economics of precision medicine

Question 1

what is precision medicine

Answer 1

an approach of treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment and lifestyle for each person

Question 2

what does precision medicine allow for

Answer 2

accurate prediction about the treatment and prevention strategies for a particular disease for particular groups of people

Question 3

what are the advantages of precision medicine

Answer 3

• wider ability for doctors to use patients DNA during routine care
• improved ability to predict what drugs work better
• improved diagnosis, prevention and treatment
• better integration of online health records

Question 4

what are the challenges of precision medicine

Answer 4

1. do not provide opportunities to make large revenue
2. similar to orphan drugs, costs will be very high
3. challenges for economic evaluation

Question 5

what is fundamental to any health system

Answer 5

maximisation of public health

Question 6

all healthcare systems are determined by

Answer 6

opportunity costs

Question 7

what is economic evaluation

Answer 7

comparative analysis of alternative courses of action in terms of both their costs and benefits

Question 8

what are comparators

Answer 8

current care the patient is receiving, however there could be multiple treatment options available and they should be compared against a single comparator