The care provided to each patient through personalized medicine offers individualized and precise treatment to the personal requirements and possibilities based on the diagnosis and condition of each one.
Personalized medicine is a healthcare approach that is also often called precision medicine . This field or model of care is nourished by scientific and technological advances in genomics and biology .
Knowing the lifestyle and genes of each individual, as well as considering the environmental factors to which they are exposed, is the first step in designing an exclusive and personal strategy that includes prevention or treatment measures , as appropriate.
According to experts, this modality benefits both patients and the health system as a whole, since better results are achieved, resources are invested intelligently (that is, they are not spent unnecessarily or wasted) and it can be achieved. , in this framework, an efficient, sustainable health system with the best possible professional quality.
Applications of personalized medicine
Personalized medicine is adding more and more applications . It has been especially revolutionary, to indicate a specific case, for people diagnosed with cancer .
Personalized oncology proposes a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, modern method focused on each subject to achieve the most positive results possible.
Targeted therapies , in this scenario, make it possible to use specific drugs that prevent, by damaging normal cells as little as possible, the cancer from continuing to develop and expand. The selected preparations or medications act, selectively, on certain genes, attacking and blocking substances or areas of cancer cells . Precision immunotherapy is gaining more and more prominence as trials are being added in which the effectiveness of personalized vaccines is demonstrated. It is interesting to know that, in recent years, specialists in oncology medicine have been innovating with the intention of embracing success in health from increasingly less aggressive treatments . In certain cases, as can be deduced from practice, a genomic test and personalized breast cancer treatment can be applied, for example.
There has also been work from science to try to give hope and solutions through personalized medicine to those who suffer from rare or genetic diseases . It should also be noted that artificial intelligence is a great ally in the search and discovery of medication for rare pathologies.
Although there is still much to research and achieve in terms of accessibility and challenges to overcome, precision medicine is steadily evolving in favor of personalized treatments for cases of type 1 and 2 diabetes , cardiovascular disease , cystic fibrosis , etc.
Experts in personalized medicine focus, for example, on both pharmacogenetics and the analgesic response of each patient who receives treatment to combat a certain pain.
Key methodologies and technologies
Personalized medicine grows and is applied thanks to methodologies, studies, techniques and technologies that are key.
Genomics (focused on completely studying the genome of an organism) and pharmacogenomics , necessary to be able to use the genomic information of an individual in pursuit of the personalized choice of drugs to treat the diagnosed pathology, gain relevance in this area.
Molecular diagnostics , gene therapy , stem cell- based regenerative medicine , DNA sequencing , and artificial intelligence for diagnostics are also important for putting precision medicine into practice.
Taking into account Big Data applications in health , information from biometrics and biomarkers are, likewise, an immense source of help for experts in the personalized and cutting-edge healthcare approach .
Biomedical research at the service of personalized medicine aimed at people suffering from multiple sclerosis , to describe another novelty, is putting the magnifying glass on cell reprogramming . This procedure, designed to improve the quality of life of each patient through individualized treatment, begins with a skin biopsy and continues with harmless viruses that infect the cells that you want to reprogram so that they become "oligodendrocyte precursor cells." » . Once these steps are completed, different pharmacological treatments are tested in order to select the most effective one.
Health professionals focused on personalized medicine approach the patient above the pathology in order to offer them a multidisciplinary and exclusive proposal based on their profile and needs.
Challenges linked to personalized medicine
As the findings linked to personalized medicine advance and its field of application expands, the challenges and social, legal and ethical issues to consider multiply.
Therefore, hard work must be done to guarantee patient privacy and confidentiality with genetic data , informed consent must be respected and enforced, in addition to facilitating access to precision medical care .
The need to obtain financing to cover costs related to trials, research and implementation of techniques or procedures focused on health cannot be overlooked.
Simultaneously, professionals must be trained and updated regarding the technological and medical advances that are being confirmed, along with the adaptation of the classic health system so that personalized medicine can be consolidated. The investment of time and money should even include educational sessions and campaigns for patients and providers .