The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Human Capital Blog features a post written by Dr. Jason Karlawish, Associate Director of the Penn Memory Center, exploring personalized medicine for the seemingly healthy brain that is at risk for neurodegenerative dementias.
“Prescribe the right drug to the right patient at the right time” is not a new medical practice, but when a biomarker—that is, a measure of disease pathophysiology—or a gene makes this decision, that is a radically new medical practice. The promise of personalized medicine is that biomarker and gene driven algorithms will do much of the work of medicine. By predicting patients’ future health and the outcomes of an intervention, they will guide what doctors recommend to their patients. Like the theory of evidence-based medicine, personalized medicine promises a more objective, efficient and precise medical practice.
Read the full blog post here