DIGITAL HEALTH
BIOMARKER IN DIGITAL HEALT
Roozbeh Ghaffari , Epicore Biosystems CEO & Matt Lavin of LifeOmic , explore how biomarkers are advancing healthcare and supporting patients
WRITTEN BY : HELEN ADAMS
Biological markers , known as biomarkers , are indicators that can measure signs of normal biological processes . They are used in healthcare to help diagnose diseases and monitor patients , as well as in research for drug development .
Most biomarkers are naturally occurring within the body , such as bodily fluids , DNA mutations , certain types of proteins and components of blood . Synthetic biomarkers are also being used in cancer detection .
Biomarkers allow early healthcare intervention and can help doctors decide on the best treatment for the patient , which reduces the need for invasive therapies ( and their sometimes unpleasant side effects ). There are several different reasons for using biomarkers :
• Diagnostic biomarkers can spot a disease
• Prognostic biomarkers provide information about a disease
• Predictive biomarkers gain insight on how a patient will respond to a certain drug
• Monitoring biomarkers observe the behaviour of a disease
• Surrogate biomarkers measure the effects of treatment .
Here , two healthcare experts discuss the use of biomarkers in the sector .
68 November 2023