Stem Cell therapies could save money
The 2011 World Stem Cell Summit, held in Pasadena, California concluded last Wednesday, Oct 5th. International experts in the field of stem cell research gathered to discuss research and potential therapies.
One interesting aspect of stem cell therapy emerged – the financial benefits therapy may offer.
Stem cell therapies may apply to some of the nation’s most expensive health issues, such as heart attack and stroke.
According to Gil Van Bokkelen, chairman of the nonprofit Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, “If you suffer a stroke you may be looking at long-term institutional care costs that are hundreds of thousands of dollars or more over time.”
Van Bokkelen went onto say that care for stroke victims costs the nation about $73 million a year. Stem cell therapies may ultimately be used to treat these patients, reducing long-term costs.
“At the end of the day, it’s really about improving clinical outcomes, improving quality of life and shifting the cost curve in the right direction – providing more cost-effective health care – and that’s how we’ll be able to broaden the scope of health care accessibility to all the people we’d like to provide it to,” Van Bokkelen said.
Dr. Lox agrees that regenerative medicine techniques, such as stem cell therapies, could help reduce costs in some disease states. This very topic was the subject of a poster presentation by Dr. Lox at the Summit.
According to Dr. Lox, the changing medical landscape with health care reform leaves some uncertainty with the future of scientific advancements in regenerative medicine. While health-related quality of life care may be analyzed for cost effectiveness, the question to be addressed is, at what point will the ethical role of improving quality of life be offset by cost reductions, and at what point will insurance carriers understand that the advancements in regenerative medicine will ultimately result in overall long-term savings?
CIRM, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, has uploaded a number of interviews and presentations from the 2011 World Stem Cell Summit, which can be found at
http://www.youtube.com/user/CIRMTV
Information contained in this blog is intended for educational purposes only and not for medical diagnosis or treatment. If you have a medical concern or issue, please consult with your physician.