Personalized Medicine vs. Traditional Meicine

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Personalized medicine will hopefully change how physicians treat their patients in the future. Instead of treating a patient according to the statistics of a particular drug or disease used on a group of people, they will treat patients according to the makeup of their genes. During the Human Genome Project, an international scientific research project, the human genetic code was discovered. It was this discovery that has changed the way scientists view the possibilities of what medicine can accomplish. As technology advances, scientists are able to better understand genetics. There are two phases that make up the personalized medicine approach. First, a person will be tested for potential genetic abnormalities. With test results, a physician can tailor the treatment to the person’s makeup. No two people are the same and their reaction to medication differs. The reason for this is found in the genome of an organism. Knowing the differences will play a key role in a person’s health. Personalized medicine has some potential benefits. If scientists can discover what role your genes play in how you will react to drugs, then they can provide you the best medication for you earlier in the process. Being able to provide the treatment that is based on that individual, means doctors may even be able to target a disease ahead of time. The result of this type of healthcare changes from a reactive approach to a proactive approach to an individual’s health. With traditional medicine practices, a doctor may experiment with a few different drugs to see which works best for you. Knowing which drug to initially start you with can mean quicker treatment success and possibly even cures for the patient. It also means less associated pharmaceutical costs since you will be taking less experimental drugs. This could also mean less time spent with your doctor, and less

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