Personalised medicine is the use of an individual’s molecular information, including genomics (the genome of an organism) and proteomics (the proteins of a cell), to determine the best approach for managing an individual’s disease or predisposition to disease (Ciardiello, et al., 2014). This is therefore a considerable move forward from treatment and care that is based on a ‘one size fits all’ concept (Grant & Hill, 2016). Instead, personalised medicine can accurately inform disease pattern and progression, detect illness earlier and tailor treatment that would best suit an individual. Developments in personalised medicine Advances in personalised medicine have taken place due to the developments in high throughput technologies and genome …show more content…
Overall, individual patients will benefit from more precise diagnoses (Grant & Hill, 2016) which will result in more informed choices of treatment. Further to this, the potential to minimise the risk of adverse drug reactions will not only benefit individual patients, but will also positively influence hospitals (Sorich & McKinnon, 2012). Currently adverse drug reactions are responsible for one in five hospital admissions in the UK (Grant & Hill, 2016). However, these adverse reactions can be avoided with personalised medicine, helping to reduce the burden on hospitals. Furthermore, patient adherence to treatment can be improved due to a greater involvement in choice of therapy as well as increased compliance due to personalised treatments presenting fewer adverse reactions. In addition to improving healthcare for individuals, personalised medicine will also positively impact on the pharmaceutical industry. The development of drugs is a costly and time consuming procedure, however increased precision in the diagnosis of disease may facilitate and improve this process (Sorich & McKinnon, 2012). Overall, personalised medicine will provide a far more cost-effective approach to healthcare because only patients who are likely to benefit, will receive the appropriate