Article content
Speakers’ Corner is an article series in which the e-Estonia Digital Transformation advisers discuss digital society and their personal experiences using public e-services. Today, you will meet one of our newest advisers, Johanna-Kadri Kuusk, via her first article.
I was on a walk with my friend one evening. As it is getting colder in Estonia, our conversation naturally turned to health-related topics, as autumn tends to bring the common cold, runny nose, and flu with it. And what we discovered on our walk is that we sound like our parents.
Nearing your thirties is the first time you feel your body is not forgiving your bad decisions. You don’t have the magic pill called ’’Youth’’ that lets you do all-nighters without any issues and eat unhealthy without any consequences. Suddenly, all this talk about taking your vitamins every day and stretching in the mornings makes sense. My grandmother used to nag me about wearing a hat when I was a kid. She used to say that the wind would blow through my ears. I remember feeling it on this walk with my friend and adjusting my coat and shawl to cover my ears.
’’This is how it starts,’’ said my friend.
Many countries worldwide have to tackle the ever-growing issue of an ageing population. Estonia is in the same boat as the others. We know that people will live longer and fewer people will be born, so the balance between medical professionals and patients will be more slanted as the years go by. How can we fix this?
One of the keywords here is ’’prevention’’. The Estonian Genome Center has gathered DNA samples from 200,000 people to help with this. Is our population prone to a specific type of cancer? Are some allergies more common among Estonians than others? It is interesting to know on a personal level. Still, data like this can, on a bigger scale, help us move more towards personalised medicine to prevent illnesses and health issues and take off pressure from the medical sector. That could work! Right?
This is what I told my friend on that evening walk. I expected an excited response that would send us into brainstorming mode. Instead, I got an answer I hadn’t even considered.
’’What if I don’t want to know all this?’’
I looked into her eyes, surprised. What do you mean you don’t want to know? I am upset that I am not a part of this biobank and don’t know that information about myself. And here is a person who would refuse such valuable info.
’’I mean, I would be worried sick if I knew that I am prone to some severe illness. It would make me paranoid. Even if it helped me be healthier on one end, it would harm my mental health on the other. So I think it is better not to know,’’ she told me.
Liis Leitsalu, one of the researchers at the Genome Center, visited us this month and shared that a doubtful attitude is not uncommon. Some people want to learn about something other than the research. One reason is the fear of bad news. The other aspect is getting lazy after hearing that you don’t belong to any risk group, and these bad habits still harm your health. Of course, most are still interested in their info and are thankful even for the bad news.
That walk with my friend got me thinking. The Genome Center is researching and analysing genetic data and using AI to sort the results. We use a digital healthcare system and more AI to make healthcare decisions. But at the end of the day, all this effort can be wasted if we forget the personal aspect of healthcare.
