Precision medicine
Physiological research plays a key role in the development of effective precision prevention, diagnostics and treatment. Register your interest in helping The Society make the case for greater funding and research focus in our upcoming policy project
Precision medicine, sometimes known as “personalised medicine” is an innovative approach to tailoring disease prevention and treatment that takes into account differences in people’s genes, environments, and lifestyles.
It encompasses predictive, preventive, personalised and participatory medicine with the goal of targeting the right treatments to the right patients at the right time. Most medical treatments are designed for the “average patient” as a one-size-fits-all-approach, which may be successful for some patients but not for others.
What is the role of physiology within precision medicine?
Precision medicine as applied to the individual, focuses on the tailoring of interventions to some optimal dose or setting according to a patient’s individual characteristics. However, research into how differences in an individual’s genetics might affect how they respond to certain interventions or the progression of disease, has the power to make the prevention and diagnosis of disease more effective for everyone.
Physiological research plays a key role in the development of effective prevention, diagnostics and treatment based on fundamental physiological markers through to emerging areas of research and system interaction in areas such as the microbiome, AI, exercise prescription and multi-omics technologies.
This can only be achieved if the right research is made translated into the right intervention for the right individual. Our policy project is designed to build this argument and communicate the role of physiology in realising the benefits of this health innovation.
Development of a report investigating the role of physiology in precision medicine
The Physiological Society will be compiling a report on the role of physiology in precision medicine. The report will focus on early diagnosis and prevention of disease. If you would like to support our evidence-gathering through roundtables and one-to-one interviews, please contact The Society by emailing policy@physoc.org.
