Precision medicine – future?

Themes

Precision medicine – future?

What is this about?

Precision medicine, or personalized medicine, aims to prevent, diagnose, and treat the patient, taking into account their genetic and clinical picture. At the very heart of precision medicine is genetic testing as a diagnostic tool. The analysis of genome variants enables the detection of hereditary predispositions to diseases such as breast and colon cancer. In addition to oncology, precision medicine can also be used to treat rare diseases, various neurological conditions, and cardiovascular diseases.(1)

Why is this important?

Precision medicine represents a shift in treatment approaches in healthcare systems across Europe. Instead of a standardized protocol in which a single drug is used to treat specific diseases, the approach to the patient is completely tailored to understanding their biological specificity. It enables earlier disease detection, more precise diagnosis, and more specific therapies that ultimately work better and reduce side effects in patients. When considering the health system context, this enables more effective treatments and minimizes resource waste from ineffective treatments and hospitalizations.

It also creates a database for developing national strategies. In addition, the exchange among member states provides a strong foundation for the development of good practices, policies, organizations, and innovation in this area. (2)(3)

Such databases include unique genomic data not only for the patient but also for their family members, and therefore, they belong to a special category of data. The collection, processing, and use of such data require the patient's personal consent or, when used in scientific research, must be protected with special mechanisms due to the sensitive nature of the data. Any use of personal data, including genomic data, is regulated by the GDPR (Regulation (EU) 2016/679).

For whom is this important?

Clinical ResearcherResearcherTechnology Developer / Engineer

What are the best practices?

One of the most successful projects is FinnGen — the Finnish genomic revolution. The project serves as an excellent example of how genomics can be integrated into the national health system. It was launched in 2017 through a collaboration among public-private partners, such as universities, hospitals, and national biobanks, and pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca, Bayer, Genentech, Pfizer, and others. The goal of the project is to merge genomic sample data (citizens' data) with health registries. It was launched in 2017 and includes 520,000 individual patient records, representing about 10% of the population. The first and second phases of the project is centered on data collection and analysis. In contrast, the third phase, which started in 2023, is focused on pre- and post-diagnosis, patient responses to therapy, and monitoring biological mechanisms related to genetic markers. (4)

contributed to this theme. Latest contribution was Mar 06, 2026

Other information