Questions and Answers.

  1. How is your book new and/or different from other aging and longevity books? 

 

There has been an explosion of books on aging and longevity in the last year but the vast majority are focused narrowly on either the latest science, or the social implications, or the business potential.  This book aims to combine all strands of the debate, synthesizing viewpoints from across the spectrum to mobilize ourselves as citizens in changing how we think about health, engage in our health and how we can change health from its focus on sickcare to one that embraces wellbeing across the lifecourse from conception to death. It explores the impact that AI has on understanding the cellular basis of aging and how our genes are influenced by our environment – with the pandemic highlighting the interconnectedness of human and planetary health. Finally, the book explores how the pandemic has exposed the fracture lines of society and why we need to act fast to prevent another type of epidemic becoming an even greater crisis: driven not by viruses but by lifestyle-driven chronic diseases.

2. What are the key takeaways from your book? 


 

This book is about personal discovery and societal change seen through the eyes of a number of experts. The book sets out to describe the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity we have with the Covid-19 pandemic, a bigger disruptor than even technology itself, to change how we view health – and the steps we need to take to protect it as our greatest asset.  The book describes how we can harness data to understand why Covid has impacted people in poor health and in deprived areas most, how to equip ourselves better and build resilience in time for the next pandemic, and live our best lives in a post-Covid-19 world.

3. What was your motivation behind writing this book and what do you hope readers will get from reading it? 

 


 

With all the work I have been doing in AI, data, healthy ageing, and now in longevity, one key thing keeps coming up over and over again- the important role of citizens.  Ultimately the public will shape the future.  Normal people need to be brought more into the debate on how technology could be more powerfully deployed as a force for good, to cope far better when the next pandemic hits and until then, to help us live longer better.  We all need to participate in decisions that could ultimately shape a better society- at all levels- whether individually for personal reasons, at a community level for civic duty or through votes at a national level.  The book sets out the arguments for why we need a societal system more focused on social capital, more guided by values that matter most to us.  The pandemic is showing how our health is our greatest asset- more than GDP.  The book aims to educate, inform, inspire and catalyze action to improve health for all. It will hopefully motivate people to take more interest in critical issues affecting us: ethical use of technology, our role in data sharing, developing our own heath resilience and that of our communities.

4. How was your experience interviewing these top-end experts?

 


 

My experience in interviewing world experts for the book was fascinating, enriching and inspiring.  I am incredibly lucky to meet and interface with leading authorities in the course of my day-to-day work.   People like Nir Barzilai, Nic Palmarini, Alex Zhavoronkov, Jose Cordeiro, Sergey Young,  and Aubrey de Grey are awe-inspiring in what they are achieving yet are incredibly down-to-earth, generous people- driven by the pursuit of knowledge and desire to help people.  Many of those I interviewed are classic mavericks- relentless in their pioneering approach, driven by a burning inquisitiveness and quest for excellence, challenging convention and the status quo.   This goes for Eddie Hall too, the world's strongest man, who is driven by a ferocious competitive instinct and quest to understand himself- right down to his genetics.

 

5. Who is the primary audience for this book? What impact do you think this book can have on your readers understanding the future of healthcare?

 


 

The primary audience is anyone curious about the role of science and technology in improving their health; but also those interested in learning about where the future of health is going, what we need to know and what we can do as citizens, activists, consumers, entrepreneurs, business leaders, politicians, investors, doctors to help improve health for everyone.

 

 

6. What did you find to be your biggest challenge when you started writing on health and healthcare?


 

The biggest challenge is keeping up with the pace of change and making sense of the sheer volume of new research and developments.  When starting this book I created a Slack channel to curate and manage all the research, articles, and reports coming into my inbox every day-from Nature and The Lancet, to MIT Technology Review and Singularity Hub, Wired, to daily newspapers, science journals and management reports, including CB Insights.  I love the edgier sources too, like Azeem Azhar’s Exponential View, Phil Goodman’s Longevity.Technology and Peter Diamandis’ Abundance Insider.   By the time I finished writing the book my Slack channels (about 30 of them, all grouped into different themes) was literally stuffed with thousands of references.  It got me thinking I need AI to help me spot the patterns across the different themes!  

