Personalize Medicine

Personalized medicine as a field started developing in response to the recognition that every person is different in terms not only of genetic and genomic information, but also in terms of his or her clinical and environmental information. The fact that all these areas are different for each person means that each person would respond to illness in a different way, including the onset and duration of the condition. For this reason, many professionals have begun to promote this type of medicinal practice as preferable to more traditional, general methods.

According to the U.S. News (2012), personalized medicine functions on the premise that each disease is treated on an individualized level. Because the disease manifests itself in an individualized way, it is believed that the treatment should receive sufficient attention to also be individualized. Logic suggests that such a method of treatment would be more effective.

To do this, the individual's unique clinical, genetic, genomic, and environmental information is investigated to make predictions about the person's susceptibility to disease, how the disease manifests and runs its course, and what the response to treatment would be. Some areas in which personalized medicine has been used include cancer research, where individuals have been tested for their potential response to certain cancer drugs. In 2003, the concept of personalized medicine received a significant boost when the sequencing of the human genome provided insight into the biological working of medical conditions.

This was an unprecedented development and created a platform for much further developments in the study of human health. Because this is a relatively recent discovery, personalized medicine has not yet become a standard component of clinical practice. However, many professionals are conducting active research into the area. There are several potential advantages to personalized medicine. One of these is the ability to make more informed decisions regarding one's health and treatment, including preventing possible future diseases.

There is also a higher probability of success when treatment is more targeted towards the individual's specific needs and pathologies. On the other side of the coin, there is also a reduced probability of negative or harmful side-effects, especially in cases where treatments can be harsh, such radiation therapy for cancer patients. In the same area, personalized medicine also makes it possible to more accurately predict the probability of disease and focus on prevention rather than reacting once the disease is there.

This also creates a higher probability of success once a strategy is used. A further effect of this is earlier disease intervention as well as reduced medical costs, because earlier and more effective treatment decisions can be made. Genomic and personalized medicine focus on the investigation of the above-mentioned personal factors on individuals in terms of severe, complex diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

Although the medical community in the past assumed that these diseases were influenced by environmental factors and the human genome, the new developments have brought to light a new understanding of this disease. Indeed, medical professionals now understand that these diseases also have multigene components and could also be caused by errors in the DNA, where the connections between genes create the problem, rather than those within the genes themselves.

Hence, a better understanding of such diseases is created by using a whole-genome approach rather than assuming that either the environment, the genome, or a combination of these, is primarily responsible. Saha and Labs (2010) suggest that personalized medicine is becoming an increasingly prominent component of clinical practice. In addition to more effective diagnosis and treatment methods, this area is also creating more alliances between diagnostic and pharmaceutical businesses. This is a significant advantage for medical care recipients, since it also means more effective and more integrated treatments.

In the long-term, this could even hold advantages for medical insurance recipients, where reduced costs might be the final effect of more cost-effective diagnoses and treatments. There are several areas of research that have received attention in terms of personalized medicine. In vitro diagnostics (IVD), for example, has made significant progress as a result of the new discoveries and the development of new technology. Furthermore, policy issues such as regulatory developments on biomarker testing have also received considerable attention as a result.

Licensing and partnerships are also issues that are being considered in a new light as a result of the new discoveries and developments. It therefore appears that there are significant advantages to the new discovery, especially in terms of disease prevention and more effective treatment. It is, however, also possible that there could be some disadvantages to the technology. One of these.