Personalised medicine is treatment that is more “tailored to the individual”. Information on e.g. the patient’s genetics or the genetics of the disease is central within personalised medicine and can – in combination with other relevant health data – be used for diagnostics and treatment of the disease, considering the special biological conditions of the disease. Personalised medicine shifts from the one-size-fits-all way of thinking, where treatment is standardised for all regardless of gender, genetics, age, lifestyle etc. to look more individually at the individual patient.
In collaboration with the most skilled experts, we at the Danish National Genome Center are developing a national use of data in the assessment, diagnosis and development of personalised medicine for all Danish patients. It will benefit the patients, because the use of genetic information – in combination with other relevant health data – can have great potential in terms of improving prevention, diagnostics and treatment of patients.
What could the development of personalised medicine mean?
- A better understanding of diseases, more precise diagnostics and more targeted treatment of the individual patient
- A possibility of better prevention in relation to hereditary diseases
- A limitation of the use of non-successful treatment and thus a limitation of negative side effects
- A higher degree of certainty that the treatments used have an effect on the specific condition
- Improved disease prognosis
- Better genetic guidance for the family and at additions to the family