The Future is Personalized Medicine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

The Future is change Medicine - Essay ExamplePharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics, which are expected to be at the core of PM, acquiesce to offer several advantages over conventional clinical methods. For example, while pharmacogenomics is limited to identifyng inheritable response to medication across the whole genome, pharmacogenetics studies the effects of medication at the level of private genes (the chart below outlines how it operates). The former also tries to reveal important links between genomic patterns and clinical responses. Such links are crucial sources of checkup knowledge, as they empower clinicians to choose a particular treatment option based on individual patient condition as opposed to adopting a conventional trial-and-error approach. (Hood, 2003, p.582) The Human Genome Project (HGP), initiated and supported by former American President Bill Clinton was pivotal to subsequent breakthroughs in Personalized Medicine. With the help of good computing power, al ready more than 3 billion base pairs of DNA have been successfully mapped. With the completion of the HGP in 2003, new possibilities for PM have been open up. Working expeditiously to make Personalized Medicine a reality in the near future are such organizations as the International HapMap Project, the NIH cyclopaedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE), the Roadmap Epigenomics Program, etc. (Cox, et. al., 2007, p.112) In order to get a line the scope and effectiveness of Personalized Medicine, let us take a hypothetical courtship. For instance, in the case of oncology treatment, where presently oral-intake medicines can cost hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars per year for the afflicted patient, understanding the intricate genetic pathways (which is unique to each individual) is important in order to determine the presumptive efficacy of a particular therapy course. It is a sign of progress that in the United States today there are 6 drugs for which FDA requires diagnostic genetic te sting before prescription, about 30 for which a diagnostic test is recommended, and another 200 with pharmacogenomic information on the labels. (Hesselgrave, 2010, p.16) Moreover, traditional healthcare provision adopts an one-size-fits-all approach. Whereas, under Personalized Medicine, this practice will be dismantled and unique prognostic courses would be designed based on the patients genetic make up. Powerful technologies that try to understand the working of the human body down to the cellular level will be part of future PM treatments. These technologies include genomics, proteomics (the study of proteins), and metabolomics (the study of metabolites) amongst others. Metabolomics is of especial(a) interest to physicians as it has the potential to provide key information about individual patients. While the target of proteomics research is to identify abnormal protein patterns in patients, the purpose of metabolomic research is to identify abnormal metabolite patterns. Scienti sts are of the view that human bodies contain more than 3,000 metabolites that play a crucial role in proper harvesting and development of various organs. Apart from these primary metabolites there are secondary metabolites which strenghthen the immune system and helps reduce mental and physical stress. Of particular interest to the medical community are low-molecular-weight metabolites