Let me tell you a story about Bill.
It was a late cold snowy night, and Bill invites a friend, known as Fred. As Fred, showed up at Bill’s house, Bill notices something different about it. Fred’s nose is a bit runny, his eyes are a bit watery, and he just seem very tired.
But, Bill shrugs it off, and welcomes him into the house. A couple of hours later, Fred leaves, and Bill goes to bed. Then end? No, not really.
The next morning, Bill wakes up, feeling exhausted, cold, and…..sick! Apparently, Fred had the flu, and passed it onto Bill. So, he goes right away to the doctor, and gets his medications.
Bill consumes the medicine, but nothing happens. He waits for a couple of more days, but he still feels sick.
Why didn’t the medication work? Or why didn’t it work as expected?
Why didn’t Bill get better, like how Fred did?
Every single person’s body is different, and it’s true that a treatment can work for some people, but can it really help every single person?
Medicine that works for someone else, may not be that effective for you? People who are diagnosed with a disease, are likely to not survive, because the medicine they consume are the best options.
If each person is different, why do we all use the same medicines?
Precision medicine is medicine made for a person (customized) based on information, like genes. Before creating a certain treatment, researchers and scientists collect a ton of information of a patients, and that data helps to treat them the best way possible.
A very important part of that data, is called genes. Deep in the nucleus is a helix structure called DNA, which is the instructions manual of making us…us!
Components of DNA:
- A phosphate group
- 5' carbon sugar group
- 1 of 4 nitrogenous bases: Adenine, Guanine, Thymine, Cytosine
The backbone of DNA is made of phosphate groups, and a sugar group. Meanwhile, the bonds that connect the 2 strands, are the nitrogenous bases. (Adenine only connects with Guanine, while thymine connects with Cytosine)
Researchers and scientists, use genetics sequencing to understand more of a person’s condition. The pattern of nitrogenous bases can be like “ATCAAG” and based on this code, it can determine the colour of someone’s eyes, how tall someone is, or even if they will have a disease.
With genetic sequencing we can have a deeper understanding of a disease, and find the best approach to it. But genetic sequencing isn’t the only part to precision medicine.
Components of precision medicine:
- Pharmacogenomics: Study of the effects of drugs based on genes
- Biobankers: Storing medical samples for research
- Biomarkers: Measurable substances (for ex. blood pressure)
- Genome Sequencing: Uncovering the pattern of 4 nitrogenous bases
The process of precision medicine is basically:
Collecting Information → Analyzing → Creating Medicine
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Healthcares are like a maze. A very confusing maze. The goal is to just get out of the maze. That’s exactly what are healthcare system is like. Just understand the problem, and solve it without knowing enough about a patient. Our goal should be focusing on creating a better medication, but the bigger should also be making it effective.
A good physician treats a disease, a great physician treats the patient who has a disease — Sir William Osler
Without the best understanding of a patient, you can’t exactly treat them the best way possible.
Problems With Today’s Medicine
It’s not good. When we look at treatments like chemotherapy, it kills fast growing cells. But, it doesn’t seem to recognize the difference between cancer cells, and a normal healthy cell. Which makes it quite dangerous. Some of the disadvantages of today’s medicine is the money you put in for the outcome & and the actual outcome
1. Investing in a waste
Money is important. How do I know that? Well, 1) We need money to live 2) we just like it. We usually say, that money needs to be used for a good cause, and of course it does. But can you really ensure it’s going for the best cause?
Millions of dollars are being spent on healthcare, but are they really being used in the best way possible?
Money is wasted in numerous ways. But most, can actually be “solved”. We are all familiar with the phrase “Humans make mistakes”. And guess what? There’s a lot of mistakes going on, which are completely avoidable. The bigger the error, the more money spent into it. Precision medicine will limit the money spent.
Millions of people also waste money on medicine, that doesn’t even work. For instance, if a person had cancer, they have treatment options, like chemotherapy.
