The Patient Equation

Conclusion

If there's one lesson to take from this book, it's this: our health follows paths, paths that are the summation of everything from our DNA to the ways we interact with the world and the effects of the environment on us. Like a trail through the woods, we can observe where we came from. But imagine those paths meandering—not through a forest, but through a multidimensional space encompassing all of the things we might, now or in the future, have the ability to measure: our genes (and which of those genes are on or off), our blood chemistry, blood pressure, the function of our organs, the way we think, the manifestation of those thoughts in our behavior, and so much more.

A map of a forest is two-dimensional. A rocket in space traces a path through three dimensions. To envision the paths in the n-dimensional space of every aspect of our biology, at every scale, is a staggeringly overwhelming problem. But the paths exist. And we have new tools by which we can trace them and predict where they will go.

We can supplement all of our traditional medical knowledge with the digital trails we leave behind us every day. We can use the phenomenal connectivity and computational power available today to figure out what dimensions of information are relevant and predictive of our health futures. We can simplify the problem of trying to measure and comprehend it all. We can combine the known paths for patients, both in and outside of research programs, into a map—a multidimensional ...