I’ve been
hearing about personalized medicine for many years. I have always seen it as a
perfect work in progress in which to
keep improving the relationship between doctor and patient. Mostly because this
type of medicine involves giving the patient what they need, exactly when they
need it, which translates into a totally perfect sanitary system, if it is really possible to achieve that.
Still, large doubts exist about how this medicine
would be personalized, who would bring it about, and who would be the
beneficiaries. This last point seems clear: the patients. The patients, who are
demanding ever more concrete attention, can now, thanks to technology, receive
this attention.
The past year it was uncertain if there was a
rise in personalized medicine, but certainly there was much talk about it and
the millions of benefits it has. One of the radical reasons why advancements
are being made in the study of DNA, together with the advancements in technology,
is that the ability to process information, at reduced costs, is increasing, so
links are being discovered between the variations in the sequences of DNA of
each person and the types of human sicknesses. In definition, personalized
medicine is that which brings an individual beyond his or her molecular-genetic
context and intends to comprehend the psychosocial environment of each patient.
Does that clear things up for you? It doesn’t for me either.
When we speak about
personalized medicine, what are we talking about? From a textbook definition
will users (patients) be able to know how it can affect them from day to day?
If, as a user, I were asked if I believe in personalized medicine after having
it be explained to me in the way it was in the previous paragraph, I would be
incapable of understanding how personalized medicine translates into my own
medical attention. Do I go to the doctor to have them study my genes? Is there
a problem in my psychosocial environment? Should I worry about if I fall within
the margin? Do we live, therefore, in a world of standardized medicine? How
will personalized medicine affect me?
Therein lies the answer: I will benefit from an improved relationship
with my health professionals.
The other day I had a vision that made me think
about how personalized medicine would really be in the future. My vision
occurred while I was watching the movie Her,
a technological fantasy about the relationship between one human and his operative
system in which the system (designed by the man) is capable of giving affection
and is equally as intelligent as the man himself.
Could medicine really
do this? Could an operative system really cover all of the health needs of a
human being? Is this the true realization of personalized medicine? It seems somewhat audacious, but I imagine
that personalized medicine is really so. Too science-fiction for you? I believe
that technology is capable of making the concepts in our dreams become
reality.