Time to invest more in our health

According to the Personalised Medicine Coalition (PMC), personalised medicine is ‘an evolving field in which physicians use molecular diagnostic tests to determine which medical treatments will work best for patients. By combining the data from those tests with a patient’s medical history and circumstances, health care providers can develop targeted prevention and treatment plans’. 

The idea of more personalised medicine has already been around for a while, but it is beginning to get more traction, particularly as it delivers results on a cost-effective basis. If women with breast cancer would receive a genetic test of their tumour, prior to their treatment, this would lead to a 34% reduction in chemotherapy use; or, if a genetic test would be used to properly dose a blood thinner medication, 17,000 heart strokes could be prevented each year. Personalised medicine also has a tremendous societal cost impact; it is estimated that around $604 million in annual healthcare costs could be saved if patients with metastatic colorectal cancer received a genetic test prior to their treatment.

Personalised medicine, however, is not only able to deliver better medicine hrough better diagnosis and treatment, it also allows for early detection of disease at the molecular level, which enhances the chances of early and therefore better treatment. It also saves costs to society by keeping patients out of later, more expensive treatments. Furthermore, the convergence of targeted biological and digital mobile technology allows the individual to be more informed on their health status and also provides the tools to actively manage their lifestyle, behaviour or treatment.