WEBVTT

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I'd like to introduce Béla.

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Béla is a successful entrepreneur,

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as we can see, he has a Rolex watch,

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so he can even become a politician.

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He earns a lot of money.

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He spends a lot on himself,
he takes care of himself.

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Among other things, he buys
a very expensive and safe car

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packed full of sensors.

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So Béla would know
immediately, in real time,

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if there were any problems with his car.

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For example, if the pressure
is lower in one of the tires,

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or the lambda probe got dirty.

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Although there aren't sensors on Béla,

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he leads a very healthy,
conscious lifestyle.

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He pays attention to his diet,

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doesn't drink, doesn't smoke,

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he makes an effort to exercise regularly.

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He gets vaccinated.

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In fact, three or four years ago,

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he was even on a manager-screening test
at a private clinic.

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So if we were to ask Béla,
"How are you, Béla?"

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Béla would say, "I'm great, thanks."

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But the truth is, unfortunately,

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that Béla won't be among us for long.

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Because his blood sugar level's been 12,

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which is extremely high,

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for at least two years.

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In his eyes, kidneys, limbs,

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the capillaries
are irreversibly damaged.

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In addition, he suffers
from an extreme narrowing of arteries.

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And he's got a genetic mutation as well,

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which excessively increases
the risk of thrombosis.

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Moreover, Béla has atrial fibrillation,

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which is an abnormal
behavior of the heart,

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that also forms thrombosis.

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Unfortunately, it seems likely

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that Béla will have an infarction
in the near future.

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But if our Béla still survived it,

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then there's still that benign tumor,

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which has been growing
in his colon for 15 years,

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and is beginning to transform
into tumorous tissue.

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It could be cut out now
without any consequences

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and our Béla could go home.

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But by the time they recognize it,

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it can be full of metastases,
and then it'll be too late.

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How is this possible?

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Well, it's possible

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because Béla has no symptoms.

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And in Hungary someone
can live without trouble

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up to the age of 50

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without ever getting an ECG,

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without ever getting an ultrasound,

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or without ever going for a blood test.

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For many jobs,

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even a compulsory medical examination
doesn't contain a simple blood count.

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And what about our socialization?

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What does it mean if you have no symptoms?

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It must mean I'm healthy.

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But that's not true.

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Many diseases have been developing
for months, for years or for decades,

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by the time they first cause symptoms.

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Nature couldn't know
that we would have doctors.

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If something goes wrong in the body,

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the organism tries
to correct it, to fix it.

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Then if it fails,

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it'll try to delay the symptoms
as much as possible

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because the symptoms
were evolutionary disadvantages.

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Either the prehistoric man
didn't catch up with his prey

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or couldn't run away from the lion

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or simply couldn't pass on his genes.

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How many of our friends
are proud of saying,

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"I never go to see a doctor."

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How many of them say,

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"I'm not seeing the doc
because they could find something."

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As if normally if we didn't know about it,

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that disorder wouldn't exist.

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Sure, there are things
that heal by themselves,

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but there are a lot that don't.

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For example, tumors rarely go away.

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But let's admit it,

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we all grew up with the notion,
it's always in our minds,

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that if there is nothing wrong with me,
why should I see a doctor?

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But if we consider

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how many people die being fine

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up until 10 minutes beforehand,

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or at least thinking so,

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it can be clearly deduced

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that any one of us here and now

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can die in 10 minutes
even though they're fine now.

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I can see horror on your faces.

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But I have some good news:
we can influence this.

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It's up to us.

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But our current systems
aren't developed for this.

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What we now call health care

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is in fact sickness care.

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A late-reacting, crisis-driven,
reactive system,

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where a specialist tries to treat

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the isolated problems of patients
who are usually at an advanced stage

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with methods meant for the masses,

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while the patient
is a passive participant.

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Yet, all diseases can be cured
more effectively and cheaply

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if we recognize them as soon as possible.

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In fact, it's best
not to let them develop.

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During the onset of diabetes,

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there is a 90% chance

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that it can be reversed solely
with lifestyle changes.

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90% of the early diagnosed
tumors can be cured,

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while in late stages
this is obviously much worse.

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Still, more than 97%
of our health expenditures

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is devoted to healing,

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and we spend less than 3%
for prevention and screening.

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So what are we doing?

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We are waiting for someone to be very ill.

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And when it happens,

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we try to fix it with a heroic struggle

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and huge costs.

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And many times we do succeed.

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And what are we doing afterward?

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We let them go home.

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And we usually wait,
wait until they become ill again.

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Also, the core of our doctors' training

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is not to keep someone healthy
for as long as possible

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and to prevent illnesses.

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Doctors learn for many, many years
and through thousands of pages

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how to fix something when it goes wrong.

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And their material interest
is also not in health

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because nobody gets money
if someone is healthy.

