PERSONALIZED AND PRECISION MEDICINE FRAMEWORK

This chapter discusses how personalized and precision medicine is revolutionising healthcare by moving away from the “one-size-fits-all” model of health care towards a more individualised approach to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. Using gene, genome, biomarker, clinical, environmental, and lifestyle data, this paradigm optimises treatment results while reducing the risk of adverse effects. The recent advancements in genomics, omics technologies, artificial intelligence and digital health have accelerated the creation of precision medicine. This allows for accurate patient stratification and targeted interventions using pharmacogenomics to explain individual variations in drug response due to genetic variability and to guide the selection and dosing of those medications on an individual basis. Biomarkers and companion diagnostics enhance the precision aspect of medicine through the use of biomarkers and companion diagnostics in order to predict the patient's risk of developing a disease, his/her potential response to a treatment and/or the potential risks associated with that treatment. This chapter will provide an overview of the evolving paradigm of personalised and precision medicine by describing the scientific basis for personalised medicine, the basic components of the personalised medicine framework and the different areas of therapy that personalised and precision medicine are being used for, including, but not limited to, oncology, cardiovascular diseases, nervous system diseases, infectious diseases, and metabolic disorders. This paper will describe how the various stakeholder groups that are important for the successful implementation of personalised and precision medicine include healthcare professionals, pharmacists, regulators, researchers and patients; and also how they will benefit from the implementation of personalised medicine. This work will also provide information on the fundamental components needed to evaluate the value of personalised and precision medicine, including its clinical effectiveness, the issues associated with its use, the data governance requirements, and the readiness of the current systems to implement personalised and precision medicine. The high cost of precision medicine, as well as the limited access to patients who may benefit from it, privacy issues with patient data, and the need for specialized infrastructure and education all create barriers to the adoption of precision medicine despite its potential to improve the quality of care and the continuity of care provided to patients. Precision medicine presents an opportunity to develop patient-centered therapies based on their genomic and biomarker test results. Pharmacists play a vital role in promoting the implementation of precision medicine and supporting practitioners in making appropriate therapeutic choices for their patients.