Untold Stories about Personalized Medicine: If You Thought Personalized Medicine Is for Others to Worry about, Think Again

Dear Colleagues,

Technologies advances, new scientific insights, and improved routes of access are propelling personalized medicine into the clinic.  Patients are being treated more precisely with medicines that allow an a priori evaluation whether it may work, at what level of risk a patient may get exposed to them, which dose might be the most appropriate - in other words, these new medical products are developed with the idea in mind that the evidence of benefit must be demonstrated at the level of an individual patient, and in a predictable manner.  However, the opportunities this field of medicine offers are further reaching than simply treating (an individual) patient: a great deal of ethical and societal, regulatory and reimbursement, business and even political aspects are debated and will, for good or bad, impact the future of personalized medicine.  What are these factors exactly and how do or might they influence personalized medicine?  Why does personalized medicine not stop at the patient - doctor interaction, but may affect us in many more ways?  Does the ongoing debate over health care reform impact personalized medicine and if so how?  This special issue of the Journal of Personalized Medicine looks into the future and asks several stakeholders, some obvious and some less obvious how they view personalized medicine influencing, or being influenced by, their area of interest.

Dr. Felix W. Frueh
Guest Editor