MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Former Vice President Al Gore isn’t just about climate change anymore. In a video interview with Medscape editor-in-chief Dr. Eric Topol, the politician-turned-activist talked about healthcare evolutions he saw while in office and what he sees for the future.
Gore said that he’s been surprised by the burgeoning advancements in life sciences that had been taking place while he was engrossed in climate change research, but his tenure in the House and Senate were rich with talk of breakthroughs in genetic engineering.
"I remember when Dolly [the sheep] was cloned and the debate on the bioethics of cloning and the like," Gore told Topol. "Then, when I was in the White House, I kept that collection of issues under my purview, but after leaving public service and trying to serve in a new and different way, I checked back in on the advances in life sciences that had been made since I last took an in-depth look, and I was really amazed."
In the interview, as in his new book "The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change," Gore highlighted his interest in genomic medicine and the potential for precisely targeted medicine, the ethics of gene sequencing and the "healthcare race" that the U.S. faces with China.
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