Dr David Adler | Specialist Physician | Mediclinic Sandton | Co-founder | Director | Infinity Medical Concierge | mail me |
The Medicine 3.0 healthcare approach emphasises proactive, personalised care that prioritises health span over lifespan for improved wellbeing.
In nearly 30 years as a doctor, I have realised that the most powerful tool in healthcare is time. Most patients understand this. They know that, whether dealing with heart disease or cancer, early treatment improves the chances of a full recovery. But that’s just one piece of the healthcare-time puzzle.
The other pieces are explored in “Medicine 3.0″. This updated way of thinking about medicine has gained popularity in recent years. Dr. Peter Attia, a Canadian-American physician, coined the term and explores it in his book Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity.
Introducing the Medicine 3.0 healthcare approach
Attia characterises Medicine 1.0 as a time when illness and healing were largely out of our control. Over the last two hundred years, major developments like germ theory, vaccines, and modern medicine ushered in Medicine 2.0.
Since then, average human lifespans have doubled, a remarkable achievement considering humans barely moved for over 200,000 years.
Attia argues that longevity should not be measured by lifespan alone. Instead, we should focus on healthspan – how long a person lives free of illness, disease, and pain. After all, reaching 90 is meaningful only if you can enjoy your golden years feeling active, happy, and strong. This is the essence of Medicine 3.0.
What does this have to do with time? Everything.
Every doctor in South Africa will tell you that, whether in the public or private sector, there isn’t enough time to spend with patients. According to World Bank data, South Africa had about eight doctors per 10,000 people in 2021. This contrasts with 70 in Sweden, 40 in Australia, and around 30 in the United States and the UK.
This means doctor-patient interactions are typically quick and reactive. The system focuses on treating the sick, prioritising lifespan over the holistic and personalised care needed to improve health span. Holistic care ensures treatments from various specialists work together. Personalised care tailors treatments to a patient’s unique physiology. Both require more time, which doctors currently lack.
Medicine 3.0 and chronic illnesses
No surprise that the South African Medical Research Council found that one in five South Africans suffer from multiple chronic illnesses.
Statistics South Africa reported a nearly 60% increase in deaths from non-communicable diseases between 1997 and 2018. Imagine how those numbers could change if time were on our side.
In an ideal Medicine 3.0 scenario, you would visit your doctor regularly before getting ill. You’d undergo comprehensive screenings to assess your health and risks. Then, you and your doctor would work together to reduce or eliminate those risks. This approach may seem expensive, but studies show the opposite.
Early intervention saves countries billions by reducing hospitalisation, surgery, and intensive treatments like radiation or chemotherapy. The savings are even greater when you consider the avoided income loss from chronic illness. In other words, Medicine 3.0 focuses on proactive, monitored interventions to tackle the lifestyle risks harming health. Investing in health should be as serious as investing in any other asset. Health is, in fact, our most important asset. I like to call it “health-wealth.”
In conclusion
As a doctor, I can attest that Medicine 3.0 is more fulfilling. It’s a deliberate approach, and the results for patients are transformative. This is why my colleague, Martin Lebos, and I founded Infinity Medical Concierge. We wanted to test the idea of reimagining medicine.
We focus on preventive, holistic healthcare, where doctors have access to all screenings, tests, and medical records, rather than working in isolation. The results have been promising. By creating tailored, proactive plans based on each patient’s profile and risks, we’ve been able to reduce the need for chronic medications and interventions. There are also benefits for mental and emotional health.
It is time to shift from reactive to proactive medicine. This approach could give patients more time to live productive, happy, and healthy lives. Ultimately, that’s the goal of medicine, and it’s time to move decisively toward it.