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The doctor gets money for healing;
the insurer pays for sickness.

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Not for health.

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If we think it over like this,
how could such a system have developed?

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Actually, it's very simple.

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Because apart from the recent past,
for thousands of years,

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doctors had only two ways to learn

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whether the patient had any problems:

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either the patient
had visible signs on themselves,

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or they said,

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"I have something wrong with me."

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There weren't any other
possibilities. Nothing.

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But it's not the case today.

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Not only have doctors
other tools, but we do too.

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Nowadays anyone can choose
to have a genetic screening test

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for a few tens of thousands of forints.

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Not only for themselves,
but even for their entire intestinal flora

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of which a lot of illnesses
can be predicted.

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For a few tens of thousands of forints,
anyone can buy portable devices

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that measure their pulse or ECG
throughout the day,

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or their blood oxygen levels, breathing,
brain functions, sleep cycles,

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or they measure the exact blood pressure
just by touching them to the forehead.

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Anyone can buy a smart toilet,
that analyzes end-products,

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and sends the results
to their mobile phone.

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We will soon test blood sugar and other
blood components without pricking.

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What kind of screening I go for
is solely my decision.

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Yeah, but I hear from some
of my smart doctor friends:

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"It's not so good because a lot of
screenings aren't accurate enough."

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And they're absolutely right.

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We have some tests
which aren't accurate enough,

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especially if we study the test results,
separately, in themselves.

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One hundred years ago
it was super dangerous to fly.

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However, we didn't choose the option
to travel to America by boat,

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but we made air travel safer.

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That is to say our methods
will become more accurate,

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but until then we can do more tests,

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from which we get
much more accurate results.

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My doctor friends say about this:

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"Not all screening tests are worth it."

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Namely, a colon examination -

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that our poor Béla would need too -

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costs 6,000 forints, at least
the institutions get that much for it,

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and no more than a few tens of thousands
of forints privately.

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This must be contrasted, let's say,

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with treatment of a colon tumor
recognized at a late stage,

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which can cost
from 10 to 20 million forints.

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Obviously, it's also
worth it on a social level.

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But many tests aren't worth it
on the population level.

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They're absolutely right.

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But I'm not the population.

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My mother, my brother or my child
aren't the population either.

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What is worth it for the insurer
and what I choose

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are two completely different questions.

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Currently, the most sensitive way
to recognize early-stage tumors

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is the so-called PET CT scan.

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It's a very expensive test.

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It's totally unsuitable for testing
on a societal level, that's for sure.

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A couple of years ago,
an elderly couple decided

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that they would pay for such a test
for each other for Christmas

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from their saved money.

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The results were shocking.

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Both turned out to have tumors.

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In addition, they had different
but aggressive tumors with poor prognoses.

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Since being recognized early
and managed in time,

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both were cured
and are still healthy today.

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If they'd started to treat them
when the first symptoms occurred,

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it's sure neither of them
would have survived.

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What we're doing now

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is a bit like if we had developed
a supercar with tremendous effort,

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driven by a very professional
driver at night without any lights.

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And when the obstacles come,

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we would try to avoid them
with incredible feats

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or at least minimize the losses,

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instead of turning on the headlights,

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so that we could see the obstacles
as they come and avoid them.

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We would go much farther,
with much less damage.

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We have to transform this system not just
because of the development of technology

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but because it's untenable.

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In all developed countries of the world,

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health expenditures increase
about 2-3% faster than the GDP.

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In addition, patients want to participate
more actively in their own health care.

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Science, our tools, our sensors, and
the development of artificial intelligence

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combined with the explosive growth

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of genetic and other
biological information

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will soon enable us to always drive
with our headlights on.

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Health will be more about health,

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disease prevention,

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and it'll be a proactive,
not a reactive system.

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And when necessary,
healing will be personalized

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with individual treatment,

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the patient won't be treated
with methods for the masses.

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They'll be an active participant
in the process.

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In addition, our health care,
especially diagnostics,

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will move into our homes very soon.

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I know it sounds a bit futuristic,

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but think about it this way:
it wasn't so long ago,

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when the computer
was a roomful of equipment.

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Nobody would have thought that such
a thing would ever be in our apartments.

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And nowadays we carry the knowledge
of 100,000 such devices

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in our pockets or even our watches,

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which are the perfect devices

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to collect and process
information about our health.

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Fortunately, the culture
of screenings and prevention

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is starting to integrate
into our lives in Hungary.

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But, in truth, we aren't ready for it yet

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either in terms
of instrumentation or personnel.

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We still need to redesign
our financial system,

00:12:28.083 --> 00:12:33.635
supply system, education,
but most of all our thinking.

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But until these changes happen,

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we can decide if we want to be
passive participants in sick-care,

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and see if we survive the next obstacle,

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or if we take our health and the health
of our loved ones into our own hands.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)