| | DEC, 2019 - JAN, 20208UTLOOK Healthcare Tech IN MY OPINIONDoes Innovation Mean the Same to All of Us?By Dr. Kristin Bloink, Animal Health, Elanco [NYSE: ELAN]Innovation in human medicine has been impressive in the past few decades. It has spanned from small molecules to targeted treatments to precision medicine to gene therapy. We are living in a world where there's hope that the ambitious moonshot medicine goal might even be achieved in our lifetimes. As a human practitioner, I could see the real impact these advancements had on my patients. The innovative tools ranged from basic treatments like the emergence of the non-sedating antihistamine class, helping me keep the seasonal allergy patients functional (and safe) to the complex and stunning impact of the addition of rituximab to the CHOP treatment therapy regimen for Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients.As I evolved in my career and became a veterinarian, I found a disturbing lack of tools and innovation momentum in the animal health space. New treatments lag years and even decades behind what I had in hand to treat my human patients. It is difficult to explain to a veterinary client why "human" conditions, like diabetes or cancer, are so much more difficult to treat in their pet. It is difficult to explain to a producer, why we are relying on dated vaccine technologies and antibiotic treatment therapies to manage bovine respiratory disease complex.The juxtaposition of my two clinical careers is almost uncanny. On one side of my career, I had access to the latest-and-greatest, and on the other hand, I was frustrated because of the lack of more options to provide better care to my patients. The great lag in animal health innovation is what inspired me to join an animal health company. My focus was on bringing the next era of cutting-edge treatments to animals. With innovation in animal health, we can change the course of our world for generations to come.Consider some of the fundamental and seemingly insurmountable global challenges that impact our health, the health of animals and the health of our environment. Dr. Kristin Bloink
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