Stem-cell research promises to transform healthcare system
November 20, 2009
EDMONTON, AB, Nov. 20, 2009/ Troy Media/ – Stem-cell research holds the promise of transforming the healthcare system as we know it, according to the Alberta Council of Technologies.
Perry Kinkaide, President of ABCtech, said that the implications are profound and “potentially disruptive. New technologies are appearing faster and faster, promising to fix what’s broken in the body and to transform health care as we know it.”
Dr. Perry Kinkaide
The convergence of science and technology with the rising cost of health care has the potential to completely over-haul the healthcare system, he added. “Technologies are emerging at the very time when political pressure is mounting to fix costs, accessibility and delivery times and in anticipation of an expected increase in demand associated with the degenerative diseases of an aging population. As pressures mount, many nations are being forced to rethink the design and financing of their overall healthcare systems. Rarely have we been able to speak of solutions, that is, cures, for some of the most debilitating diseases of aging and trauma.” But that, he believes, is about to change because of stem cell therapies.
The Alberta Council of Technologies has been on a year-long campaign to engage researchers, patients, caregivers and the public in a dialogue to address the implications of stem-cell research. Stem cells, Kinkaide said, hold the promise to draw the healing powers of the body itself to address some of the mankind’s most debilitating degenerative diseases – Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, heart failure, arthritis, blindness, burns and bone damage – which impact the productive capabilities of the patient and their caregivers.
And harvesting stem cells is no longer restricted to the fetus, Kevin Perrott, President of the Lifestar Institute and an advocate for addressing issues of aging, pointed out. It has been discovered, he said, that they appear throughout the body, throughout our lifetime. It is now possible for the body to heal itself. “We are learning daily,” he said, “of parts of the body – tissues and nerves – being regenerated and diseases of aging being treated,” through stem-cell research. Yet, he admitted, myths still prevail that may impede speeding the treatment “from the lab to the bedside.”
ABCtech’s Alberta public forums, complemented by an international awareness campaign launched by the Canadian Stem Cell Foundation, which is also a sponsor of the Alberta initiative, will attempt to demystify the science and to answer some of the questions which surround the controversial research.
The forums will be held in Calgary on Nov. 25th and in Edmonton Nov.26th. The Edmonton forum will also be webcast at www.ABCtech.ca at 7 p.m. MST.
