When you get sick with a specific kind of disease, normally the practice in the healthcare industry would be to treat based on the disease itself. Thus, a 16-year-old boy may be given the same kind of medication as a 37-year-old woman if they’re both coughing.
This is where personalized medicine differs. Rather than the usual one-size-fits-all approach depending on the disease, personalized medicine takes into account the inherent genetic differences of individuals. As no two people are exactly alike, these differences have to be factored in to ensure the medication form is directly tailored to the body and individual needs of the patient.
Nowadays, personalized medicine appears to be changing the healthcare game. With that, here are some ways personalized medicine is transforming healthcare through the advantages it brings to patients and the healthcare industry in general.
- It Reduces The Need For Trial-And-Error Medication
Because medication is now personalized, trial-and-error medication is also reduced or avoided. Typically, this happens when a patient is prescribed a medicine once they complain of a health discomfort. Or perhaps a diagnosis for a specific illness has been made by a physician.
Trial and error occur when the medicines and treatments are given for a certain period to see what works for the patient in helping them alleviate their health problems. If the medicine works at reducing the symptoms and providing relief, then it’s continued. Otherwise, the doctor would prescribe an alternative.
The downside of this trial-and-error approach is that a lot of time may be wasted on taking medications that probably won’t even work. Especially when the patient is suffering from a serious disease, time is of the essence.
Personalized medicine solves this issue by providing the right medication for a patients specific needs right from the start. Because the patients genetic, biological, and physical makeup are factored in, the medicine is specifically suited for the individual patients needs. No time is wasted, and the body isn’t subjected to trial and error, which may also cause the patient to suffer side effects during this stage rather than heal.
You may also want to read through the article published here to further understand how rapid production of better-quality personalized medication is ensured today for better healthcare.
- It Improves The Ability To Predict Best Treatment Forms
There is a corresponding treatment for every illness or disease. But these treatments appear to be all geared toward the illness itself, with seemingly little regard to the patients body.
For instance, for certain cancers, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are two of the most common treatment methods. There may be little regard for the patients body or genetic makeup in this case. As long as a patient has cancer, these two options are normally tried in the hopes of being successful with the treatment.
But with personalized medicine, there could be the potential for an improved ability to predict the best treatment forms. The disease itself isn’t the only consideration but also each patients body. Thus, if the test, for instance, shows that the body isn’t quite adept to make it through a certain kind of treatment form and the risks are now higher, these factors could be discovered earlier. Then another treatment method could be advised.
- It Brings A Shift In Medication From Reaction To Prevention
Today, no medications are usually given to a patient until they complain of or are diagnosed with a certain medical condition. Personalized medicine changes this by bringing focus also on the prevention side. This means before a health problem even arises, proper medication could now be given to avoid the problem from happening in the first place. Doctors would know which medication to give through tests and studies that give insights into a persons physical and genetic makeup.
For instance, if it could be shown that a specific patient has a high chance of acquiring a certain disease based on their genetic history and medical records, medicine could be given as early as the prevention stage. In the long run, this may even improve a patients chances of surviving a certain illness as this is addressed before the later symptoms start to manifest.
Most importantly, this early prevention advantage brought about by personalized medicine could increase the chances of a more successful treatment for the very reason that long-term, permanent, and lifestyle changes could also be encouraged.
Conclusion
At the moment, personalized medicine is still in its infancy. But given the advantages it brings to the healthcare industry, it may not be surprising if this industry would bloom in popularity and demand.
There may be great potential with personalized medicine. Because genetics is considered and a more personalized approach is taken, this might now mean a higher likelihood of efficacy with the various medical forms. As scientists could now personalize medicines, this could allow treatment to be more attuned to patients specific needs.
Karen Broderick is a pharmaceutical expert. She has been in the industry for many years and shares her expertise through online guest posting. During her leisure time, Karen balances work and life by gardening, yoga, and cooking. She also loves writing poems and ballroom dancing.
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