Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt has released the second report from his initiative on personalized healthcare, examining the potential for new findings in genetics and other molecular-level medicine to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of healthcare.
"These sample case studies reflect a broad scope of approaches that are already being tried, as well as partnerships for achieving higher levels of effectiveness and personalization in health care," Leavitt wrote in introducing his report.
HHS describes personalized healthcare as medical care that is increasingly differentiated between patients based on variations in their individual biology. By measuring such individual variations in patients before prescribing, drugs could be used more safely and effectively and at lower cost.
Genetic and molecular medicine can also help spot diseases before symptoms appear, enabling treatments to delay or preempt the disease and avoid costly late-stage treatments, according to HHS. Personal genomic profiles may also enable patients to learn their particular predisposition to disease and take more effective disease prevention steps.
Leavitt said the potential for personalized healthcare techniques to improve health and increase value in healthcare make personalized healthcare a factor that should be targeted as part of any plan to reform the nation's healthcare system.
"Personalized Health Care: Pioneers, Partnerships, Progress" includes reports from 10 institutions where personalized healthcare techniques are being used. It includes seven commissioned papers examining the opportunities and challenges for personalized healthcare from the perspectives of different stakeholders in the healthcare sector.