 

7. How do you look at tech innovations in healthcare sector?


 

The health tech space is bursting with innovation. The longevity field is enormous, complex, and swamped with information, not all of it well researched nor credibly applied.  So, in an age of so much fake news and misinformation, there is a real need to sift through all the innovations and research with a robust lens and pull out the nuggets that are likely to have the greatest positive impact on people.  It is quite a responsibility when you think about it.  Look at the serious impact on child health when vaccination levels dropped with anti-vaxx campaigns scaring a lot of people.  Or indeed, the amount of money people are wasting buying supplements ‘for eternal youth’ which simply do not work.  The supplements industry is worth billions but needs evidence and data to show what works (and one of the reasons why research into aging biomarkers is so important).  Meanwhile, the consumer is getting duped.

 

8. Is there a possibility in the future to combine AI with mechanical engineering to perform critical medical procedures?


 

The abundant datasets in healthcare make it rich territory for AI to be applied across multiple disciplines, from drug discovery, to genomics, diagnostics and surgery. Mechanical engineering combined with AI has already brought us nanobots and robotic surgery.  It is also helping us to understand protein folding- one of the most complex processes known to man.  Folding@home is a global organization that uses distributed computing to research Covid-19 proteins that could help with designing therapeutics.

One of my favorite examples is swarm robotics, pioneered by Dr Sabine Haeurt at Bristol, an expert in designing large collective systems that self-organize via ‘swarm strategies’ - either inspired from nature (ant colonies and bird flocks) or are automatically designed in simulation using machine learning and crowdsourcing. One key application is designing swarming nanoparticles for cancer treatment.

Other areas where mechanical engineering and AI can collide in medical applications are in surgical robotics, prosthetics and exoskeletons that can restore freedom to people with disability. 

 

9. How well do you find the medical practitioners react to the involvement of AI in the health sector?


 

Doctors view AI with any combination of intrigue, fascination, skepticism and distrust depending on where they are in terms of their understanding, experience and receptivity towards technology and new ways of doing things.  Rightly, doctors are driven by the Hippocratic Oath, including ‘Do No Harm’, so any new technology must pass this fundamental test.  I was one of the co-authors of the report Accelerating Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care commissioned by the AHSN Network, Department of Health and Social Care and NHS and one of the key findings was the urgent need for workforce training on the use of AI.  The Topol Review, conducted by Eric Topol,  addressed the key areas where AI could ‘augment’ (not take over) the role of doctors to benefit patients.  In the end, doctors are only human, and may resist change that takes away their power and autonomy- but hopefully AI will enable greater collaboration between doctor and patient and improve overall decision-making and speed of diagnosis and treatment: a win-win for everyone.

 

 

10. Where does AI’s contribution stand in terms of economic feasibility and trust from a layman’s perspective?


 

AI should drive down costs and increase efficiency in healthcare systems and procedures in the current ‘sickcare’ model – in which the response to an increasing aging population and disease burden is to build yet more hospitals. But as AI and data are mobilized to help us stay healthy and well- in preventative health and wellbeing strategies- this could dramatically decrease downstream healthcare costs and vastly improve our quality of life.  Prevention is much more effective and cheaper than the best treatment.  There is, however, a lot to do to build and preserve peoples’ trust in AI- as there are real concerns on protecting privacy, avoiding bias, and ensuring inequalities are not made worse using technologies.  However, these concerns need to be balanced against the significant potential of rich societal dividends if data is shared and harnessed ethically for the common social good.

 

 

11. How significant is the role of AI in the preparation of vaccine for Covid-19 disease?


 

The scale and pace of scientific endeavor to develop a vaccine for Covid-19 is unprecedented.  Oxford University and AstraZeneca have recently announced promising early-stage results, claiming a vaccine might even be available later this year.

AI is playing two important roles in the quest for an effective vaccine: firstly, by analyzing and understanding viral protein structures to guide the elements of a vaccine; and secondly, by helping researchers find relevant research papers that are being published at an accelerating rate. Around the world organizations have created AI tools, shared data sets and research results, and shared them freely with the global scientific community to help them find the papers relevant to their specific research, to review the breadth of recent findings, and uncover insights.

The Allen Institute for AI, for example, has partnered with several research organizations to produce the Covid-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19)  to make data sets machine-readable and hopefully accelerate the discovery of a vaccine.