Precision Medicine – The Future Of The Healthcare Sector

A doctor’s visit is something that every person has experienced, if not more, then at least once. As a regular procedure, they ask you for the problems, do a check-up and prescribe a medicine. In this one-size-fits-all approach, the drugs and treatment are based on what’s most likely to work for everyone with a similar illness. If it responds to your body, which it mostly does, the person is treated. However, if it doesn’t go well, as everyone’s body functions differently, further tests and analysis come into play. This is called the traditional approach to medicine. But, what if we tell you that there is a medical model where personalized treatment is offered from the first instance or visit? Sounds unreal? Well no, it isn’t because times are changing and this new methodology called precision medicine, or stratified medicine or even personalized medicine is the future of the healthcare sector. Before we dwell further, let’s quickly understand this form of science.

Precision medicine simply means customizing of medical treatment according to a person’s genetic makeup to maximize benefit. Precision medicine whereas covers not only the genome structure but also takes into consideration other factors like individual and family health history, lifestyle factors both diet and exercise, and environmental factors. Though, customizing medicine for each individual might not be monetarily feasible but, classifying them into groups as per genetic makeup can help to suffice the purpose. According to a research report by Global Market Insights, the market size is set to exceed $96 billion dollars by 2024.

A major reason for increasing interest in this form of medicine is because of a surge in cancer cases and the rise of numerous chronic and infectious diseases globally. In fact, oncology has been one of the most promising areas for precision medicine and the results too are promising. Today, based on genetic testing doctors can gauge the possibility of someone being prone to certain forms of cancer. One of the biggest findings has been in leukemia where people who have a certain genetic makeup respond well to a drug called imatinib.

Other areas where doctors are already using precision medicine are to treat lung cancer, melanoma, and pancreatic cancer. It can also help in rare childhood illnesses, cystic fibrosis, and HIV as work is on for heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, and many other conditions.

Where on one hand, some positives of precision medicine are

• new and early diagnoses
• preventing disease than curing it
• drug development
• personalized treatments.

Some of its cons are

• data storage- it’s privacy, security, and ownership
• possibility of missing certain genetic groups disorder
• massive investment.

Despite its challenges, precision medicine is the need of the hour. Even former American President, Barack Obama supported the Precision Medicine Initiative back in 2015 as he dedicated $215 million towards it. The funds were to map the DNA of 1 million Americans, research genetic causes of cancer and evaluate new diagnostic drugs. Though conventional medicine will stay as advancement in this field goes on, who knows, soon, this may become the new norm of not only curing but diagnosing and preventing diseases.