An ambitious, experimental, and ground-breaking initiative in technology is referred to as a “moonshot.” Moonshots usually start off without much promise of immediate benefits or profitability and often without a thorough analysis of the associated risks and opportunities.
Rooted in bold thinking, experimentation, and a “fail fast” mentality, moonshot initiatives have enormous potential to make the world a better place. The moonshot approach has thus been embraced by IT firms of all sizes across a variety of industrial sectors in efforts to address the world’s most pressing issues.
The Apollo 11 spacecraft effort, which brought the first person to the moon in 1969, is, of course, the origin of the term. Before the success of that mission, “moonshot” was another way of saying “long shot,” that is, a project requiring a great deal of effort but with little chance of success. The term is also suggestive of “shoot for the moon,” that is, setting your sights on a lofty goal.
A moonshot project, then, is one that has the potential to produce spectacular outcomes through a single sustained burst of consistent and concentrated effort. Making such a substantial innovative leap involves an enormous amount of activity within a technological space. The potential benefits include a wave of technological advances to enable the effective use of the constant flow of information.
Currently, moonshot thinking is being applied to everything from the treatment of severe illnesses to improving the virtual metaverse. When bold objectives are accomplished, the stakeholders, service providers, and humanity in general stand to reap significant advantages.
The Cancer Moonshot
Cancer researchers have made considerable headway in pursuit of several ambitious goals since the 2016 launch of the government’s Cancer Moonshot. These include accelerating relevant scientific advances, promoting collaboration, and facilitating the exchange of relevant data. President Joe Biden revived the Cancer Moonshot initiative at the beginning of 2022, with new objectives including a reduction in cancer mortality by half within 25 years and enhancement of the lives of cancer survivors.
The project has become the focus of a sizable community of healthcare workers, advocates, patients, and researchers dedicated to driving the research to end cancer. This community is supporting medical research that will benefit the public through funding and investment.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden have appealed to the public, encouraging Americans to resume cancer screenings that were postponed during the Covid pandemic to ensure that everyone benefits equally from the resources available to detect, prevent, and diagnose the disease early.
The Moonshot For Cancer: New Objectives
President Biden, then, has established new national objectives for the Cancer Moonshot based on the achievements made so far and the opportunities that lie ahead. The two most important objectives are
- reducing the age-adjusted mortality rate caused by cancer by at least 50% within 25 years and
- improving the experience of those who have cancer.
Achievement of these objectives will bring the world ever closer to curing cancer and revolutionizing prevention and treatment.
