addiction

Predisposition to addiction is 50 percent hereditary, that is, determined by our genetics. Addiction is more influenced by genetics than many other conditions we tend to think of as running in our family, like high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

2. From Biology and Electronics Come Together

The next frontier in medicine is making drugs using the body’s own nervous system. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is launching an initiative called SPARC: Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions. The NIH has dedicated $248 million in funding and will make awards focused on defining the micro-anatomy of the nervous system.

3. From Breakthroughs in Cancer

We could eradicate up to one quarter of the world’s cancers by curing some infectious diseases. In some countries the rate could be much higher, up to 60 percent. We don’t often think of cancer as being caused by a disease, but Hepatitis B and the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) are just two examples that can cause cancers.

4. From How Precision Medicine is Changing the Future

The way we think about cancers is becoming obsolete. We have traditionally used an anatomical taxonomy to classify cancers: breast cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, etc. But often where cancers are located tells us little. In fact, a patient with lung cancer may have more in common with a pancreatic cancer patient than with another lung cancer patient.

5. From Be Prepared: Infectious Diseases Are Here to Stay

“There always have been, there are now, and there always will be emerging infections,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “That’s just the nature of our world.” The true challenge is how we respond to these diseases, how we allocate resources, build infrastructure, and improve access to prevent these inevitable diseases from becoming outbreaks.

6. From Unrest in Baltimore and Beyond

Social unrest, violence, and poverty are public health problems that can, in part, be addressed with public health solutions. That includes identifying root causes such as addiction, mental illness, poor housing conditions, and lack of access to care. It also requires coordination across many different public and social services to make sure fewer individuals fall through the cracks.

7. From A Decade After Katrina

When cities rely primarily on emergency rooms and a big central public hospital system to care for their most vulnerable residents, it leaves them at risk for potentially catastrophic failure in the event of a disaster. After Katrina, New Orleans rebuilt its health care system from scratch on a foundation of improved access to quality primary care. Ten years ago, the city had essentially no neighborhood-based care; today a network of 24 different organizations work cooperatively to provide care and improve health at 60 sites across the city.