m-Health Pioneer Professor Lionel Tarassenko Joins Panel at The Astellas Innovation Debate™

i-Genes: What the DNA and Data Revolutions mean for our Health

Chaired by Jonathan Dimbleby
Keynote Speaker: George Freeman, MP, Minister for Life Sciences
Royal Institution of Great Britain, Thursday 29th January 2015, 6:30pm
To be webcast live: www.innovationdebate.com

View an interview with Professor Lionel Tarassenko ahead of the Astellas Innovation Debate https://youtu.be/GGSU4K-wNGA

Chertsey, England, 27 January, 2015: Professor Lionel Tarassenko, CBE, Head of Engineering at the University of Oxford and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Academy of Medical Sciences, has joined a panel of internationally recognised experts for the 3rd Astellas Innovation Debate: i-Genes – What the DNA and Data Revolutions mean for our Health, taking place on Thursday 29th January 2015 at the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

As the worlds of science and technology come together, the 2015 Astellas Innovation Debate, organised and funded by Astellas, will discuss recent breakthroughs in genetic medicine and smart technology, and what they mean for our health.

For more than a decade, Professor Tarassenko has worked closely with doctors to develop smart digital systems to help them diagnose, monitor and support patients. Machines he has designed can provide early warning if a hospital patient is unexpectedly becoming critically ill, and he has developed mobile phone technology to enable patients with a chronic disease such as diabetes or heart failure to look after themselves at home, rather than being kept in hospital.

Speaking ahead of the Debate, Professor Tarassenko says that smart tracking of our health will form an essential component of the personalised medicine of the future.

“The technology that is now used in smart phones and mobile devices can also be applied in the context of personalised medicine”, said Professor Tarassenko.  “This means that second-by-second information about the heart rate and breathing rate, for example, will instantly be combined with results from blood tests and X-ray images to guide patient management and treatment. The more we can bring these data together, the earlier we can see whether or not a patient is responding in the way we expect.”

Although he is passionate about the benefits technology can bring to healthcare, Professor Tarassenko recognises that some patients and doctors have reservations about the speed of change.

“The digital revolution is having an impact on all of us, and it's having an impact on health care. The discussions at the Astellas Innovation Debate are important because it is high time experts came together to discuss recent developments in ‘digital health’ and how we can enable people to make informed decisions.”

This year’s Debate will be chaired by Jonathan Dimbleby, who will ask a panel of world-renowned experts what the recent breakthroughs in genetic medicine and smart technology mean for our health.  In addition to Professor Tarassenko, the panellists include American biologist Dr Leroy Hood, whose leadership led to automated DNA sequencing, and Professor Rolf A. Stahel, President of the European Society for Medical Oncology.

Together they will discuss:

• The possibilities these new genetic insights offer for our health
• Whether we can afford the full range of medicines personalised healthcare would demand
• The implication for health professionals – will the data deluge from new technologies create a new army of the worried well and swamp doctors?
• With more of our health data digitised, how long before it falls into the wrong hands?
• At what point does smart care become intrusive surveillance?    
• Whether the effort put into these frontiers of medicine divert resources from the real crises of modern healthcare – such as obesity, antibiotic resistance and neurodegenerative disease?

For further information, visit www.innovationdebate.com, or join the debate on Twitter (@Astellasinnov8   #iGenes)

For more information, please contact:

Mindy Dooa
Senior Director, Communications
Astellas Pharma EMEA
Mobile: +44 (0)7826 912 339
Email: [email protected]

About The Astellas Innovation Debate

The Astellas Innovation Debate, organised and funded by Astellas Pharma EMEA, explores the role of innovation in modern society. Astellas is an innovative pharmaceutical company that explores the frontiers of scientific discovery to translate new knowledge into new medicines, aiming to develop treatments that are first in their class and/or best in their class to provide new standards of care for patients and their doctors.

This year’s event, i-Genes: What the DNA and Data revolutions mean for our health, at the Royal Institution of Great Britain on 29th January 2015, is bringing together influential and respected figures from the worlds of science, medicine, law and politics to tackle the major issues surrounding scientific innovation today and tomorrow. The aim of The Astellas Innovation Debate is to air crucial issues, draw positive conclusions and to move the agenda forward.

Everyone – professionals in science, medicine and industry, and the general public – will have the opportunity to engage with the Astellas Innovation Debate through online media which will take discussions far beyond the walls of the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

Previous debates have focused on innovation in a time of austerity, nurturing the innovators of the future and the issues of our ageing population.  Panellists, such as Nobel Laureates Professor Sir Andre Geim and Dr Elizabeth Blackburn, Professor Brian Cox, Lord Robert Winston, Professor John Appleby and Professor Mariana Mazzucato have tackled some of the real and important challenges affecting science and scientific discovery, dealing with concrete issues and drawing clear conclusions.

About Astellas Pharma Europe Ltd.

Astellas Pharma Europe Ltd. operates in 40 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and is the EMEA regional business of Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma Inc. Astellas is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving the health of people around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceuticals. The organisation's focus is to deliver outstanding R&D and marketing to continue growing in the world pharmaceutical market. Astellas’ presence in Europe also includes an R&D site and three manufacturing plants. The company employs over 4,500 people across the EMEA region. In 2013 Astellas was awarded SCRIP Pharmaceutical Company of the Year in recognition of its commercial success and pipeline development.pharmaceutical market. Astellas’ presence in Europe also includes an R&D site and three manufacturing plants. The company employs over 4,500 people across the EMEA region. In 2013 Astellas was awarded SCRIP Pharmaceutical Company of the Year in recognition of its commercial success and pipeline development