Individualised Medicine Prerequisites and Consequences

22 Oct Individualised Medicine Prerequisites and Consequences

National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech)
2014

One of medicine’s central goals has been and is to heal, relieve or even prevent patients’ diseases. At the beginning of the 21st century, biomedical research and clinical medicine are undergoing a transformation, described by many as a paradigm shift. New approaches based on genome analyses and biomedical technologies are making it possible to analyse biological processes more precisely and more thoroughly than ever before.
Associated with this is the goal of better understanding the causes of disease, providing accurate diagnoses, and last but not least, developing highly effective, precisely targeted
therapies that have few side effects. For example, our understanding of why people who apparently have the same illness react differently to the same therapy is growing.
‘Individualised Medicine’ is an approach that adds another dimension to our understanding of illnesses. However, a number of ethical, legal and economic questions are associated with Individualised Medicine.
This Statement depicts current developments, challenges and framework conditions of Individualised Medicine.