Personalized Medicine Overview

The definition of personalized medicine is changing. It will no longer focus on just selecting medicines and treatment to meet your individual needs. Personalized medicine will look at your DNA, so it will detect diseases and your risk of getting diseases at much earlier stages—usually before you have symptoms. Personalized medicine will also tell you what medicines will work best for you. It will do away with the trial-and-error process of trying to find the right one.

Medicine today is reactive, not truly preventive. Most people have their annual physical and immunizations and probably wait until they have symptoms to see their doctor. Once someone has symptoms, however, many life-threatening conditions such as heart disease, cancer, psychiatric and breathing problems are at a serious level and can be hard to treat. Personalized medicine will be able to identify these potential conditions early. It will use a person's genetic information and behavior changes to customize diagnose, treat and prevent deaths from those conditions.

To learn more about personalized medicine, listen to our podcast featuring National Jewish Health CEO Michael Salem, MD.

Learn about personalized medicine initiatives at National Jewish Health.