Components, prospects and challenges of personalized prevention

Abstract

Effective preventive strategies are urgently needed to address the rising burden of non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. To date, most prevention efforts to reduce disease incidence have primarily targeted populations using “one size fits all” public health recommendations and strategies. However, the risk for complex heterogeneous diseases is based on a multitude of clinical, genetic, and environmental factors, which translate into individual sets of component causes for every person. Recent advances in genetics and multi-omics enable the use of new technologies to stratify disease risks at an individual level fostering personalized prevention. In this article, we review the main components of personalized prevention, provide examples, and discuss both emerging opportunities and remaining challenges for its implementation. We encourage physicians, health policy makers, and public health professionals to consider and apply the key elements and examples of personalized prevention laid out in this article while overcoming challenges and potential barriers to their implementation.