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Personalized Medicine

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Personalized Medicine
Kenneth Weddle
Strayer University
Science 115
Professor Meri Stanec
May 21, 2012

Personalized Medicine Personalized medicine refers to the medical model that entails the customization of healthcare. Under personalized medicine, all the decisions and practices relating to an individual patient are advanced using genetic or any other vital pieces of information. The emergence of personalized medicine has helped in the reduction of costs, time, and the rate of failure of pharmaceutical clinical trials, has eliminated trial and error inefficiencies in the diagnosis of diseases, and has aided in the prescription of effective drugs and averted those that pose dangerous side effects to patients. This essay explicates the manner in which genetic technology may contribute to personalized medicine, examples of the benefits of personalized medicine, and drawbacks of personalized medicine. Modern genetic technology has played an instrumental role in leading to personalized medicine. It has led to in depth understanding of the impacts of genetics in a given disease. The understanding of the impacts of the disease has helped in the development of personalized medicine, as practitioners are able to identify the correct prescription for different diseases. Modern genetic technology has also led to personalized medicine by helping practitioners understand the significance of genes in the normal development of human beings. Duke Medicine (2011) points out that these are easily linked with the certain diseases affecting human beings hence the development of personalized medicine. Practitioners are able to identify the different diseases affecting human beings before they get to their worst states with the use of modern genetic technology. Personalized medicine has had numerous benefits on the health of individuals. One of the key benefits is based on genomics and proteomics that involve the discoveries that were made in the field of oncology. Personalized treatment has helped in the selection of the most effective drugs for the health of individuals through facilitating the measurement of EGFR and erbB2 proteins located in the lungs, breast, and colorectal cancer among individuals. This has facilitated the prescription of drugs that bear no side effects on the health of different patients. More so, personalized medicine has been beneficial because it has helped in the discovery of the life longevity genes among individuals. This means that individuals are able to live for more years despite suffering from different diseases that are considered chronic. Personalized medicine has also helped in the discovery of the ninety-nine genes that play an instrumental part in the reduction of cholesterol levels among individuals. This preserves more lives and enables individuals lead a healthy life. This approach has several drawbacks and limitations to humans. It leads to genetic discrimination by insurers and employers. Insurers take advantage and charge higher premiums to individuals perceived to bear genes that are life threatening. According to Mayo Clinic (2011), this leads to extra expenses among such individuals and the inability to meet all their medical demands. In addition, the approach is extremely expensive because it entails the tests of proteomics and genetics. This limits access to the service among most individuals. It also involves higher costs of research and development hence inhibiting further development of the approach. In conclusion, personalized medicine is a medical model that involves the use of the patients genetic and any other vital information. Modern genetic technology has facilitated the understanding of genetics in a given disease hence helping in the discovery of personalized medicine. The examples of the benefits of personalized medicine in the lives of individuals include the selection of the most effective drugs that do not bear side effects through the measurement of the EGFR and erB2 proteins on the lungs. It has also led to the discovery of life longevity genes among individuals. The key limitation of the approach is that it leads to the discrimination of individual’s gene.

References
Duke Medicine. (2011, January 1). Personalized Medicine. Retrieved May 22, 2012, from Personalized Medicine: http://health.usnews.com/health-conditions/cancer/personalized-medicine
Mayo Clinic. (2011, August 2). Consumer health. Retrieved May 22, 2012, from Consumer health: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/personalized-medicine/CA00078

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