I find medicine completely fascinating. I am not an expert in this field. In fact, I know only a little. By profession, I am an investment banker working with healthcare Internet companies to raise capital and to arrange strategic partnerships. For 20 years, I have been involved with the healthcare industry. However, I am not really an insider because I am not a doctor or health professional. I don't practice medicine. On the other hand, I know about the business side of health care about financial performance, business strategy and industry trends.
I have always been stunned by reading or hearing about break-through's in medicine that literally make me stop and stare out into space as I try to comprehend some amazing discovery, as well as the implications for the health care industry and our world. Take for example, just one year ago, after 10 years of research, for the first time biologists figured out the full genetic programming of an animal the roundworm (which is just about 1 millimeter in length). This was a landmark achievement in its own right, and as a milestone toward understanding the human genome.
Just think about this it would take over 2,700 pages of newspaper in ordinary type just to print up the map of the DNA sequence in the round-worm.
The quote reported in the New York Times upon completion of the project from Dr. Bruce Alberts, President of the National Academy of Science, was "In the last 10 years we have come to realize humans are more like worms than we ever imagined." I believe it. He then went on to say, "We always underestimate the complexity of life, even of the simplest processes . . . so this is really only the beginning of unraveling the mystery of life."
Is this really the beginning of unraveling the mystery of life? Will we ever unravel the mystery of life? Should we spend time trying to unravel the mystery of life?
Then enter the age of the microchip, the personal computer and the Internet. The breakthroughs in science and medicine that were happening in labs across the world could go online. As the scientists learned new DNA sequences in the worm, they reported their finding on the Internet as a gift to other scientists to analyze. Biologists around the world working on the human genome project learned that with a touch of the button, they could compare any gene they were working on with the growing information available from the worm project.
So, with the aid of advanced processing computers that can sort and determine patterns in human genes, and rapid communication of this information among scientists with the Internet, the Human Genome Project is only 2 years away from completion. Thus, in 2 years, we will have a map of the human genome. The human genome is the blueprint for a person. Each person's genome is made up of 140,000 genes and in those genes 4 billion units of DNA.
Think of DNA as the letters that spell out the words in the genes. Then think of a typo in some genes and that is what causes many of the diseases we know today.
There are some theories that every aspect of a person's life - physical, mental and emotional is governed by or at least influenced by a gene or some element of a gene. For example, the color of our eyes, our height, intelligence, the way we learn, our predisposition to alcoholism and depression, are all thought to be linked to our genetic make-up.
I find it amazing to appreciate the enormity of the task to decode the human gene, but what does it really mean to crack the code?
As soon as we know the map of the gene, then researchers can focus on identifying interventions for problematic genes. That means that within the next ten years we will have ability to treat or prevent some of the genetic diseases that people suffer and die from today. For example, a certain gene can be stimulated to grow new bypasses around obstructed heart vessels. Alzheimer's disease has been connected to a gene APO-E. People with a certain version of this gene have a much higher risk of developing the disease. Medicine will change more in the next 20 years than it changed in the last 200 years.
Our health care system can transform from treating diseases to preventing them genetically before they even occur. It will be possible at birth with a simple blood test or with amniocentesis before birth to determine a person's lifetime risk of developing certain diseases like heart disease, cancer, alcoholism, obesity and osteoporosis.
Not only will we be able to prevent many diseases, but we also will know the genes that influence the longevity of life. In November, scientists discovered a single gene that is thought to control the lifespan of mice. Cells in the body absorb oxygen and use it to metabolize food and produce energy. As a byproduct of this, cells produce free radicals molecules that bond to proteins and cells in the body and disrupt their normal functions. This starts the destruction of tissue which is a typical part of the aging process.
A gene has been identified that can be influenced to ignore the destruction of the cells. This is a milestone in the research that will provide the ability to control, slow and even reverse the aging process. Life expectancy in the past was increased by improvements in hygiene, municipal water systems, the discovery of antibiotics and childhood vaccines. These advances while significant, nowhere near compare to the potential of what we are on the cusp of.
Dr. Haseltine, the CEO of Human Genome Science, predicted recently that the life expectancy by 2050 will be 150 years. Just think of that. That means that when my daughters reach their 60s, the life expectancy would be 150 years old. Let's think out of the box. What does that mean for their lives Could they have a second set of children at age 70 or a third career ? Why not if you expect to live to be 150 years old. What would this mean to our economy, our health care system, social security ?
I remember, the words in our dedication ceremony for children;
". . . their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday."
