The concept of personalised medicine

Abstract

Introduction. Personalised medicine is a progressively developing approach in health care, focusing on the unique genetic characteristics of each individual, thus guiding the decisions and treatments adjusted specifically to the requirements of every patient. The researches in this field have been on an exponential growth in recent decades. Aim of study. The purpose of this study was to determine the concept of personalised medicine and the importance of its implementation in healthcare. Methods and materials. A selection of material was performed by searching the PubMed database according to the following keywords: “personalised medicine”, “concept of personalised medicine” and “precision medicine”. The final evaluation underwent 87 works, including original works, meta-analyses, and reviews. Results. Personalised medicine and its approaches in different domains, including preventive measures and lifestyle changes, is permanently evaluating and developing. According to ICPerMed it is widely understood that personalised medicine defines as a medical model using characterisation of individuals’ phenotypes and genotypes for tailoring the right therapeutic strategy for the right person at the right time, to identify whether the patient is predisposed to a certain disease and to provide the conveniently designed prevention. The key element in the development of the concept constitutes the research of the genetic characteristic of the patient, which incorporates the holistic perspective of the patient-centred care. Oncology, cardiology, pulmonology, neurology, family medicine, etc. are only some domains with the most convenient applicability of this motion. Continuous development of personalised medicine and implementation in everyday practice is the both short and long - term purpose in the developed countries, emphasising this approach is the vision, which still needs proficiency. Conclusion. The concept of personalised medicine consists of the patient centred approach based on the study of one’s specific genetic data, with the purpose of improving the preventive, diagnostic and treatment measures, and its cost-effective implementation in health-care practices.