Personalizing health care: feasibility and future implications

Brian Godman, Alexander E Finlayson, Parneet K Cheema, Eva Zebedin-Brandl, Inaki Gutiérrez-Ibarluzea, Jan Jones, Rickard E Malmström, Elina Asola, Christoph Baumgärtel, Marion Bennie, Iain Bishop, Anna Bucsics, Stephen Campbell, Eduardo Diogene, Alessandra Ferrario, Jurij Fürst, Kristina Garuoliene, Miguel Gomes, Katharine Harris, Alan Haycox, Harald Herholz, Krystyna Hviding, Saira Jan, Marija Kalaba, Christina Kvalheim, Ott Laius, Sven-Ake Lööv, Kamila Malinowska, Andrew Martin, Laura McCullagh, Fredrik Nilsson, Ken Paterson, Ulrich Schwabe, Gisbert Selke, Catherine Sermet, Steven Simoens, Dominik Tomek, Vera Vlahovic-Palcevski, Luka Voncina, Magdalena Wladysiuk, Menno van Woerkom, Durhane Wong-Rieger, Corrine Zara, Raghib Ali, Lars L Gustafsson

Considerable variety in how patients respond to treatments, driven by differences in their geno- and/ or phenotypes, calls for a more tailored approach. This is already happening, and will accelerate with developments in personalized medicine. However, its promise has not always translated into improvements in patient care due to the complexities involved. There are also concerns that advice for tests has been reversed, current tests can be costly, there is fragmentation of funding of care, and companies may seek high prices for new targeted drugs. There is a need to integrate current knowledge from a payer's perspective to provide future guidance. Multiple findings including general considerations; influence of pharmacogenomics on response and toxicity of drug therapies; value of biomarker tests; limitations and costs of tests; and potentially high acquisition costs of new targeted therapies help to give guidance on potential ways forward for all stakeholder groups. Overall, personalized medicine has the potential to revolutionize care. However, current challenges and concerns need to be addressed to enhance its uptake and funding to benefit patients.