Our children will be living in a world we can barely imagine. Even if we think out of the box about life ahead, our children will be living life outside the box we know today.
We can fear that or we can be excited. Well maybe we can think out of our boxes and maybe even dream, but the world ahead is for the children and we can only do our jobs now as " the bows from which our children as living arrows are sent forth" with the hopes "they go swift and far."
Not only has the rate of change - or velocity, picked-up in our lives, but we are experiencing convergence the coming together of several industries and technology. Convergence is the zeitgeist of the new millennium. Linking computers and cellular phones, TVs and laptops, medicine and the Internet. All around us is rapid change that is both exciting and scary.
The advances we have made hold great promise for curing or eliminating disease, providing a true global economy with the ability to purchase goods and get information from any corner of the earth. Some boundaries are melting away. It is harder and harder to think of others as foreign or aliens when you cry over their disasters on CNN. Visit anywhere on earth today and you will see a McDonald's, MTV, Michael Jordan and a bellhop humming a Celine Dion song. Cybercafes are popping up on tropical islands. Some have even said that the Internet may provide the seeds for democracy in countries where communication and alternative views were banned and the government could control the flow of literature and information.
Just look at the potential of the Internet to provide inexpensive and instantaneous information to level the playing field in areas of education and consumer access anywhere to goods and information. Women and minorities have a real chance now to launch and lead companies that are likely to be the next generation of the backbone of American industry.
Women have a much greater presence in start-up entrepreneurial ventures than in conventional corporations. And women are at the helm in many of the new companies where they have not had to face generations of entrenched discriminatory attitudes.
What an unbelievable time we live in. How lucky we are to be alive and to experience a radical advancement. It is as if we lived in prehistoric times and a cavewoman just invented the wheel. Every aspect of our lives will change in the next ten years. The way we communicate has already changed. The way we work and transact business will change; the way we buy goods will change.
It is almost impossible to remember the days before ATM machines, when you had to wait in line for a bank teller and when typewriters and carbon paper were the norm in every office. As with the machine age, humans will be liberated from mundane and some physical tasks and could have an easier life with more convenience and leisure. Yet, statistics show the average American works more hours than their counterparts 20 years ago despite our use of microwave ovens, hairdryers and dishwashers.
The Internet will provide us access to more information, but that is only information, not knowledge. We will have some new societal challenges like the "digital divide", which many worry that those who can't afford a personal computer or to pay for Internet access will be disadvantaged. What about the dislocation or laying off of thousands of workers when a business transforms to an electronic business and no longer needs that back office of clerical workers?
So, with all these radical technological advances, we could easily lose our footing. We could easily waste away hours on-line rather than meeting a friend for lunch. Or, we could fear change. One of my daughters wrote two poems for me recently about change. Both poems were about a girl facing change. One girl huddled in fear and was swallowed by life while the other girl rose to new heights because the change opened some new doors.
My other daughter wrote a poem about angels and one about the devil. Can we think about change as a gift from the angels?
We all have a choice as to how we view and experience the changes around us. There has been so much talk about the Internet, about people losing their connection to others, that we are becoming more impersonal and isolated. I think this is one way to view the changes around us. But let's think about change favorably. For example, instead of thinking of people being alone on-line, up-to-no good watching pornography, or learning how to make a bomb, why not remember that some of the most heavily trafficked sites are those where patients and family members can share experiences and treatment ideas with other families devastated by cancer or other illnesses.
So if we lose our footing and even if we don't lose our footing, we have this church. And no matter how much change and confusion flies around us, we can come to this place and find our guideposts. Our church and our values can always be our compass through foggy nights and rough seas. Just to test my theory (as Unitarians generally do) I went back and looked at the covenants of our church. These covenants can be found on the cover of the program for today's service. I won't go into all the covenants but several of them have relevance to the challenges and opportunities ahead.
In the global, wired, information rich world we have more tools and the opportunity to live up to the promise in our covenants like:
"Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science "
"We are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision"
"As a free congregation we enter into this covenant promising one another our mutual trust and support"
Throughout its history this church has been a refuge in an all-too-often cold and uncaring city for those in search of answers to life's most important questions. It has provided me a true community of open hearts and open minds and a context that offers compassion in a changing world where we are forced to think and to live outside the comfortable box of what we've known before.
This is a chance for us to embrace the world ahead and to be awestruck at what is possible in our lifetimes. Let us think out of the box and even live outside the box, not alone but together. We can accept that we will not know all the answers, or reasons why, but we can marvel at the breakthroughs and opportunities around us. Amen. Copyright AllSouls 2000.