Personalized Medicine

[rninformatics, DNP, RN]

From Technology Review Spot Light on Innovation

Making Medicine Personal

A number of scientists bared their genetic souls recently as part of the Personal Genome Project, a study at Harvard University Medical School. They were among the first of the eventually 100,000 volunteers who will agree to place their genetic profiles on the Internet.

Genetic profiling can provide information on what diseases may befall us. And knowledge of an individual's genetic makeup may also help scientists figure out how to treat diseases--part of an emerging field known as personalized medicine.

As many doctors freely admit, says Julie Johnson, director of the Center of Phamacogenomics at the University of Florida (UF), prescribing medicine is "more of an art than a science." Approved drugs work--but not 100 percent of the time, and not for 100 percent of the population. Some people have no response to certain drugs, and others experience severe side effects.

Full story at:

http://www.technologyreview.com/spotlight/personalized_medicine/index.aspx