On this page
Over 463 million people have Diabetes, 44 million people suffer from Alzheimer's, 7 million people have Parkinson’s Disease. You may wonder what is the relevance between all these. Absolutely nothing. Every case is bound to be unique, likewise, the treatment should also be unique.
In today’s world, the treatments for all types of diseases are almost identical. This is the result of inefficient drug testing. When drugs are made, they are tested to see the efficiency of the product. Usually, if the results come back with an efficiency of 50%, it’s put out into the pharmaceutical world.
Every human in the world has a Genome that is around 3 billion lines of code. Everyone has different genomes and some people are less immune to some diseases than others. Regardless of this fact, they are still given the same medication to treat the disease. To put this into perspective, would a teenager buy identical clothes as their parents or even their grandparents. Probably not…but this is what is currently being done with current medicine. This is often the case why some medicine is more effective on some people than others. So…some may wonder, what is the future of medicine.
⭐️Precision Medicine⭐️
Precision medicine is a term that’s thrown around a lot, but most people don’t understand how revolutionary it can be.
The real question is… what is precision medicine.
Well, it is exactly what it sounds like. It is medicine that is precise and accurate for you and you only. It is able to give the best treatment possible. It will be able to provide the best response with the highest safety possible. Precision medicine is the future of medicine as there is no other way to ensure medicine is used to its highest capability.
Precision medicine is made from very specific data points. It is built and made on the genomic data of an individual. This is the best way to ensure that the medicine is as precise as possible. It accounts for all the differences that individuals have in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person. For example, 2 people might have the same disease, but their lifestyles can differ. One may smoke and the other may not. When making precision medicine, all these factors are accounted for.
Precision medicine is often confused with personalized medicine.
What is the difference you may wonder?
Well, precision medicine and personalized medicine are pretty common. Precision medicine is made specifically for the individual after accounting for all the personal factors. Personalized medicine was an old term that frequently is mistaken. Most people thought unique treatments would be made for each patient. It was later renamed to precision medicine. This name made more sense as it tells the consumers’ that it is accurate and precise and not necessarily personalized for them. That would be a lot of money to make a unique treatment for each person in the world.
Precision medicine is used in today’s world, but it’s not used to its maximum potential. For example, when going for a blood transfusion, the doctors ensure that the patient’s receive the same blood type to reduce the chance of any major complications that might prevent the treatment to go through successfully.
Precision Medicine Ecosystem
Precision medicine is a work in progress but there’s a process in how the medicine is developed. It first starts off with a precision medicine ecosystem. The ecosystem supports precision medicine as it allows for the data sharing of the patient to work flawlessly. Within this ecosystem is the patients’ genetic history, location, environmental factors, lifestyle, habits, etc. All of these things help doctors’ determine a plan that will suit the patient.
In the picture below, it shows how the precision medicine ecosystem works.
AI x Precision Medicine 🤯
Artificial intelligence will play a key role in advancing and accelerating the growth of precision medicine. AI will help increase the accuracy of the medicine. With AI, machine learning algorithms are also used to help assist the efficiency of this process.
AI can help analyze and interpret massive data sets. This is especially helpful when looking at medical data sets. AI can help come to strong conclusions about a patient’s treatment options. On top of that, the use of AI can also help predict the outcome of the treatment. This helps the doctors understand the risks that come along with each type of treatment.
Additionally, the use of AI in precision medicine can also help predict the chances of the patient contracting another disease in the future. AI can identify what to look for before the symptoms are noticeable.
Applications today
In today’s world, this can be applied to a disease that has taken many lives. Cancer. At the moment, the current methods that are used to treat cancer for patients is the same. There is no ‘unique’ treatment. Most times, all people receive the same treatment if they are on the same stage of cancer as another patient.
The promise precision medicine holds:
Precision medicine has a lot of potential in the future. The purpose of it is so we can have treatments that are made for the genetics of an individual. Scientists envision a future where tests for genetics will help determine the point where the tumour is occurring. This will help offer treatments to the patients so unnecessary treatments to areas of the body that aren’t in need of such treatments.
At the moment, treatments for cancer include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy. These treatments aren’t all given at once, they vary depending on the type of cancer, its size and the chances of it spreading. However, it is often difficult for doctors to determine which type of treatment would work best. However, with precision medicine, the doctors will have access to the changes in your genetic information and will be able to recommend the best treatments.
The alterations in genetic information because of Cancer can be unearthed by having a biopsy. A biopsy is a procedure where your doctor removes a samly of this cancer. This sample is transferred to a special lab. A device called a DNA sequencer examines the sample and surveys for any genetic changes that would cause cancer to increase/spread.
More research is still being conducted into all the genetic changes that can provoke cancer to grow and spread.
Precision medicine has the opportunity to improve healthcare and save many lives. With the use of AI and ML the chances of healthcare being improved. With the use of these technologies, healthcare will become more accessible and affordable to the less fortunate. There is still a lot of time to go, but the use of AI and ML, will help us drive towards the final goal.
Feel like you’re about to jump into a rabbit-hole of reading these incredible articles?
Don’t worry, we feel the same way.
Not only can you jump into the rabbit hole with us, but we’ve got more than enough articles that’ll help you jump out ;)
For some of the best ideas on Medium from the youngest minds of the generation, visit students x students.