BACKGROUND

Specific and Preventative, Molded Just for You

Predictive Medicine focuses on identifying and solving your body's health problems with information solely based on your genetics. Preventative Medicine incorporates both pharmocology, the science of drugs, and genomics, the study of genes and gene function, in order to create remedies that will be custom-fit and compatible with your own genetic variations. (2.5)

Defeat the disease before the disease defeats you.

Predictive Medicine targets your diseases before you even receive their physical symptoms. By doing so, it also promotes greater surveillance of healthcare specialists and improved lifestyle changes. (2.5)

Why Predictive Medicine?

Efforts of Predictive Medicine first began in order to find methods that would eliminate hereditary diseases at an early state or to lessen the strains of the disease on those who inherit its genes. Unlike other methods of pre-diagnosing diseases through cytomics, genomics, or proteomics, genetics is the tool primarily used in Predictive Medicine. The ultimate objective of Predictive Medicine is to predict the chances of potential disease in order to know which precautionary actions should be made, specifically for you. (2.2)

BENEFITS

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Development

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Predictive Medicine was established with the help of government efforts which include President Barack Obama's encouragement about funding a National Precision Medicine Initiative:

“We must gain better insights into the biological, environmental and behavioral influences on diseases [...] Precision medicine is an emerging approach for treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment and lifestyle for each person.” (2.3)

Major Challenges

Because Predictive Medicine is newly evolved, researchers and geneticists struggle with the common problems of time, knowledge, and money. Progression in the field cannot occur if these individuals are unable to make the proper experiments and their research becomes dangerous with the fast-paced role of medical genetics. As a result, many believe that efforts of Predictive Medicine will become commercialized and underdeveloped and has stunted its growth. (2.4)

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