Individualised Medicine. Prerequisites and Consequences
For centuries, empirical approaches have determined the medical treatment of people with illnesses. Groundbreaking progress in the life sciences and in the de-velopment of medical technology proce-dures have led to a significantly improved understanding, grounded in the natural sciences, of the causes and development of illnesses.
Individualised Medicine aims to improve the efficacy and quality of treat-ment by means of targeted prevention, systematic diagnostics and the use of tailored therapeutic procedures that are based on the needs of individual patients or patient groups. The goals of this ap-proach include reducing adverse side ef-fects and increasing the cost-effectiveness of healthcare over the long term.
This Statement analyses the poten-tial of Individualised Medicine for further development and addresses challenges associated with its implementation.