Personalised medicine

Question 1

What is personalised medicines?

Answer 1

· Customisation of healthcare for a particular patient with all their decisions about their medical condition, ie. how they will be diagnosed and treated and the drugs to be used to treat them is tailored to their individual requirements.

Question 2

why is personalised medicine important?

Answer 2

· All patients have different genetics/PK and will therefore respond to drugs differently. Therefore a personalized medicine would provide the appropriate dose for a patient

Question 3

Advantages of personalised medicine

Answer 3

More targeted treatment- Moving away 
from one fits all approach
Less side effects
Identify potential health problems
before they emerge 
More accurate prescribing
Cost saving- reduced number of failed
treatment therapies
Earlier detection of diseases leading to better 
Outcomes for patients

Question 4

disadvantages of personalised medicine

Answer 4

Expensive technologies
Hard to identify patient differences
Drugs would be more expensive due to not being
available to a larger patient group
Invasive procedure
Issues of privacy- companies will hold personal
Information about you.
Information may cause concern for that individual

Question 5

how does personalised medicine bring changes to the pharmacy practice

Answer 5

· Pharmacists would need further training to ensure they understand the process of testing.
· Change in formularies and guidelines that pharmacists will need to keep up to date with
· Different counselling is required

Question 6

how does personalised medicine bring changes to the NHS

Answer 6

· Move the primary focus of the service from treatment to preventative medicine.
Potentially reduce financial and time expenditure of NHS.