Personalized medicine: What’s in it for rare diseases?

Abstract

Personalised Medicine has become a reality over the last years. The emergence of ‘omics’ and big data has started revolutionizing healthcare. New ‘omics’ technologies lead to a better molecular characterization of diseases and a new understanding of the complexity of diseases. The approach of PM is already successfully applied in different healthcare areas such as oncology, cardiology, nutrition and for rare diseases. However, health systems across the EU are often still promoting the ‘one-size fits all’ approach, even if it is known that patients do greatly vary in their molecular characteristics and response to drugs and other interventions. To make use of the full potentials of PM in the next years ahead several challenges need to be addressed such as the integration of big data, patient empowerment, translation of basic to clinical research, bringing the innovation to the market and shaping sustainable healthcare systems.