Precision medicine is now underway, collecting genetic information from Americans, in an effort to develop new medical techniques. The idea, proposed by President Obama, is to develop customized treatments for patients, based on genetic characteristics.
Individually-tailored medical treatments could advance the ability of healthcare providers to provide drugs custom-catered to the patient. By examining the genetic code of patients, it will be possible to identify the specific forms of diseases afflicting the body. Microbes in the body can be studied, as well as the interplay between specific genes and their environment. However, some observers believe these advances will not be effective without dramatic changes to insurance regulations and drug testing procedures.
"We'd be able to make diagnoses and treatment calls at the level of the individual. We are very, very far from doing that, but the payoff would be fantastic," Keith Yamamoto, a biologist at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical School, said.
On January 20, 2015, President Obama spoke about the need for personalized medicine in his State of the Union Address.
Current one-size-fits-all treatments can result in patients receiving drugs which are ineffective or dangerous to their bodies. This new generation of treatments will prevent those problems in the future.
Pharmacogenomics is the study of how pharmaceutical drugs interact with genetic codes. This new field of research has revealed that some cancers, including those of the breast and lungs, can be driven by a multitude of genetic mutations.
A large genetic database will need to be collected on millions of Americans, and compared to their medical records, in order to refine correlations between genetic codes and health histories.
Analysis of a complete human genome recently took months to complete, and cost as much as $100 million. Today, that same analysis can be carried out for less than $1,000, and completed in a few days or less.
Genetic analysis is already able to determine which diseases and disorders may be likely to strike an individual. Risk factors for heart disease or other conditions can be identified, and measures taken to reduce the chance of a catastrophic health failure. Women can also be tested to determine if they may be at risk for early menopause, providing the patients an opportunity to freeze eggs for later insemination.
"Tonight, I'm launching a new Precision Medicine Initiative to bring us closer to curing diseases like cancer and diabetes - and to give all of us access to the personalized information we need to keep ourselves and our families healthier," Barack Obama announced during his speech.
Now, the challenge is posed to medical professionals, insurance companies and other institutions to develop this next generation of medical treatments.
