Zeitschrift für Informatik und Systembiologie

Virtual Scanning: A New Medical Paradigm?

Abstract

Graham Wilfred Ewing

The medical profession adopts new medical technologies which are deemed necessary to diagnose and treat disease. The current range of technologies allows the clinician to make diagnostic conclusions although the scope, limitations and costs of such diagnostic techniques are often ignored. The aim of this review article is to consider the techniques currently used to diagnose health and to highlight a novel and innovative way of screening the health of the population using a non-invasive cognitive technique. In recent years there has been the emergence of many new medical technologies which adopt vague principles yet instead of reducing the cost of diagnosing disease, each new test adds to the complexity and cost of the healthcare system. In addition, each new test invariably introduces limitations/errors which can influence the test outcomes eg. (i) the genetic profile associated with diabetes differs according to the racial origins of each patient, (ii) diseases are often multi-systemic, therefore the association of one biomarker as a diagnostic indication may be inherently flawed, (iii) genetic screening is not fully reproducible due to profiling errors and (iv) the significance of phenotype is often overlooked. Researchers are working on ways to provide a single genetic screening test which can provide a complete medical diagnosis, companies are working on ways to diagnose state of health using an iPhone, etc. The approaches are invariably innovative yet may lack a fundamental scientific principle which can provide an accurate and reliable diagnostic indication. There is a need for technologies which improve the accuracy of diagnosis, overcome the limitations of current tests, and reduce the cost of diagnosing and treating disease. This article reviews one such technology: Virtual Scanning. Virtual Scanning is based upon three observations: (i) that sense perception, and in particular colour perception, is linked to the function of the autonomic nervous system; (ii) that autonomic dysfunction influences the coherent and synchronised function of the organ networks and ultimately affects cellular and molecular biology; and (iii) the stability of the autonomic nervous system is neurally regulated. Accordingly measurements of colour perception can be used with diagnostic effect and knowledge of the structure of the autonomic nervous system and physiological systems may be used to re-establish the stability of the autonomic nervous system. In summary, the author presents a number of case studies to illustrate the potential scope for Virtual Scanning. In particular how it can be used to diagnose and treat disease.