Applied Precision Medicine in Clinical Practice—an Approach Consisting of More than Molecular Biology and Gene Therapy

A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 1111

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Medical Faculty, Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences, Linköping University, 58183 Linköping, Sweden
Interests: clinical decision making; evbidence-based practice; interprofessional collaboration; individualised assessment of health condition
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Medical Faculty, Department of Biomedical and Clinical Science, Linköping University, 58183 Linköping, Sweden
Interests: biomedical laboratory science; metrology; evidence-based practice; immunology; quality assurance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Precision medicine (also called individual-based, person-based, or tailored medicine) aims to provide care and treatment according to individual conditions and needs, aiming towards the most effective treatment for a given patient and thus improving the quality of care. In clinical practice, decision support tools with reference values for vital parameters and biomarkers are used to facilitate the assessment of individuals’ health conditions. However, recent research has drawn attention to the fact that a commonly encountered range of values, the normal range/reference range, can be misleading, as the stated lower or upper limits may not match the individual’s normal range. Our own and others’ research has led to the realization that the perception of normal body temperature and fever must be updated based on science and evidence instead of tradition. The COVID-19 pandemic also made us realize that we need to think alike when it comes to assessing oxygen saturation. To apply precision medicine in clinical practice, it is necessary to also include vital parameters and biomarkers based on individual normal ranges.

This Special Issue aims to focus on essential topics relevant to improving individualized assessments of health conditions in clinical practice.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following professional areas:

Applied precision medicine in nursing, medicine, laboratory science, etc.

We are pleased to invite you to submit original research and review articles. We hope you and your colleagues will be willing to submit your work to this exciting Special Issue of Healthcare. We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Märta Sund Levander
Dr. Ewa Grodzinsky
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • clinical decision making
  • decision support tools
  • habitual condition
  • individualized assessment
  • interprofessional collaboration
  • measurement uncertainty
  • vital parameters

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

16 pages, 457 KiB  
Article
The Development of Algorithms for Individual Ranges of Body Temperature and Oxygen Saturation in Healthy and Frail Individuals
by Märta Sund Levander and Ewa Grodzinsky
Healthcare 2024, 12(23), 2393; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12232393 - 28 Nov 2024
Viewed by 767
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Individual habitual conditions entail a risk during the interpretation of vital parameters. We developed algorithms for calculating, validating, and interpreting individual normal ranges of body temperature and oxygen saturation. Methods: In total, 70 healthy individuals aged 27 to 80 and 52 frail [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Individual habitual conditions entail a risk during the interpretation of vital parameters. We developed algorithms for calculating, validating, and interpreting individual normal ranges of body temperature and oxygen saturation. Methods: In total, 70 healthy individuals aged 27 to 80 and 52 frail individuals aged 60 to 100 were included. Data on individual conditions comprised age, gender, physical ability, chronic disease, and medication. Ear temperature and oxygen saturation were measured for five mornings before the participants got out of bed and consumed medicine, food, or drink. Results: The range for body temperature was 34.3 °C to 37.7 °C, with a variation of 0.7 °C ± 0.4 °C. The variation in minimum and maximum temperatures was 2.4 °C vs. 2.7 °C and 2.9 °C vs. 2.3 °C in healthy and frail subjects, respectively. The range for oxygen saturation was 85% to 99% in healthy individuals and 75% to 100% in frail individuals. The variation between minimum and maximum oxygen saturation was 13% vs. 25% and 4% vs. 17% in healthy and frail subjects, respectively. Conclusions: To promote the implementation of precision medicine in clinical practice, it is necessary to interpret body temperature and oxygen saturation based on individual habitual conditions. Interpreting deviations from an individual’s normal ranges allows healthcare professionals to provide necessary treatment without delay, which can be decisive in preventing further deterioration. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop