The right treatment for the right person at the right time. This is the promise of personalised medicine, a paradigm shift in healthcare with transformative potential for patients, practitioners and the public.
Stakeholders from across the health ecosystem explored the implications for Ireland at the Health Research Board’s National Conference in Dublin. “Personalised medicine opens new horizons for better, more targeted approaches to healthcare,” remarked HRB Chief Executive Dr Mairéad O’Driscoll in her opening address to the HRB’s National Conference in Dublin on 30 November 2022.
The conference programme explored the opportunities and challenges ahead, while speakers across research, clinical practice and public and patient representatives summarised the key elements during the workshops and a panel discussion.
Contributions from pioneers of personalised medicine demonstrated that it is far from blue-sky thinking, as research in genomics is already informing tailored treatment paths that are improving patients’ lives. The shift is from a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to healthcare to one that combines molecular profiling, medical imaging and lifestyle data, for example, to enable precise diagnosis, select personalised therapies, and target prevention strategies.