$65 000
You see that big number up there, thats the cost of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy kills cells, but it can’t tell the difference between cancer and normal healthy cells. So that’s so much money wasted, just for something uncertain.
Most of the time, the amount of money that is put into medicine & treatments, are wasted because of errors & inconvenient treatments. But there are alternatives and much better approaches to health problems.
2. Good Medicine < Better Medicine
Quick question — would you rather have good medicine or a more effective medicine?
Let me guess? Effective Medicine
I mean it’s obvious. Treatments like chemotherapy, as many uncertainties. Should we even have uncertain medicines? Is it safe?
After watching hundreds of grey’s anatomy episodes, I finally understood that medicine is VERY important, but something that’s even big of a concern is how effective it is. That’s like the whole point of why go to a hospital….to get better! And if that can’t happen, medicine shouldn’t exactly be called medicine.
Diseases and illnesses are becoming much more complex, and the best way to face it, is with precision medicine. In other words…
Precision Medicine + Patient = better outcome
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Okay, so what? I mean, I’m hearing a ton about precision medicine, but what can it really do? — Bill
Benefits of Precision Medicine
I mean, who wouldn’t want personalized medicine? Much more healthcares are switching lanes in precision medicine, and for the record, it is much more convenient. Top universities are also doing heavy research into this topic, but why should we have it?
1. Accuracy
Precision medicine aims to treat your illness based on….you. Using information — Pharmacogenomic, biobankers, and genetics — helps to build medicine that will fit in the specific criteria.
The more accurate the treatment is, the bigger the effect. Accurate precision medicine has the potential to save thousands of lives. If medicine is made just for me, how can it save that girl from the other end of the world?
When recording medical information from a person, and building the actual treatment, it can save a ton of people. Sorry to break it up to you, but whatever genetic information you have, may be similar to the girl from Japan, or Mexico.
Okay, that was a joke, but what I meant, was your medical records may be similar to anyone else’s. Whatever medication is being used for you, can be used for that person. So, it’s not exactly collecting everyone’s data, and making medicine just for them (no, that may be a bit expensive $$) but instead, one person, represents every other person with the same medical information as them.
With precision medicine, hospitals will be much more advance, and it may be able to treat billions of people, but most importantly, it’ll save more lives.
2. Save time/money
What’s better than being out of a hospital faster? Instead of dreading in a the world of disease, the sick, and health problems, wouldn’t you want to go back into the other world with malls or coffee shops?
Yeah, you probably tell, that I’m not the best fan of hospitals. I didn’t go there as much when I was younger, but some family members did. Though they were in the hospital room, I was the one feeling scared of sitting in the waiting room for hours, with the old lady, coughing her lungs out.
That’s right, I was there for hours! But did it really have to go that way?
Though it may take a day or so, to get your genome sequenced, precision medicine will take less time to create, and on top of that, a lot of money is saved. Instead of investing in regular treatments (which include, errors, failures, and mistreatment) precision medicine will be accurate, cutting of errors, and saving money that may be used in mistakes from regular treatments.
3. Detecting Diseases faster
Some of the main reason cancer patients die, is because of either
a) late detection
b) treatment was not effective
When getting your genome sequenced, your exposed a vast amount of information, and genes that will be able to determine soon to come sicknesses. With early detection of diseases, your chances of surviving goes so much more higher.
Precision medicine, tackles both of these problems (^a&b). Just imagine, if we could understand diseases in a higher level, and help treat patients with serious diseases, like cancer or alzheimer’s with advance medicine. We would probably have much less health problems in the world.
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Hey Fred, how are you feeling? — Bill
I’m feeling better, how about you? — Fred
That’s great! But I’m still a bit sick. — Bill
Heard of precision medicine? It may just be the solution for you! — Fred
With precision medicine, we may even be able to help my friends, Bill, out. Medicine is supposed to be something that that fixes us, but we can’t do that with something normal. It’s going to be the next big thing, precision medicine. What we all need, isn’t medicine that’s used by everyone under the same circumstances, but instead delivering the right treatments at the right time, every time to the right person.
