Technology and Medical Advancement
Did you ever watch the cartoon The Jetson’s? You know meet George Jetson ?,his boy Elroy, his daughter Judy, Jane his wife ?. They were the futuristic family that drove the cars that flew in the sky. It was their phone that I was thinking about lately. They would get a call and it was always on this monitor. You would see the person that they were talking to. I remember thinking this was such a cool thing. Granted I was somewhere between the ages of 10-16 but still. In one episode Jane, his wife, was talking to someone looking like her normal self. When she hung up the phone, a mask came off and she was in curlers and wrinkled. A face tired and just out of bed. I loved the thought of being able to look all put together when you were far from looking gorgeous. Talking to someone on a monitor live seemed like something so unbelievable to my young self watching The Jetsons cartoon. Now I FaceTime everyone. Talking to everyone on my little monitor aka phone. I just need that mask making me gorgeous so I don’t have that tired wrinkled just woken up face. I know they have filters now but none of them do what they did for Jane, his wife. I know such random things I think about but the older I get the more I think about those trivial things.
For all our technical advancements, I still question our medical advancements. Are drugs being developed to help patients or to help pharmaceutical companies? I’ve blogged about Rituxan vs Ocrevus being basically the same drug. Rituxan patent was coming due so they changed the formula slightly and did clinical trials with MS patients. They got FDA approval and Ocrevus was approved for MS. New drug, new patent, ridiculous price to change insurance companies. Yet Rituxan was already being used for people with MS. The trial could’ve been done with Rituxan. FDA approval would have been probably quicker. Price for the drug would have been significantly lower. It wasn’t about the patient it was about the profit. I feel the same way on the weight loss industry. I think there easily could be a pill that would help obesity, melt fat and be safe for people to take. Why wouldn’t someone develop this? Because the weight loss industry is a multi billion dollar industry that continues to grow on the backs of the millions who need to loose weight. Why would anyone want to stop that kind of income coming through this billion dollar industry? It isn’t about people it’s about profit. I wonder about other treatments available for cancer, Parkinson’s, Crohns etc, I get there isn’t a cure but are treatments being developed for our good or someone else’s. Truth is MS has 25 available drugs now. However, the way they are supposed to help, like blocking T or B cells, their are multiple drugs doing the same things. How many drugs do we need to block T cells? Everyone has a hand in the cookie jar. I question where I fit in their research.
I think I made my point. Granted medication has come a long way. I am 25 years into my disease. At that time it was only Avonex and Betaseron available. They didn’t block B or T cells. I know we’ve made progress. I just always wonder if there is more we don’t know. Big pharmacies are all about profit.
One thought on “Technology and Medical Advancement”
So true!