Personalized medicine. Vision and Reality

*Halina Osińska¹, *Leo Barić²

Summary
The decoding of the DNA sequence and interpreting the causal association between the genetic profile and health threats, sensitivities and future disease, represents a break in the traditional understanding of the health issues and of preventive and curative approaches. It is a paradigm shift which will take us into new areas of knowledge, understanding and interpretations concerning health matters. It is obvious that it will have considerable effect on the way we approach treatment of a holistic patient with a health problem and not just a health problem.
The article addresses the issue of the macro and micro approach to the introduction of personalized medicine and illustrates some benefits of each. It also makes suggestions about how to provide resources for financing this change and makes a case for the savings to come from returning the management of health care as a servicing industry into the hands of the doctors and nurses who know what it is all about to meet the needs of a patient
The initiative in Faroe Islands based on genetic screening of the whole population as the precondition for the introduction of ‘personalized medicine’ will provide the basis for implementation of this new approach. The case study in Warsaw, providing the medical staff with additional social skills to fulfil their new role will provide a tested curriculum as a complementary aspect of the introduction of personalized medicine.

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